Long Weekend Wrap

So, what do you kids want to talk about?  Lots to talk about, perhaps even better with that day's delay to allow folks to dive deeper.  For instance, it allows me to lede with those boffo ratings:

And this:

Since the majority of sporting events were called off on March 11-12, it ranks at best seventh among sportscasts — behind the first two nights of the NFL Draft, at least three episodes of the ESPN docuseries “The Last Dance” and the previous weekend’s NASCAR race at Darlington (6.32M). 

Viewership more-than-doubled the previous weekend’s “Driving Relief” charity event on the NBC family of networks, which saw Rory McIlroy compete against Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff (2.35M). 

“The Match” ranks as easily the most-watched golf telecast on any network this year, with the caveat that the season’s first two majors — the Masters and PGA Championship — were postponed. Notably, it averaged more viewers than the final rounds of last year’s PGA Championship (5.0M) and British Open (3.7M).

It's of course apples and oranges, with occasional kumquat as well.  It's that middle 'graph that might matter most to the folks involved, but it's quite the turnaround from Shadow Creek.

 This was Alan Shipnuck's takeaway:

Why Tiger Woods’ dazzling play was the biggest story in a Match full of intrigue

The Match II was glorious anarchy, a beautiful train wreck that offered the mindless entertainment a wary nation desperately needs. But amid all the televised yukking and

wilding-out on Twitter there was one very momentous development: Tiger Woods is back, baby.

When professional golf came to a grinding halt in mid-March due to the coronavirus, Woods was battling both his swing and his body. With the Masters bearing down on him Tiger was serially avoiding tournament golf, trying to buy time. The halting of the season couldn’t have come at a better moment for a 44-year-old warrior with a fused spine. The Match, then, was the first glimpse of Woods in 98 days and midway through the front nine Phil Mickelson blurted out the verdict: “He’s striping it.”

With his driver, most notably...  This reminded me of the ZoZo, in that we had no clue if the guy could even take it back, especially since the last time we saw him he was obviously impaired.

Tiger’s swing was rhythmic and graceful, the telltale transition at the top as languid as a humid afternoon in South Florida. Over the first eight holes — by which time Woods had staked himself and his partner Peyton Manning to a 3-up lead — the only shot Tiger missed was when he had to putt with his 4-iron, part of a gimmicky one-club challenge.

Gimmicky?  I would argue that if he had Old Trusty in his hands that putt would have had far less drama... Of course, we all wanted to see Tiger in a greenside bunker with that aforementioned 4-iron.

Shall we check in with the Tour Confidential arbiters?

1. Two of the biggest names in golf joined two of the biggest names in football for The Match: Champions for Charity. We got Tiger and Phil. We got Peyton and Tom. We got Tiger’s home course, Medalist Golf Club. We got Sir Charles in the booth, and JT pacing the fairways. We got live golf. Who or what was the star of The Match II?

Sean Zak: Phil Mickelson was the most entertaining aspect of the match, from the moment he missed the fairway with an iron on the 1st. He helped guide Brady back into

form and smack-talked a quiet Tiger Woods. Unlike The Match I, Phil actually hit some great shots here, too.

Alan Bastable: Phil, Phil, a thousand times Phil. That drive he parachuted over the trees and onto (and then just off) the green at the par-4 11th was an all-timer, made all the better by Brady holing the eagle putt — maybe a top-5 shot for Mickelson’s televised career, and yes, I realize this was only an exhibition. Mickelson was like a carnival barker out there, pepping up his partner, conducting short-game clinics and no doubt driving Tiger nuts. Justin Thomas was also surprisingly good. His Tiger story from the Presidents Cup was a winner, and he dropped the zinger of the day on Barkley when he called out Sir Charles’, um … less-than-svelte physique.

Alan Shipnuck: Phil was indeed great fun, and Tiger entertained merely with his wizardly ballstriking, but I thought Peyton was the MVP, with his down-home charm, ace storytelling and rock-solid play that helped his team build a big lead on the front nine that ultimately proved insurmountable. 

Michael Bamberger: Golf. Absolutely the game. The game can be played so many different ways, for so many different reasons.

Zak: It did feel like 1 v 2 for a while there on the front, and that wasn’t all because of Brady. Peyton was impressive. 

Josh Sens: I dunno. I think Brady was the most interesting. Watching him slap it around and struggle, going from brooding to upbeat, silent to smack-talking, he seemed so … human. 

Dylan Dethier: Peyton’s play and commentary each exceeded expectations. He’s on the winning side, so he gets the MVP. Tiger looked really good too, though.

What were the chances of that question not yielding a single vote for the Striped One?   Fact is, and this governs future installments, but Tiger is quite a boring guy.  I know that's heresy and I anticipate a flood of hate mail, but it needs to be said.

Folks are assigning letter grades, so shall we see how they assess the local boy?  First, Dylan Dethier on this one facet:

TIGER WOODS’ HEALTH 

GRADE: A+. Remember, the last time we were playing a PGA Tour event Tiger Woods wasn’t there. He was injured. Today, he wasn’t! Amanda Balionis asked how Woods was feeling as he warmed up on the range in the rain and he reminded her that his ’10’ (on a scale of 1-10) is lower than it used to be, but still — he looked plenty loose and limber on the holes that followed. An efficient, encouraging showing.

For that one I'd have suggested Pass-Fail, as we can't be sure it'll last past today.

Now Dylan gets to the important stuff:

TIGER WOODS’ SHORTS 

GRADE: E. That’s E for Enormous. I just don’t get it, guys.

We've seen the Dad-jeans before, so why not Grandpa Faux-Cargo shorts?

 He does give Tiger's golf an "A", but here he gets to a long-term issue for the franchise:

TIGER WOODS MIC’D UP 

GRADE: C-. Everyone was having so much fun that nobody seemed to mind, but the star of the show sort of disappeared. There’s a legitimate possibility that Woods’ microphone stopped working coming down the stretch; that’s a sign of how much we heard from the headliner even as he and his partner closed out the match. Mic problems or not, Woods seemed perfectly content to keep striping it and leave the entertaining to the rest of the crew. That’s fundamentally interesting. 

That to me is why the decision to include the QBs was so inspired.  Mostly because they need it so badly...

Fortunately, Tim Schmitt does:

Tiger Woods: B+ 

We’re weighting Tiger’s grade a little because this is his home course. He looked strong

— a great sign for golf fans — and put himself in great position most of the afternoon. In fact, while the others were fighting to find fairways through a heavy rain on the front nine, Tiger routinely placed his ball exactly where a knowledgeable club member would. 

He did miss a few shots we might expect him to hit (although not many) and the one thing that jumped out was Tiger’s poor speeds on the greens. Sure, they were wet. But Tiger plays these greens all the time; you’d think he’d know which putts needed a few extra rolls considering the soggy conditions.

He aced the golf portion of his exam, it's the entertainment aspect in which he's lacking.  

As an aside, this seemed to your humble blogger to be exceedingly lame:

Tiger Woods hit Phil Mickelson with the best jab of The Match

As both golf legends have said numerous times in the past couple years, all Tiger has to do is say "Big picture"—a reference to his three times as many majors and nearly twice as many PGA Tour wins—to get a leg up on Mr. Calves. But during The Match Part II, Woods was able to focus on one major in particular to deliver the dagger of the day.

After Mickelson asked Woods to mark his golf ball before hitting his approach shot on the fifth hole, Tiger gave the perfect response:

"Do you want me to use one of my U.S. Open medals?"

Boom. Roasted.

Or something.  I mean, if you're a fan of stale, pre-scripted banter, sure...  Otherwise, it's a bout as spontaneous as Gary McCord's bikini wax musings...

Back to Dylan's grades, and apparently he'll come up with a letter grade for just about anything:

THE FORMAT 

GRADE: B+. This was mostly fantastic. The front nine allowed us to see each guy play his own ball (for better and for worse) and just as that was running out of steam, we switched to the more-dramatic alternate shot format. That allowed for strategy and extra intrigue down the stretch.

I'm far more skeptical about that best ball portion than Dylan is, as is Shack:

Best-ball – It just takes forever. And rarely is the format that good. Granted, the front nine best-ball format of Champions For Charity was better than two-man Skins (!?), but that’s not a high bar. Remember, the Scots have it right even if they may grovel at the “modified” notion. More alternate shot please.

It does take forever, even in the Ryder and Prez Cups...  I do, however, see an issue in sending the amateurs out to play alternate shot all day.  The best ball does, I think, allow them to find some game...  But those early holes took forever, especially hard on folks given the delay in the start.

The other problem is that the QBs didn't get nearly enough strokes.  Folks forget that Tiger and Phil are not scratch players, but +6-7's...  

Back to Dylan, and I'm a convert on this one:

GOLF IN CARTS 

GRADE: A. This dynamic was WAY better than I thought it would be. Carts seemed lame on the surface — walking is undeniably cooler. But the cart rides helped with pacing, big-time. They also allowed for in-cart interviews, call-ins and strange shots of Mickelson bumping along like he was navigating Koopa Troopa Beach in Mario Kart. Exceeded expectations.

I thought I would hate it, then realized it allowed for far better pacing.  So now, I merely hate myself for liking it...

 Shall we get to those QBs?

PEYTON MANNING’S GOLF GAME 

GRADE: A-. Manning’s game WAY exceeded expectations. He stuffed it on three of the par-3s, kept it (mostly) in play and nearly holed out on No. 16, with the opponent looming.

This guy, however, is tougher on Peyton:

Peyton Manning: B 

Everything you need to know about Manning’s competitive fire shined through on the

212-yard 16th hole. The team of Phil and Tom was clearly gaining momentum, and Brady stuck a beauty to eight feet. At this point, Manning was starting to show signs of collapse after messing up a bunker shot on No. 13 and missing an easy par putt on No. 14. 

But that’s when Peyton came back with one of the best shots of the day, a perfectly placed bullet that dropped inside two feet from the cup. 

It was part of a recurring theme — Manning’s iron shots coming out crisp. Although he insisted after the match that he was a lot more nervous than Mickelson, he certainly didn’t play that way.

Manning hit any number of horrible golf shots, including quite a few tee balls on the back side.  Those seemed important n the moment, because clearly the pros wanted to be hitting the approach shots.  But Peyton repeatedly redeemed himself by striping his irons, perhaps none more important than the one to the final green (though No. 16 as well).

Everyone has something to say about TB12:

TOM BRADY’S FRONT NINE 

GRADE: D? The question mark is because this was impossible to grade. Brady was an absolute trainwreck for six-and-a-half holes. He was getting roasted all over social media, and with good reason. Everyone knows the feeling of being the worst player in a group and being painfully, acutely aware of your every miscue. But golf has a funny way of flipping around all at once, and Brady went from hopeless disaster to hitting the most memorable shot of the day:

Whattsamatta with you?  Everyone loves golf porn:

And that was far from his worst shot...

Tom Brady: C+ 

He really is the master of second-half comebacks, isn’t he? Tom Brady was awful through the first six holes. To the point where buddies across the country were texting each other and suggesting there was something they can finally do better than the GOAT.

Brady was coming off everything early, and spraying shots left and right. 

But on No. 7, you could just sense that he had been picked on enough. He caught his iron so clean off the fairway, it pulled his microphone off and ripped his pants. The holed-out birdie was one of many highlights in the round, not to mention the one that made it feel like it might become a match. 

And while we thought Brady might be able to recover from his early failing grade to manage a B, he had a few big fails down the stretch — including a missed putt on No. 17 and then essentially becoming a non-factor on 18. 

Still, finishing with this grade after where we stood six holes in was pretty impressive.

Easily my favorite part of the day, and I'm hardly a TB12/Patriots hater.  It's merely something we all go through from time to time on the course (take this most recent weekend, for instance), and watching a world-class athlete cope and try to fix it is must-see TV.

I thought this the funniest Twitter take on Brady's travails:

Also this:

Shack does call out a certain apparel manufacturer, adding the telling detail:

Losers 

Tom Brady’s Under Armour pants – They split in the fabric—not the seam— and the big reveal came as he went to pick up his hole-out. They’ll be shipping those to UA headquarters for forensic analysis. **Brady later Tweets a suggestion they were NOT UA pants.

The fabric?  

I'm obviously holding Phil for last, so some other observations from Dylan:

THE WITTY BANTER 

GRADE: A. This was the biggest upset of all. The witty banter is always bad. Even last week, when I felt like it was better than usual, it was still bad. But in the Match, it was a revelation. It quickly became clear that Mickelson and Manning were going to carry the day from a personality perspective, while Brady brooded and Woods grinded. It became clear that there were no sacred cows, not even Mickelson’s missing U.S. Open medal or Brady’s relationship with former coach Bill Belichick. The broadcast was much better because of it, especially as Brady came out of his shell on the back nine.

Everything Dylan cites I perceived as scripted and forced, so you'll have to draw your own conclusions.  But I agree that Peyton Manning is a uniquely appealing personality, and combined with Brady's disastrous play early, are my favorite aspects of the day.

More Dylan:

MEDALIST 

GRADE: B. Medalist was — fine? There are extenuating circumstances here, namely inches and inches of rain plus limited resources when it came to cameras. But I don’t think we saw Medalist at its finest. It felt like a cool version of Florida golf, but without the spectacular aerials from last week at Seminole. Medalist is a very nice, very difficult golf course, and it was fun seeing Tiger Woods at his home club, but I didn’t really get an itch to play there. I’d still love to see it again minus the saturation.

It was just a tough place for the QBs, undoubtedly made even harder by the rain.  They would have benefited by being at Seminole, with its far more generous playing corridors.

Back to that TC gang:

2. If social media was any indication, the Match was well received by viewers. But is there any element of the event/format/telecast that could have been improved upon, or done differently (note: please save your Brady takes for the next question!)? 

Zak: Either Tiger’s mic wasn’t working well or Tiger wasn’t talking. Regardless, the broadcast felt lacking in the Woods department, though he made up for it with some impressive play. Would have loved to hear what he’s been up to, how much he’s been playing, etc.

Bastable: Agreed. It was almost as if Tiger didn’t want to be there (the same cannot be said for his game). We called this one pre-Match, but Brady and Manning didn’t get nearly enough strokes. Three shots was a joke. One blow per hole would have made things way more interesting on the front nine.

Shipnuck: I’m sure Tiger’s mic was fine, that’s just who he is in a competitive situation: enigmatic, brooding and totally focused. I would have liked to see a long-drive purse on every hole, which would have created a lot of tension between wanting to hit bombs and playing smarter to win the hole. 

Bamberger: I would have liked to see the QBs play all the way into the hole just ONCE, on a long tough one. They’re good athletes, but golf into the hole is hard. 

Sens: I would’ve liked to see more alternate shot. The recovery shot is the most exciting shot in golf, and that format gives you plenty of them. 

Dethier: Good points, all! The format was a home run. Faster pacing out of the gate is the only other slight improvement I’d offer; those first six holes took nearly two hours.

Mostly sensible, though I think Shipnuck is off the reservation with his long-drive suggestion.  If you do it every hole, it quickly loses any significance.  

So, obviously we're headed for their thoughts on TB12:

3. Tom Brady was a wreck for most of the match (his hole-out on the 7th hole not withstanding) before finding his groove on the last few holes. Was his underwhelming play the biggest surprise of the day? 

Zak: TB12 was shockingly bad early on, but as a mid-handicapper who has definitely been there, I started to feel bad for the guy. To me, the biggest surprise is how he couldn’t reset until he had holed out on 7. I would have figured he’d be able to scrape a bogey together before then.

Bastable: Amazing to me that a guy with six Super Bowl rings, who’s accustomed to playing in front of millions of eyeballs, could be that rattled. I mean, nerves can be the ONLY way to explain it, right? No way he would have broken 50 on his own ball on the front nine, even with the hole out. Even Brady-haters had to feel for the guy. We’ve all been there — only not with half of America watching.

Shipnuck: Nah, I’m an 8, too, and perfectly capable of hitting it sideways on any given day, and that’s without all the pressure and distractions built into this event. Brady had some great moments to balance the disastrous first seven holes. 

Bamberger: He stands up well to the ball and he’s a good athlete and he’s strong, but that weak grip makes you so wristy and unreliable. Or so I’ve heard.

Sens: Not surprising. Given his handicap and the setting. Also when he said before the match that he’d played 18 holes that same day, I figured he was in trouble. Clearly, he was searching. 

Dethier: I think the hole-out was a bigger surprise than the poor play. Brady shot over 100 at this same course last year, so some struggles were to be expected. But the hole-out? That was electric.

Well, nerves and the fact that he doesn't appear to have played much, at least he hadn't posted a single score in 2020.  But admit it, that was the best part of the front nine...  

So, how did we enjoy Phil?  Dylan has only this bit:

PHIL MICKELSON MIC’D UP 

GRADE: A-. He started slow but it didn’t take Mickelson much time at all to get into his element — and then he was fantastic. That putter was impressive, too.

And from that Schmitt guy:

Phil Mickelson: A- 

While we’re weighting Tiger’s grade a bit because it’s his home track and we expected better putting, we’d be lying if we said Phil’s grade wasn’t slightly influenced by his amazing dialogue. Phil talked. And talked. And talked. As only Phil can. But of course, without the mics, we rarely get to know exactly what he keeps rambling about. 

And Phil was, well, Phil, as he sprayed the ball a bit, but then made some memories. His tee shot on No. 11, for example, made it look like he was the member, and was the kind of shot you brag about for weeks to come. On 14 he added a stiff shot and then he buried a huge 12-foot par putt on No. 15 to keep his squad in the match.

He didn't play especially well, though as noted above he did have some memorable moments.

Shack as well:

Phil Mickelson – When he’s on and invested, he’s a master entertainer. He dropped only one early groaner followed by high energy and fun. The 11th hole drive and commentary falls into the first team all-legendary TV category. It should be a Callaway commercial.

But I quite  agree that Phil's energy carried the event, supported only by Peyton.  He seemed to me an Eddie Haskell-on-steroids, but since most of it was coaching and prodding Brady, it worked.

As regular readers know all too well, I've had my issues with the many over these many years.  But it's always seemed a Jekyll-Hyde thing to me.  I've always liked the good side of Phil, he gives some of the best pressers in the game and is always approachable.

But he has an Achilles heel, and it's usually when he's trying way to hard to show us how clever he can be.  He was quite clearly born for this kind of event, but the storm cloud on the horizon is that his partner-in-crime is equally ill-suited to the entertainment aspect of these matches.

I'll also share Geoff's take on the brodcast:

Justin Thomas, Charles Barkley, Brian Anderson—Three guys who either never or rarely do golf were the stars mostly because they knew when to chime in and when to let the players shine. Thomas’s knowledge of the course and quick adoption of the medium was impressive, particularly confidently and succinctly he delivered his points.

Turner – They clearly learned from The Match 1 and improved under brutal working conditions. Pile on awful weather, physical distancing requirements, an untested format and losing the Goodyear blimp to rain, and Champions for Charity should have been an unmitigated television disaster. Early on, things appeared headed that way but the energy and pace issues were a result of a 45-minute rain delay and the dreaded energy sapping format known as best ball golf. Strong graphics and tracer work was also turned in by producer Jeff Neubarth and director Steve Beim’s crew.

Sound – Of course there were a ton of issues, but even those turned slightly comical when players were zooming off the tee and unable to hear questions posed to them. The unintentional icing-out effect was cute. But given the crappy conditions and difficulties posed by trying to have players wear both a microphone and IFB for sound, the overall performance was beyond admirable. A nod to the announcers for laying out well for player dialogue after maybe overdoing the silence early on.

JT had me a bit worried in the lead-up to the event, when he talked about bringing da' noise.  But he seemed to have an instinctual sense of when to jump in (and, more importantly, when not to), and is good company.

But I agree with Geoff, well done in a minimalists, enjoyable kind of way.  More on JT, from Daniel Rappaport's six highlights:

Justin Thomas rocks the mic

Justin Thomas, the fourth-ranked golfer in the world and himself a member at Medalist, had quite a successful broadcast debut. He’s proved to be a natural—insightful and informative, funny and self-deprecating, all while remembering the golden rule of

announcing: less is more. He gave local knowledge, and he told some great stories from partnering with “Mr. Eldrick” at the Presidents Cup.

Thomas also facilitated the best exchange of the broadcast when he asked Mickelson to walk us through his thought process on a chip on the second hole. Mickelson, true to form, relished the opportunity to talk and then nipped a spinner to tap-in range. It was a fascinating peek into the mind of an all-time short-game artist, and it’s also the type of thing the first Tiger-Phil (and last week’s match at Seminole) was missing. Give golf fans the choice of corny trash-talk or legends walking you through their shots, and they’ll choose the tutorials every time.

Thomas wasn’t the only bright spot on the broadcast—Turner struck the right balance all afternoon. They didn’t force betting statistics down our throats as was the case at Shadow Creek. They let Charles Barkley be Charles Barkley (“JT, you can’t call me fat on TV” and “Tiger’s tee shot was like me, in that we are both black”). And their decision to have the four participants plugged in to the broadcast paid off, with the in-studio hosts able to seamlessly communicate with the players, and vice versa, giving the broadcast an interactive feel.

Yeah, that Phil bit was awfully good, especially since he hit his spot perfectly...   

So, Golf Digest might be over-interpreting with this:

With The Match in mind, five key innovations to improve future TV golf coverage

1. Mid-round interviews

There's no really good reason beyond mild annoyance to the players that this couldn't work, even in the currect COVID-19 environment, provided that safe social distancing is practiced. In the major team sports, coaches are obliged to give interviews, and players will occasionally speak at halftime or between periods. There are no "coaches" in that same sense in golf, but the game happens at a slower pace, and a 60-second walking interview between holes is not too much to ask. I don't think there's a reasonable argument that it's overly disruptive, especially if planned in advance.

The real problem becomes whether the interview is actually GOOD or not. It's a format that's prone to flat cliches, but as Sunday proved, this could be a great addition to a broadcast. You just need the right personnel, and that wouldn't even necessarily mean an on-course reporter—just an earpiece and a connection to the tower. (It also would be wonderful if a player could interact on a longer basis with the announcers via earpieces, as we saw at The Match, but that's probably asking too much of competitive athletes.)

I have no problem with the concept, though you'll need to leave it at the discretion of the player.  I just think they inevitably fall flat in practice....  But the better stuff comes from the player-caddie discussions, and the networks have gotten so much better at grabbing that audio.  Even then, live is a killer because most if it pretty boring...

I'm not finding much here to get my juices going, so let's head elsewhere:

As we start to work our way towards the exit, we can all agree it was a fun day of live golf.  The TC panel exited on this question:

6. We always learn something new about players’ personalities when they’re mic’ed up for 18 holes. What did the Match II teach you about Tiger and/or Phil? 

Zak: It reminded me that Phil should go into acting in retirement and Tiger’s best selling point — his ball-striking — hasn’t changed. At this point in his life, Tiger isn’t going to be a flamboyant player in any match. But he’s still one of golf’s greatest competitors, so he’ll make for a great Ryder Cup player-captain despite being quite boring in these made-for-TV matches. 

Bastable: Tiger’s reservedness spoke volumes. He was on his home course, 20 minutes from his Jupe home, and striping the ball. He should have been an ambassador, full of chirp and good cheer, but he didn’t embrace that role. Weird, just didn’t seem himself — by which I mean his 2018-20 self.

Shipnuck: It’s like Tiger knows he can’t out-chirp Phil so he just shuts down. Especially with no fans in the beginning, the Tour is going to have to try harder to deliver for fans. This exhibition showed it would be crazy not to mic up Phil and JT and others … but don’t waste the Duracells on Tiger. 

Bamberger: Agree, Alan. Tiger plays golf to beat people. He’s not there to entertain you. Phil is. 

Sens: Well said above. I don’t think we really learned anything new. What we already knew was reinforced. 

Dethier: Phil seemed to genuinely be having fun, which was telling, because I wasn’t sure the last time around. That twinkle in his eyes is reserved for a strange few entertainers in the sports world.

Josh nailed it, pretty much stuff we already knew.  Despite these thoughts (which are pretty much the usual suspects),  I'm left with a gaping void for ideas of where they take this next.  Phil is made for the entertainment industry, though with a strong predilection towards chewing the scenery....  It can work, as it did Sunday, but it's far from foolproof.  

The issue is Tiger, and the need for others to carry the entertainment load.  That link above posits names like Michael Jordan, Steph Curry and Larry David for the next installment, which comes dangerously close to reeking of desperation, no?  My suggestion would be to wait for next global pandemic, when our need for live television sports next reaches its apex.

But perhaps we should remind ourselves of the whole point of this:

But I think we can all agree that seeing them play for something or someone else was the far better look than them playing for a s***load of other people's money...

Of course there's still the best option of all.... seeing them play for their own money.  Yeah, alas, that's not gonna happen....