Weekend Wrap

Those readers located in the Northeast will understand the joy experienced this weekend, as Spring made a belated appearance.  I recommend not harshing your buzz by looking at the long-term forecast, as we'll quickly revert to the 50's....  But for a couple of days there, it was great to be alive.

The Morning After - Lots of thoughtful pieces on a post-Bat Soup golf world, first from architect Mike DeVries focusing on sustainability:

Over the years, golf in America has developed a very polished look to it, with perfect turf and deep green grass often cited as the ideal standard. Watching the Masters every spring and seeing Augusta National in all its glory sets a very high bar for conditioning 

Marquette Golf Club's Greywalls Course.

that many clubs aspire to emulate. While the Masters is certainly a highlight for golfers everywhere, it is unrealistic for a club to maintain its course in the same manner as Augusta week in and week out, especially within the confines of a normal budget.

In contrast, golf in both the British Isles and Australia typically has had less to do with how a course looks and more with how it plays. Turf conditioning is often excellent without extreme measures being taken to make everything picture-perfect at all times. Consider most Open Championship courses and how they appear in comparison to Augusta. The overall aesthetic is more natural, with Mother Nature affecting the course’s condition just as much as the superintendent and his team. Walking is also much more prevalent than in the US, with golfers carrying their bag, taking a caddie, or pushing a trolley. Many American golfers love playing overseas and relish their experiences there. Is this just because it is different from their ‘home game’ or because the whole golfing experience there is more enjoyable?

Nothing objectionable, but also nothing that wasn't the case pre-Wuhan.  

As an aside, were you aware that Traverse City, MI (2018 Population: 15,561) is a hotbed of golf design?  DeVries used to work for Tom Doak's Renaissance Golf before hanging out his own shingle.  DeVries is well-respected. best known for Cape Wickham, about which Alan Shinuck has raved.... Don't get too excited, you can't get there from here, even if you were inclined towards travel.  Of course, DeVries is also the guy that did the renovation of Sunningdale, including their new 16th hole, a strong candidate for the worst Par-5 your humble blogger has ever played.

 But the real disservice to me is comparing American golf to Open Championship venues...  Seaside golf on linksland is a joy to behold, but most of us ply our trade on in land golf courses, where the alternative to rough is what exactly?  Our Fairview maintenance crew was exactly seven guys (I also heard the number ten over the weekend) and the rough is getting juicy and the greens are a little shaggy.  I'm not complaining, part of that is the wet stretch we've had as well, I just don't think there's much we can learn from the cradle of the game....

Brad Klein is up with the last of his three-parter, and does a far deeper dive into this issue of reduced maintenance staffs:

For course management and setup: 

* Delayed starting times as reduced crews attend to necessary daily setup.

* Varied conditions of presentation, with less emphasis upon flawless, TV-style lush-green setups and more tolerance for less maintenance of roughs, native areas and areas around tees. This ecologically sustainable approach will entail less water, fewer chemicals, less-frequent applications and reliance more upon scientific principles of agronomic management such as ”degree growing days” and moisture-level monitoring.

* In an effort to reduce turf stress and heavy reliance upon chemical inputs, courses will adopt marginally raised mowing heights of fairways (say, from 0.40-inch to 0.55-inch) to reduce mowing demands and make the playing experience more fun and enjoyable for mid-to-high-handicappers and newcomers. This trend will vary from facility to facility, depending upon client and member expectations. These setup conditions also can vary depending upon the occasion.

* Superintendents will be relying on smaller, more efficient crews, which means more interaction among golfers and workers. These reduced crews will devote more of their workday, especially at the start, to sanitizing equipment, keeping safe distance in the workplace and attending to safety conditions among golfers.

* Increased reliance on long-term, labor-saving equipment such as robotic fairway mowers. Efficiencies over larger areas, notably the 20-50 acres of fairways, are far more likely than gaining any labor efficiency over a smaller area such as greens, which total roughly 2-5 acres at most courses. As with any innovative technology, the unit price of robotic mowers will come down quickly as adoption rates increase. The early brunt of the excess cost will be borne by the most well-positioned private clubs and slowly benefit mid-tier facilities.

I can tell you based upon our experience at Fairview that those delayed starting times will be the first to go, as we simply have too many folks wanting/needing to play.  

While we've yet to hold our bi-annual Greens Committee meeting, my understanding is that, to the extent possible, our super has paired man and machine, to avoid excessive sanitation of equipment.  

But the bigger question, I think, is whether the transmission via surfaces will be part of our lives going forward.  I would think not, based on our experiences with SARs and H1N1, but that's to me one of the bigger TBDs....  I tend to think of a transitional period out of this clustterfark then, optimistically, normalcy...

Brad also has some extensive and mostly good thoughts on course and private clubs.  The really hard part of the latter, I think, is to envision how to service members and promote a sense of that club vibe, with the obvious budgetary issues.  No one wants an assessment in this miserable year, but it's also dangerous to allow club members to feel less connected to their fellow members.  Because, quite obviously, it's a big ticket item for folks...

Further on this subject, is this Golf Digest piece on golf industry efforts to re-open golf courses.  I'm not in love with their references to the "New Normal" as I noted above, but there was one laugh to be found within:

“Some of these best practices have been communicated to officials since this all began to show them how we take responsibility in facilitating a responsible and socially-distant experience at golf courses,” said Jay Karen, chief executive officer of the NGCOA. Karen explained that his organization’s “Park and Play” program stressed the limited touch points that a golf operation could offer. “It was helpful in expressing our message to authorities who were tasked with analyzing the status of golf courses. The industry and all those who are fortunate enough to open their doors each morning are taking our responsibilities very seriously.”

Is there a worse name to have these days than "Karen"?  In all candor, your humble blogger didn't realize the extent to which it was a pre-existing meme.   For those that don't consider themselves memologists, the folks reporting people to the police for being in a park or on a beach are very much "Karens".  

Last up comes this terribly helpful guidance from the Royal and Ancient:

Until further notice, the following provisions are considered acceptable on a temporary basis: 

Forms of Play and Scoring

It is recommended that non-competition play is used during the initial period of golf being played, and that stroke play competitions involving players in different groups are avoided.

If competitive stroke play is played, a method of scoring needs to be used that does not require any handling or exchanging of scorecards.

There used to be an organization with that name that ran the Open Championship.  But since they took the insurance money and ran, why would I give a fig what they think about anything? 

Tour Prognosis - Tour players can be a tad entitled....  OK, by a tad I mean aggressively entitles....  In fact, they can be a bunch of Karens, though I'm not going to be terribly hard on them for things like this from Adam Hadwin:

“Are we not going to be allowed to touch pins, or flags?” Hadwin said. “I putt with the

flag out, so if we all of a sudden are going to be forced to putt with it in to not touch a flag, I’m going to have issues with that, and that might make me honestly rethink playing, because it changes everything.”

Pressed on the subject, Hadwin, who ranks 27th in Strokes Gained: Putting this season, said he has tried putting with the flagstick in and doesn’t like it. Putting with the pin in has been allowed since the beginning of 2019.

Yes, it's a stupid thing to say, but we're all saying lots of stupid things these days.  But the odds of picking up this virus from the flagstick seems orders of magnitude lower than the risk from those 700 ShotLink volunteers....  But do think anyone will forego a shot at a seven-figure winner's purse because they have to putt with the stick in?

But has he ever heard the term "First World Problem":

“Maybe there’s one person wearing gloves walking with every group that pulls flags for us when we need to so caddies or players aren’t touching it,” Hadwin said. “If you force us to play with the flag in it changes everything. It messes me up on the greens and I can promise you I’m thinking about it. Doesn’t matter how well I’m hitting it; when I get on the greens I’ll be thinking about it, how I’m putting with the flag in and I haven’t been able to adjust to it and I shouldn’t have to adjust to it. Maybe I’ll protest, maybe I wouldn’t. If that’s the only possible way for us to play again, I don’t know, maybe. Maybe I’ll play and moan about it every day that I play and just go do it. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”

Let's see: 20 million new unemployment claims have been files in the last month, but Adam has it tough (and yes, I know Adam is Canadian).

Golf Digest polled 35 players on this subject:

Which of the following describes your attitude about returning to competition: 

A) I don’t need anything to be different than before the virus. I’m ready to play. 

B) I am willing to compete under whatever safety measures the PGA Tour chooses to implement, but don’t think we need comprehensive testing at tournaments. 

C) I am only willing to compete if there is a comprehensive testing plan in place at every event. 

D) I am not willing to compete until a vaccine or major medical development is in place. 

Eighteen of the 35 players (51.4 percent) said they most closely identified with Answer C, which stipulated the need for comprehensive testing at every tournament.

I just don't think what layers say in the moment tells us much at all.  Though, after the Players' fiasco, confidence in the Tour represents the triumph of hope over experience.

The more interesting aspect might be a first look at the fault lines developing, which feels very much like the country at large.  As an example, takes these seemingly reasonable comments from Charley Hoffman:

“I’m 100 percent ready to play,” said Charley Hoffman, who is the chairman of the Players Advisory Council. “I’ve talked to many players who won’t have a problem playing. But is it fair for me to go out and play when others don’t feel safe? No. Is it fair for me to compete if so-and-so has a health issue and doesn’t feel safe playing? I don’t think so. Everybody has to be ready to play, not just me and somebody else.”

 But....  Kip Henley, who loops for Stewart Cink, takes umbrage:

Kinda reflects the tensions throughout our great land, no?  Though I'm concerned with Kip's and other's focus on the economics of work.  Humans derive much more than mere money from their employment, and lives quickly flounder without it.  A lockdown strategy that assumes people will do that which they aren't, by nature, capable of doing is in fact a dreadful strategy...

I've been especially worried about Governor Cuomo's refusal to ease up and start getting folks back to work.  You'll understand how delighted I was to see that he's on it:

Governor Unveils Innovative 37-Step Plan To Reopen State Over The Next 10 Years

Because if it saves one life...  Best part of that Babylon Bee piece is that they list said 37 steps, which are frighteningly plausible.  For those unfamiliar with the Bee, there are those that now call it The Paper of Record.  For instance, did you catch those ugly videos of NYC cops arresting folks yesterday?  Here's the Bee's take:

Pretty much.  

You're Not Very Bright.  I Like That in a Man - What was he thinking?

For the first part of his career, Tiger Woods would start his day with a four-mile run.

Next, he’d lift at the gym, play golf for two to three hours and work on his short game. Woods would end his day with another four-miler and possibly some basketball or tennis.

The running “destroyed” him, he said.

“Yeah, not to run so much,” Woods said on GolfTV when asked by a fan: “If you had one thing you could go back in time and tell your younger self, what would it be?”

“Running over 30 miles a week for probably my first five, six years on Tour pretty much destroyed my body and my knees,” Woods said. 

Indeed. Woods has nearly as many major championships (15) as he’s had either injuries, flare-ups or procedures (27), according to compilations done by the Associated Press and the Golf Channel. Among them are seven left knee injuries, flare-ups or procedures (five of which came before 2009); three Achilles injuries; and 12 back injuries, flare-ups or procedures, including four surgeries and the latest injury, which kept him out of the Players Championship, the final tournament before the coronavirus hiatus.

The first time that left knee went under the knife he still had a scarlet "S" on his cap.  The stupidity astounds, as one doesn't require a medical degree to know that the repetitive pounding is bad for a joint.

This week's Tour Confidential panel tackled this news:

2. Tiger Woods said in an interview with GolfTV that if he could go back in time, he would tell himself to lay off the running. “Running over 30 miles a week for probably my first five, six years on Tour pretty much destroyed my body and my knees,” Woods said. Were you surprised by that answer? 

Zak: I was surprised by how matter-of-fact he was with it. He’s totally convinced a lot of his body issues came from running so much. I’d guess it was less the running and more the shoes or what he was running on, or the armed forces training he put himself through.  

Sens: Not surprised. A few years ago, I spoke with the doctor who did Tiger’s fusion surgery. He told me that golf was the second-worst thing you can do for your back. I asked what the worst thing was. “Running,” he said. I’ve got to figure he told Tiger the same thing. 

Shipnuck: It’s noteworthy because Woods is so rarely candid about his body and injuries. But there are still some missing elements to this revelation, like him running in a weighted vest in combat boots!

Added to the crazy addition of muscle mass and that bizarre Navy Seal training, there's some deep psychological trauma playing out here.  Saddest part is that the Mid-1990's Tiger had the perfect golf body....

Before we leave the striped one, this browser tab has been open for far too long.  In it, Ryan Herrington creates a new stat to convey Tiger's dominance, the percentage of available purses won.  In laymen's terms, the money he actually won as a percentage of the first place purse in those events, and the numbers re crazy good:

Here’s the breakdown of Tiger’s performances: 

2008: 78.25 percent, 6 starts, 4 wins, 6 top 10s

2000: 63.0 percent, 20 starts, 9 wins, 17 top 10s

2006: 58.63 percent, 15 starts, 8 wins, 11 top 10s

2007: 54.23 percent, 16 starts, 7 wins, 12 top 10s

1999: 50.54 percent, 21 starts, 8 wins, 16 top 10s

2009: 47.96 percent, 17 starts, 6 wins, 14 top 10s

2005: 46.73 percent, 21 starts, 6 wins, 13 top 10s

2002: 44.11 percent, 18 starts, 5 wins, 13 top 10s

People forget that 2008 season because it was injury-shortened, but he won four of the six times he pegged it...

But you need these comps to appreciate how sick those results are:

Vijay Singh: 2004, 38.44 percent; 2003, 30.58 percent

Rory McIlroy: 2012, 37.05; 2014, 33.33

Jordan Spieth: 2015, 34.79

Greg Norman: 1995, 33.99; 1993, 33.02

Ernie Els: 2004, 33.63

Jason Day: 2015, 32.78

Lee Trevino: 1980, 31.75

Nick Price: 1993, 31.47; 1994, 30.03

Tiger's bad years were comparable to some of the best seasons posted by other players, just an inconceivable body of work.

The one factoid that always spoke to me was a moment reflected in the Official World Golf Rankings.  At that time Tiger had more than doubled the point total of the second place Phil.  That meant that anyone who had earned any OWGR points was closer to Phil than Phil was to Tiger....  Think about that for a bit.

'Dis and 'Dat - We're in browser tab closure mode, so hang on tight...

The top-10 badass golfers 

From the archive (July 2012): These tough types give as good as they get

A fun topic for sure, just note that date in the subhead.  First up, the historical file:

I don't have too much to say here, though Mangrum was very much a tough guy.  Of course, they all pretty much were in the day....

But Jack as a badass?  With that high-pitched, sing-song voice?  Just not getting it...

But see how you react to the modern list:

OK, it seems the author is treating badass as a synonym of a*****e, which it certainly should not be.  But Jerry Kelly?  Spencer Levin?  Maybe in the bizarro world....

But the one that had me howling is J.B. Holmes, who's my candidate for biggest p****y out there, though of course the author didn't see J.B. curl up into the fetal position when paired with Brooksie at Portrush.  Nor did he see that hour-long drama in the 18th fairway at Torrey a few years back...  By definition, badasses don't lay up.

This was fun as well, despite a few misfires:

11 match-play showdowns we need even more than Tiger vs. Phil

He leads with far too much Tiger, but he does go where my heart leads, though one can never recreate the magic of the original:

3. Keegan Bradley vs. Miguel Angel Jimenez 

If I had to pick just one match-up, this might be it—a rematch of one of the funniest, most intriguing fights in the history of golf. You probably know the story, but as a

refresher, they were playing a meaningless match at the WGC in 2015 (both had already been eliminated), when a rules dispute brought Jimenez and Bradley’s caddie, Steve (Pepsi) Hale, into an argument. Pepsi may have mocked his accent, Jimenez told him to shut up, and suddenly Bradley was in Jimenez’s face. Jimenez won the match, which makes the whole thing more hilarious, and Bradley confronted him after the handshake and then again in the locker room. Who doesn’t want to see this again?!?!

Best.  Match.  Evah!!

Sequels always disappoint, and how do you recreate the drama and tension of a meaningless consolation match after both were 0-2 in pool play?  But that's what makes it so engrossing....

Best detail left out?  After resuming their argument during the handshake, Keegan took comfort with his girlfriend's lapdog in his courtesy car....  Comedy Gold, I tell you.

8. Old Tom Morris vs. Young Tom Morris 

Hell yeah! Do we know what their relationship was like? Get these guys out there on a windy day with plus-fours and niblicks and balls made out of a sheep’s appendix or whatever, and I’ll pay $1,000 to watch.

You'd know if you read this book. Oh, and the match wouldn't be close....

Back to the TC panel for a bit on one of my faves:

5. On GOLF’s Subpar podcast, John Daly said that he believes his reckless behavior in the early-1990s likely cost a chance to represent the U.S. in the Ryder Cup. Is Daly the best player in the Ryder Cup era never to have played in the biennial matches? 

Zak: Well, besides the international players, yeah. But I don’t exactly blame those who didn’t pick him. Looking simply at results, JD wasn’t exactly racking up the top 10s outside of his major victories. And he wasn’t really contending in majors otherwise. Should he probably have made it? Yeah, but you can’t point to his behavior as the only thing that kept him off the squad.

Sens: Not sure. But I think his reckless behavior probably hurt his chances to simply qualify for the team. 

Shipnuck: Properly answering this would require actual research, which violates the norms of the at-home orders. But there is zero doubt Daly torpedoed his chances with his bad behavior – a couple of Team USA stalwarts told me that point-blank in the mid-’90s. 

Dethier: He seems a likely guy for best ever without a Ryder Cup appearance, which brings to mind the best active players who’ve not yet made a team: Gary Woodland, Kevin Na, Billy Horschel, Kevin Kisner, Shane Lowry, maybe Bernd Wiesberger? And Tony Romo, of course. Maybe 2022.

Perhaps, Dylan, as you'll not likely find another guy with two majors that didn't make a single team.

That said, they seem all too willing to accept that cursory explanation, ignoring the fact that we know far too much about the man:

The 456-page file, obtained by The Florida Times-Union, covers the years 1991 through late 2008 and revealed the following: 

• That the PGA Tour, on seven occasions, ordered Daly to undergo counseling or enter alcohol rehabilitation; 

• That Daly was placed on Tour probation six times; 

• That Daly was cited 11 times for "conduct unbecoming a professional"; 

• That Daly was flagged 21 times for "failure to give best efforts"; 

• That Daly accrued fines of nearly $100,000 during the period covered in the file.

Is that a man you want in your team room?  

This is an interesting question, no?

Who had the better career, Nick Faldo or Phil Mickelson?

I've long considered Faldo the most over-rated player of his era, but here's the skinny on their major records:

Faldo: Six wins, three seconds, three thirds, 19 top-fives, 24 top-10s. 

Mickelson: Five wins, nine seconds, seven thirds, 28 top-fives, 38 top-10s.

Why do I consider Sir Nick the luckiest golfer ever?  That would be John Cook, Paul Azinger, Scott Hoch (as in ____), Ray Floyd and, above all others, Greg Norman.  

Of course there's another name that inures to Phil's benefit as well...

This was a fun memory:

Justin Leonard dusted off the ugliest golf shirt ever and had a nice little 1999 Ryder Cup rewatch party

Was Justin on that team?  I can hardly recall him being in the mix on Sunday...The shirt, alas, I remember all too well:

Golf Magazine is having their writers fill the void by posting their top ten golf courses, a typically predictable undertaking.  But this guy's list is of great interest, at least to your humble blogger:

The top 10 courses I ever played: A look at Michael Bamberger’s ever-changing list

I anticipated this would have to be on Mike's list, though I expected it to rank higher:

10. Machrihanish Golf Club, Machrihanish, Scotland 

Soul golf.

I read Mike's book, To the Linskland, in 2015 and posted my review of it here.  It's only the second half of the book that supports the title, but a good portion of that takes place at Machrahanish, located on the Mull of Kintyre.  The first half of the book was equally good, telling the tale of Mike and his new bride touring Europe as Mike caddied for a rabbit playing the Euro Tour.  Highly recommended if you are in need of an amusing and enjoyable golf read.

9. Golf House Club, Elie, Scotland 

Winds, plural. A tiny course on a peninsula with winds coming at you in every direction.

If that awkward name sounds familiar, it's because the bride and I played it last summer.  That wind bit is so very true.... Also, you might remember it as the course with sixteen Par-4's, not to mention its famous periscope.

Here's another I've been lucky enough to play, just not recently...

8. Cypress Point Club, Carmel, Calif. 

Some of the best times in my life I had right there. Thank you, Ken.

It's actually three separate golf courses, one better than the other.

Here's where we bring out the heavy artillery:

3. Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland. 

Muni. As we all know–and I believe this is from a Beck song: “Public golf. It’s where is where it’s at. I got two lob wedges and a microphone.” 

2. National Golf Links, Southampton, NY. 

Lost world. It’s Scotland on Long Island. The whole place smells good.

To a great extent, No. 3 begat No. 2, for which we are all grateful.  For those keeping score, No. 1 is Mike's home town course.

See you further on down the road.