So, what would you guys like to talk about? I actually had a pretty good weekend on the course, and I'd be happy to take you through it on a shot-by-shot basis? Yeah, I get it, life is way too short for that....
The Cow-Town Boogie - The reviews are in, and the Tour has kindly requested that all major sports continue with their lockdowns. Nature is said to abhor a vacuum, but Jay Monahan certainly does not. But good news, Jay, Major League Baseball seems inclined to honor your request.
Sunday drama and a hard-fought victory caps a surreal week in the PGA Tour's return to golf
FORT WORTH — A feisty summer wind rose at the Charles Schwab Challenge, blowing into Colonial Country Club all manner of possibilities.
The kid has made his way back from a serious wrist injury, so there's that reason to enjoy his success. That and the fact that he was notably on-form when the world shut down in March.
I did watch the ending on tape last evening, and I usually only see that many missed short putts in my weekend fourballs.... Those were some ugly power lip-outs.
So, what did we all think about it? The header on this piece seems designed to curry favor in Ponte Vedra Beach:
'No question about it': PGA Tour makes a safe, triumphant return
That's a header for the current times. To me "Triumphant" is a bit rich, but we're instructed that the prevailing narrative allows for no questions, otherwise... Well, you don't want to see Unplayable Lies World HQ torched, do you?
Shall we see how the Tour Confidential panel reacted?
1. The first tournament after the PGA Tour’s three-month hiatus is in the books, with Daniel Berger edging Collin Morikawa on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Many new wrinkles were in play in FortWorth. Covid testing. Players’ movements being restricted. Social distancing. Remote press conferences. No fans. Solo Nantz. And now, a charter jet to the next stop, in Hilton Head. How would you assess how both the Tour and the players handled an event that was undoubtedly being closely observed by many other sports leagues and associations?John Wood: Pretty much an A+ across the board. The Tour did a phenomenal job of preparing for each and every eventuality. Testing and safety were the number one priorities, and there were redundancies in place for everything. I couldn’t have been more impressed with their preparation. The players were just excited to be back and playing golf, and seemed to handle all the newness in stride. Once they got inside the ropes, things were the same as always. Shoot the lowest score, win the tournament.
Josh Sens: Watching from afar, it sure seemed to go smoothly. And you could sense the genuine excitement of the players to be back out there competing, which helped make up for the lack of fan electricity. There were oddities, of course, with Nantz flying solo in the booth and no gasps or cheers from a gallery, but there are oddities in almost all of our old rituals these days. Whether there were any public hiccups, I guess we won’t know that for certain for a couple of weeks. But from a distance, it looked a whole lot safer than some pool parties I’ve seen on social media.
Here's what passes for a dissenting vote:
Michael Bamberger: It was odd. These are odd times. The Tour is being as responsible as it can be by appearance. It’s obvious that the system is not by any means foolproof. It’s not that the show must go on. It’s that the Tour has decided to let it go on. I think they’ve made the right move. But there is no bubble. Way too many variables.
Mike, I really think it's your expectations that are in question here. Of course there's a bubble, but of course it's not 100% perfect, because nothing temporal ever is.
To me, what we saw here is almost a first attempt at widening the circle. I don't think our elected officials and health care experts have distinguished themselves. It was supposed to be a two-week stoppage, yet 3+ months later they expect us to still be alone in our hovels. If your plan is for people to do that which they are incapable of doing, it's not actually a very good plan.
But it's that bit about the Tour deciding to "let it go on", as if folks need to apologize for seeking normalcy.... he agrees with the strategy, but seems to be setting up his conditional approval on nothing going wrong. We get it, Mike, you'll be the first rat to jump ship.
One last answer, just because it capture the craziness of the golf:
Alan Shipnuck: Couldn’t ask for a more riveting Sunday: a vintage Rory implosion; Spieth doing Spieth things (for better and for worse); Bryson Hulk-smashing a claustrophobic, classic course; a host of appealing young players going all-out down the stretch; and two brutal spin-outs to reminds us all what a cruel game this remains. The behind-the-scenes stuff melted away, and we had a great week of golf.
Sit tight, we'll get to the Incredible Hulk in a bit.
2. To viewers at home, the absence of fans would have been the most obvious difference between this Tour event and all the others before it. How much in your mind did the eerily subdued vibe impact the tournament?
Wood: I said all along that things wouldn’t be vastly different until the last nine holes on Sunday, and then, only if you were in contention. Everyone out here (save Tiger) plays with little to no fans sometimes, so I didn’t feel all that different for the first two days. Watching on TV on Sunday was different, for obvious reasons. But the subdued vibe didn’t take away from what was a crazy and exciting tournament. And as it always does, Colonial held up as one of the best courses we play.
Bamberger: I felt the same way. Even Kapalua has no fans, except at the end. There wasn’t anything like the normal energy, but for guys over their shots, it felt pretty much like business as usual.
I'm expecting that quite a few of them will like it better this way. Let's hope they understand that to be unsustainable...
Sens: It was a little strange, but I didn’t find it strange to the point of distraction, not as it would have if it had been the Ryder Cup, or the Waste Management or some other event known for its raucousness. Mostly, it was just good to be watching golf again.
Shipnuck: Honestly, I loved it! It was such a peaceful, uncluttered TV presentation. The course looked more pure without all the grandstands, and the absence of bros braying “bababooey” was pure bliss.
Not a single mention of the absence of TIO's? Seemed to me there was an epidemic of guys flying greens (Sir Nick was forever babbling on about flyers from the fairway), and I especially like the results thereof. Instead of the sweet lies on offer when dropping from grandstands, these guys actually had to play it where they found it.... Now, of course they're pretty good at this golf thing, but great to see them playing a purer form of our game.
Shack did a "Winners and Losers" post, though the winners are very much the Usual Suspects. But shall we take a peak at his losers? I thought you'd see it my way:
PGA Tour Execution Of Distancing, Safety Precautions – The sight of multiple PGA Tour officials without masks indoors or outdoors and not even trying to physically distance was jarring enough that, oh, everyone who knows who is who noticed during Sunday’s final round. If you flipped over to rain-delayed NASCAR, masks were aplenty and the safety rules were still in full display (even as they are several races into their restart and could easily grow lax). While the CBS crew fully complied, players and caddies understandably struggled with some of the guidelines (wiping flagsticks and rakes down is pretty silly). But those with a PGA Tour employee ID number need to do better when the cameras are on. Or any time.
Apparently this is a thing, presumably on Twitter. Bug, feature... I think we can take comfort in the knowledge that culling the herd of PGA Tour VP's is very much a social good...Like Geoff, I did hear that the CBS crew were all in their masks, which is quite a thing in 90+ degree heat.
PGA Tour Stars – Ok, that was one less-than-idea day all the way around, especially for the world No. 1 posting 74 after a front nine 41. But Sunday was a good reminder that the excessively-worshiped official world ranking does not mean a thing once you step on the first tee.
I don't actually see where this could possibly be a surprise to any golf fan.... It's just the DNA of our game.
Golf As The First Sport Back Excitement – A 1.5 overnight rating for Saturday’s action is not the stuff of, “the world was watching” and Monahan did not make the invite list to Sportscenter’s commissioner roundtable tomorrow.
One of the organizers had predicted a 6.0. Funny, I didn't realize that Neal Ferguson was now working for the Tour. How's that for snark ripped from the headlines?
The only other bit I've seen on ratings was this via Shack from Thursday:
PGA Tour Return Draws 683,000 Average, Most Watched Non-Major Thursday Since 2019 Players
We'd all do well to remember that golf stubbornly remains very much a niche sport.
I had missed this kerfuffle completely:
Brandel Chamblee – Not the way to draw in a younger audience.
It's a pretty funny exchange, ironically because it's usually the left imposing their wokeism on us. But Rich Lerner is well within his rights to continue asking Brandel what any of his rant, true though it may be, has to do with Rory.
CBS Commercial Load – Saturday’s broadcast went along pretty smoothly but as we were warned early in the week, “Eye On The Course” would be used heavily and it was indeed, to the usual Sunday horror of social media watchers overwhelmed by make goods, ads and a pre-recorded Zoom with Charles Schwab (it was at least useful since a surprising number were not aware he is a living, breathing person-American…). With a deep leaderboard needing some time for viewers to take in, they were often hurriedly taken down. Storytelling for the new audience expected to tune in could not happen, and the telecast could have used a ticker to show us scores, stats and take some burden off the telecast having to deal with so many promotional obligations.
Everything I watched was on tape, though it did seem that the FF button was used excessively...
“Inside The Ropes” – The new on-course interview element may have been the single worst waste of time in golf television history. I think I speak for all but immediate families or maybe sponsors paying for collar logos, that we did not need to know what Jim Furyk is working on or that Keegan Bradley is happy to be back playing golf in full hostage video voice.
Lame, with a forecast of continued lameness... I've got a few questions that liven up the proceedings, but I'm not expecting a call from CBS.
PGA Tour Live - Given the chance to be lead-in coverage on CBS, we were reminded that the Tour’s in-house effort is very much in the broadcasting minor leagues. It’s cruel to judge much in such a strange time for TV crews, but without fans the camera angles remained awful, there were focus issues and just an overall state TV vibe that made it tough sledding.
I did tape some of it intending to see how it looked, but I suspect life is far too short for that.
Golf Without Fans – The energy just wasn’t there Sunday despite the best efforts of the CBS announcers. While the week showed the PGA Tour can go on with a less exciting product and still function, the three remaining majors have to be re-examined if fan-free or even fan-minimal is how they want to present their jewels.
Yes and no, methinks. I agree with the diagnosis, which as John Wood noted is really an issue on Sunday. But I still very much prefer a fan-less U.S. Open to no U.S. Open...
Of course, there were some fans to be heard:
No fans? Says who? Charles Schwab Challenge fans get creative with Wrigley-like bleachers
What's wrong with these people? Why can't they limit themselves to activities our Lords and Masters have deemed safe, such as rioting and looting?
Eamon Lynch has a piece worth your time, though I think he too readily accepts the media's nonsense (strange for a guy in the media, who should know how the sausage is made):
Lynch: Challenges of resuming PGA Tour golf won't ease anytime soon
Oddly, while Mike Bamberger find the bubble too porous, Eamon has the opposite take:
The Tour might need to rethink those parameters, since the bubble as currently defined is so small it would barely contain Patrick Reed’s inner circle.
To be fair, Mr. Table For One came in a factory-installed bubble, which we can all agree is a good thing.
So, who caught your eye? This guy was hard to miss:
After one week of this five-week, fan-free Return to Golf thing there’s one revelation and it’s not that Daniel Berger is good at golf. It’s that Bryson DeChambeau, over the courseof this three-month Covid-19 pause, got bigger (20 pounds bigger, by his estimate) and better. Yes, it would be easy to read too much into his four solid rounds at Colonial (65, 65, 70, 66). But when you hit it 20 and 30 and 40 yards past the game’s longest hitters, and in play, with sound mechanics, that’s not a one-off. That’s repeatable. It’s a recipe.
How hard is any par-4 when you can cover 480 yards with a driver and a wedge? Name a single par-5 that this guy can’t reach with a driver and some kind of iron? We’re talking about kick-in birdies and low-stress golf.
Here's another take, this one with an amusing graphic:
Bryson DeChambeau really did get huge and it’s working
DeChambeau said back in the fall he was going to get big and hit the ball a lot farther, and he’s done that. And he’s still doing that. DeChambeau returned to Colonial bulkier than ever, saying he added 20 pounds in the three months the PGA Tour was off (putting him at about 235-240 pounds). The results are in, and they are good. He tied for 3rd and led the field in Strokes Gained: Off the tee (7.321) and driving distance (340.3 yards).
Back to the TC panelistas for their take on the beast:
3. Bryson DeChambeau’s bulked-up physique and booming tee shots (he hit 11 drives 340 yards or longer) were the talk of the tournament. If DeChambeau’s fine play continues, are we destined to see a wave of beefy bombers descending on PGA Tour tee boxes?
Wood: Yes. I think there is quite a bit of shock at how much his size, his clubhead speed and his ball speed have increased in such a short amount of time, all the while seeming to maintain his flexibility, his feel and accuracy. On Thursday and Friday, we played behind a group that included Brooks, Rory and Rahm. There was a long wait on the 15th hole, and we were there when Brooks got ready to play his tee shot. We were standing behind him, and I remarked to Matt: “You know, looking at him, if this was 10 years ago, you would have thought you were watching a long drive contest.” It just wasn’t believable that a body that big and strong would be conducive to playing great golf. We were wrong. And now, watching what Bryson has done, I can only imagine the impact it will have on the young players we know, and the younger players we don’t know yet. You better get your head out of the sand fast and come up with a long-term plan, USGA and R&A – the ball is going to get longer and longer and longer and longer.
Tank God I was reliably informed by the USGA and R&A that continued distance gains could be problematic...
I remain a skeptic on the bulking up, as we've seen a number of such guys develop injuries that could be related. I'm still awaiting word on what exactly was wrong with Tiger's 1997-era body, which seemed perfectly suited to his occupation.
How about our Jordan? First, he gets graded on a curve:
Jordan Spieth: A-
If you can keep emotional investment out of it, watching Spieth is terrific excitement. Just as he had officially exited contention on Sunday, he birdied 10, 12 and 13 to get within two shots of the lead — and then promptly blocked his tee shot O.B. on 14, went on to make a 35-footer for bogey and ultimately finished T10, four shots out of the playoff.
The golf world feels unified in rooting for Jordan Spieth to recapture some of the magic of years gone by. Maybe that’s just another reason why it’s so difficult to do so.
And this:
Jordan Spieth is as captivating as ever
We know the numbers! We know the numbers! He hasn’t won since July 2017, he’s fallen to 56th in the Official World Golf Ranking and his weekend play has beenabysmal. (He ranked in the top 10 in first-and second-round scoring average last year, but wasn’t any better than 170th in the third and fourth rounds.) But we’ve seen some signs! Before golf’s long pause, he made seven of eight cuts this season and had two top 10s.
He’s still shaky off the tee and isn’t putting like he did when he racked up wins in 2015 and 2016 (or even like last year, when he had that clicking despite other struggles), but he’s always been streaky and, boy, is he complex. At Colonial he briefly held the solo lead on Saturday and entered the final round just one shot back. He then went on a Spieth-like stretch of three bogeys in four holes on the front side, only to go on another Spieth-like stretch of three birdies in four holes to start the back (then blasted one O.B.). He finished T10, and we’ll be on Spieth Watch again next week at Harbor Town.
Lastly, the TC gang takes on two golden boys with one question:
5. One of the game’s great enigmas, Jordan Spieth, played beautifully for the first three rounds (65-68-68) before closing with a roller-coaster 71. Meanwhile, RoryMcIlroy, who has struggled to close out tournaments in the past couple of years also excelled for three days (68-63-69) before finishing with a dispiriting 74. Which player did we learn more about this week?
Wood: I’d say Jordan, and although his Sunday wasn’t what he hoped for, I’m quite sure he takes huge positives from the week. For most of the week, he seemed in a much better place mentally, something I know he worked on very hard during the hiatus. I think he learned that he is definitely on the right path again, and can’t wait to get the tee in the ground next week. Rory? One bad round on a course he’s never competed on before. Much ado about nothing.
I'm not sure that enigmatic is the right concept, as Jordan has been consistently bad since Birkdale. We should all hesitate to attach much significance to any one round, but they share a recent affinity for playing their worst when they want it the most...
But the other way to understand Rory is to acknowledge that the course firmed up over the weekend and the wind picked up on Sunday. Those are conditions in which Rory should be shorted.
Obviously Alan has been reading this blog:
Shipnuck: It was great fun to see Jordan in full flight, but, man, Sunday was exhausting: five bogeys, including a yip of less than 2 feet, but also a birdie burst mid-round that gave us false hope. I think overall it’s a step forward for Jordan, but his unsteadiness on Sunday is worrying. Per J. Wood’s comment on Rory, this isn’t one round. It’s part of a pattern. Rory can’t win them all, but the Sunday ejections when he plummets off the leaderboard and telecast are baffling. He has way too much game to retreat so spectacularly.
On Rory, this bit from Sir Nick has been getting lots of play:
“I don’t know. I’m only guessing on this – he’s such a gutsy player,” Faldo said when McIlroy reached the 13th green. “But why does this happen, and when it all goes wrong, it’s almost like he gets so frustrated, it’s like, I can’t accept it. It seems like looking from the outside, he doesn’t have a Plan B to switch to, just to find a way to get around it. Just maybe too much frustration going on.”
When Tiger is out of sorts, he goes into grind mode and can typically salvage something from the day. When Rory loses it, he goes into freefall.... He can lap a field when he's on, but only in soft, calm conditions (think Kiawah, Congressional and even Hoylake).
Everyone continues to like this guy, though we had hoped for more over the weekend:
Finish be damned, Harold Varner III won the week
Varner is a great guy and had everyone rooting for him this week. But while I know why I like him, I think some of those jumping on the bandwagon might be surprised at the heresy:
No matter who you are and where you fall on the social spectrum, there’s no denying this reality. That includes golf, a sport whose slow-play issues have extended at times outsidethe ropes. The game is often deliberate in its response to social matters. But after the first weekend of protests against systematic inequality and police brutality that gripped the nation, Varner weighed in.He penned a letter, two pages, addressing the killing of George Floyd and the fallout the brutality evoked. It was personal, detailing his life and upbringing as a poor black man in a rich white sport. It was universal, speaking to the questions this country is reckoning with.“Sometimes life is not simple and things don’t make sense. How can we call ourselves the greatest country on earth when our standards fall to senseless killing?” Varner wrote. “That’s a tough and important question. But I still proudly say we aren’t as fractured as it seems."It was eloquent and passionate, offered perspective and understanding. Above all else, it was courageous, a giant stride outside his comfort zone. He is disarmingly nice, kind and one of the better trash-talkers on tour. But, publicly, he likes to keep a low profile. A low profile these times would not grant.“All of a sudden it was 'Harold should say something because he's black.' I don't like when people are like, just because you're black you know the answers to racism,” Varner said earlier this week. “So that letter was super good for me because it let me expose that even like you were telling white people they need to listen right now, black people need to listen right now, too, and we need to come together and figure out what it is.”
That's a very different message than those on the streets are advocating, and I'm guessing he wouldn't be very welcome in The Chaz. C'mon Harold, get with the program and tell us to check our privilege or something....
I'll go out on Tiger, who gave us an epic head fake with his yacht:
Woods only played Hilton Head one time, in 1999. It was thought he might return at Hilton Head, especially with no likely appearances for him until the Memorial on July 16-19. Speculation increased when a marine tracking site indicated his yacht “Privacy” was just off the Georgia coast near Sea Island.
Leaving us to wonder whether that was intentional... The TC guys couldn't help themselves, so perhaps we should be happy that they at least didn't lead with this:
6. As the Tour enters week two of its comeback and heads to Hilton Head, Tiger Woods remains at home (despite early-week news over his yacht’s whereabouts). What are the odds we see Tiger at either of the remaining two fan-less events, in Harford and Detroit?
Wood: I’m no oddsmaker, but I’d say Hartford is about 10-1, the 1 being the fact that Joey LaCava is a Connecticut native, and Rocket Mortgage about the same. I think we will see Tiger at Muirfield. For both weeks I’m not sure, but definitely for Jack’s event. Yes, we’ve had a huge chunk of time off, but in my mind, Tiger is working backward, not forward. “I want to be ready for the PGA, the U.S. Open, the Masters. …” Tiger is always always always sharp mentally, but he wants to make absolutely sure he’s ready physically. So I think he looks at the PGA and says, “OK, I want to play A, B and C on these weeks to be in peak form for Harding Park.”
Sens: I think we see Tiger at the Memorial. Not before.Bamberger: Tiger doesn’t do unexpected things, in terms of schedule. My guess is Memorial. He likes what he knows.
Shipnuck: I agree with all of the above. Tons of important golf is coming, and he doesn’t want to push too hard too early. Let’s not forget how much he was struggling with his game and body pre-Covid. Memorial feels right.
Where will Tiger play? Where he's always played, and nowhere else. Any thought that he'd take one for the team fails to conform to twenty-three years of real world experience.
Catch y'all later in the week.
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