Tuesday Tastings

It's a big day at Unplayable Lies World HQ, as Employee No. 2 gets to play Sleepy Hollow for the first time.  As many of you know, Sleepy is a place I've had a thought or two about over the years.  A C.B. Macdonald classic that features a significant assist from A.W. Tillinghast, it's been the beneficiary of two extensive restorations by Gil Hanse.

The plan heading into this season had been to take our regular Wednesday game on the road, and Sleepy was my choice for our first stop.  Mostly, because I was anxious to play their famed 16th with the thumbprint added back to the green.  I thought one of the better bits from that overly-long treatise was the evolution of the iconic 16th hole, a hole one would naively consider too simple and great to ruin.  That hole began life looking like this:

When I first played it in 2011, shortly after the first restoration, it looked much the same:

Alas, between 1913 and 2011 they lost the plot, and two succeeding name-brand architects did their damnedest to ruin perfection:

Architectural geeks might be able to recognize Tillie's characteristically steep-faced bunkers on the left, though the resulting effect is not especially pleasing.  Of Tillie it was commonly said that his best work was done when he was drinking, so we'll assume his work here was while he was on the wagon.

But it's the version on the right that is so mortifying, one that I dubbed the "Reestrocity".  Though, to be fair, at least all of the bunkers are visible from the tee (a comment that will only be understood by Fairview members).

But this is what awaits Theresa today:

The weather forecast is a bit iffy, so spare a prayer that the girl gets her round in without incident.  Having mentioned that Wednesday game, the astute reader will understand that you'll next see me on Thursday morning.  

UPDATE:  After drafting the above, Theresa received notice that the event has been cancelled.  Interestingly (or perhaps not), she had received an earlier text indicating that an employee had tested positive, but at that point they were merely tightening restrictions.  Not sure what, if anything, might have changed, but one can begrudgingly understand their concern about hosting visitors.  

Upon Further Review - As predicted in these pages some time ago, Jack's folks have reconsidered:

Golf’s galleries will remain silent at least one week longer. 

The PGA Tour announced Monday that the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club will no longer welcome fans on the premises, citing the “rapidly changing

dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic” as cases continue to grow throughout much of the United States. 

“We applaud the leadership, diligence and partnership it took from Jack Nicklaus, Dan Sullivan, the entire Memorial Tournament staff and State, County and City leadership to build a solid plan that would allow for limited fan attendance at next week’s event,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a statement to media. “But given the broader challenges communities are facing due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we need to stay focused on the No. 1 priority for our Return to Golf — the health and safety of all involved.” 

For months, the Memorial worked with PGA Tour and local and state officials to develop a series of protocols for allowing fans on-site for the event. The Tour even took the step of creating a second tournament at Muirfield, the Workday Open, to run the week before the Memorial and serve as a dry run for tournament staff preparing to welcome fans the following week.

So much for expecting the writers at major golf publications to have a basic command of facts...  As one astute observer noted weeks ago, the Memorial was the only event planning for spectators until mid-August at the earliest....  So, that one extra week in his lede?  Never mind, why do I even bother...

I expected this and agree with it.  Unlike certain folks (Shack and Shipnuck, call your offices), I'm relatively sanguine about the risks of running these events, mostly because it's a universe of folks that are young and healthy.  But there's just no upside to letting civilians onto the property at this point, especially given that the golf crowd skews older...  

But that leaves us in an awkward position, no?  We'll now play back-to-back weeks at Muirfield Village, which has been called the Dublin Double, with little to differentiate the weeks.  As detailed here, they will attempt to vary the course set-up:

Due to consecutive weeks of play, measures will be taken to limit wear and tear on the

course. 

According to a memo sent to players, Workday will feature a variety of tee boxes that are expected to make the course shorter while protecting tee areas normally used for the Memorial. 

Rough will be 3½ inches tall and the green surfaces will run about 11 on the Stimpmeter.

The Memorial will have higher rough and green speeds are planned to increase to 13-13½ on the Stimpmeter.

Seemed a much better idea when we were anticipating fans...  As an aside, it's been 44 years since the Tour went back-to-back at the same venue, but that involved separate golf courses.

Shackelford has one of his characteristically thought-provoking posts up, that highlights the missed opportunities involved:

The Workday provided an opportunity to inject something fresh onto the schedule while retaining the Memorial’s luster. Remember all the pre-pandemic talk about the need to slip in more variety on the schedule and offer alternatives to 72-holes of stroke play? I know, seems like decades ago.

Here are some options that would undoubtedly have required too many Zoom meetings and players inevitably offering their buzzkilling two cents. 

—Reverse the nines. If we’re going to watch the same course for two weeks, why not use the spectator-free situation to use the less-seen, more confined front nine as the incoming set to differentiate the two weeks. This would have also protected The Memorial’s aura. Now, after two weeks of seeing the back nine, it’s likely to grow tiresome for fans.

—54 Holes. The Premier Golf League is proposing to play 54 hole tournaments with 18-hole shotguns the first two rounds. The Workday’s field size precluded the shotgun option, but a tournament shortened by a day and maybe played with a tighter pace policy would have been a solid experiment. It might have encouraged a few more players to play both tournament weeks. 

—Stableford scoring. With several world class risk-reward holes at Muirfield Village, the scoring format used at July’s Barracuda Championship, combined with the less severe course setup planned, could have led to more contrast between the weeks. 

—10 Club Limit. Imagine the pre-tournament talk: We tweaked some lofts and lies to fill in a mid-iron gap with the help of my partners at (Ricky Bobby/Bryson-style corporate plug goes here). We’d see some shotmaking, some tougher decisions for players who have to create something out of a reduced set of options and we might see creativity rewarded. With less to carry, Tour caddies might even be less surly for a week.

—12-Hole Rounds. With just a bit of creativity, Muirfield Village could have been reconfigured into a 12-hole layout as a salute to alternative round lengths, Prestwick and Jack Nicklaus’s view that the sport would have been better at a dozen holes. One option, screen-grabbed from Google Earth and posted above: holes 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. This would have taken the finishing four holes off of television to preserve some of the Memorial’s cache and conclude the Workday on the courses four most dynamite holes. If Bryson were playing, the last two would have been drivable fours!

—Almost All Of The Above. Let’s just go off the rails for total fun: 12 hole rounds, three days (36 holes total), Stableford scoring, 10-club limit. Let the whining begin!

I just don't know, Geoff.  You run the risk of making tournament golf interesting, and then folks might expect it every week.  

Doubling Down on Stupid - What, you though we had moved on from Bryson?  I'd have thought that Bryson might have gotten a phone call from Ponte Vedra Beach, calling out a CBS cameraman and all...  Writing at Golf Digest, Christopher Powers seems to have the same reaction as your humble blogger:

By the laws of 2020, when the news cycle moves faster than a downhill, left-to-right

three-foot putt, all Bryson DeChambeau had to do was apologize for taking a cameraman to task on Saturday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. His comments, misguided at best and downright oblivious at worst, would have quickly been forgotten. Winning cures all, as we know.

DeChambeau sort of did that during his victory press conference, saying he “respects everybody.”

“I think people took it the wrong way and I’m sorry that they did so,” he added.

OK, maybe not the greatest apology, but at least he mixed in the word “sorry.” But even after that, he couldn’t quite help himself.

Sorry, not sorry...  But he'd himself some good if he'd just let it go, but no such luck:

It doesn’t move as quickly when you double and triple down, however, which is exactly what DeChambeau did during a Twitch stream on Sunday night.

I just included that bit because I have no clue what a Twitch stream might be....

“The guy was videoing me for a minute after a shot,” DeChambeau said, “like a full minute. That’s just, it’s just obsessive. It’s not the cameraman, it’s nobody’s fault, there’s just got to be a little bit of respect, that’s all.

I think we can all agree that there is clearly an obsessiveness on display.... even, dare I say it, a paranoid obsessiveness.

“I understand it’s his job, absolutely, I’m not saying he didn’t do his job. I’m saying that if he videos you for a minute after you hit a shot, trying to get you to capture something where you could potentially get mad? No, that’s ridiculous, I wasn’t going to get mad anyway. It was just like he was trying to catch me, like he was being a—I don’t know, it wasn’t respectful. And that’s one of those things that’s just not right, that’s all it is. Not a big deal. Much respect for everybody out there, no issues. People are going to make a big deal out of nothing, it was a nothing burger.”

So, he was just doing his job, but you're still mumbling incoherently about it 48 hours later? 

That Twitch stream is getting the bulk of the reaction, but to me these comments on Brad Faxon's SiriusXM radio show (amusingly titled, Just the Fax) are even more telling, and support my use of the P-word above:

I was trying to show, or explain to people that I hope we all have respect for all the players out here because, you know, the guy was videoing me for over a minute after I made my shot and I didn’t understand that. I hope people realize it’s not a knock on the

cameraman at all. I understand he’s doing his job. I love all the cameramen that do their jobs out there, but I just feel like, we need to have a mutual level of respect. That’s all. There’s nothing more to be said. I have the utmost respect for them. Hopefully he has the utmost respect for me and has the forethinking, the foreknowledge to be able to say ‘Hey, look, there’s no reason’ to video me for a minute and a half after I hit a shot. But I get that. We’re all entertainers. They’re doing their job, I’m doing my job the best I can. I just felt like he was videoing me, waiting for me to do something bad. But I didn’t. And so I was going, OK man, I’d really appreciate it if you’d, you know, just kind of went off on me, you know, instead of videoing me for a minute and a half after a shot that wasn’t the best.

Let me see if I have this right.  You think the cameraman is waiting for you to misbehave, and your reaction is ensure that he has a short wait?  For a guy known as The Professor, you're a bit of a dim bulb...

Or, you know, he could give this lad a follow:

Interestingly, he's quite worried about his brand, though seemingly unconcerned about his sponsors' brands...Just sayin'

One last bit before we mercifully moved on from the lout.  That same Shack had a good post in the aftermath of Bryson's performance, first summarizing the ungodly statistics:

• First player in the 16 years of ShotLink and “Strokes Gained” to lead a field in both driving and putting.

• Averaged 350.6 on the eight measuring holes, compared to a field average of 301.5.

• He averaged 329.8 on all drives at tree-lined Detroit Golf Club, compared to the field’s 297.6 average.

• DeChambeau reached 23-under-par to win by three strokes over Matthew Wolff, who started the day three ahead. Wolff hit five more fairways for the week, if that means anything (38/56 to Bryson’s 33/56).

• According to CBS’s Jim Nantz, DeChambeau’s drives Sunday ended up 423 yards longer than playing partner Troy Merritt’s. And 143 yards longer than Wolff’s tee shots on the non-par-3s.

That's an average of thirty yards per hole longer than Merritt, notably a short hitter.  It's only ten yards average longer than Wolff, but Wolff is a beast.

I know I've posed this previously, but why do we still have two measured driving holes in the ShotLink era?  We're accumulating the relevant data on every shot hit on Tour, yet we're still arbitrarily posting data with obvious sample size issues.

Geoff also raises another series of issues, the gist of which you'll infer from this:

• I get more questions asking if there is drug testing instead of equipment or COVID-19 testing.

You can't look at that body and not have such thoughts...  But above and beyond the possibility of PEDs, is that body good for a golfer?  Perhaps in the short-term, but color me skeptical about his long-term health.

Scenes From Yale -  The rumbles have been with us for some time. 

Back in early June, Geoff had posted this:

Though, as I read the sign, skiing would still be permitted... But perhaps I'm being overly literal.

Yale, for anyone unfamiliar with it, is an iconic Macdonald/Raynor collaboration that is widely considered the finest college golf course in the country.  certainly, at least to me, it would have to be the most interesting.  Among its many great template holes, is the best surviving Biarritz green:

Last week he had these photos of the deteriorating turf conditions:

Nothing to see here, folks... It's only our golf birthright being sold for a mess of pottage...

Today the news is better, at least better to the extent that the words mean anything.  A commitment to bring this masterpiece back to life, though it remains unclear as to why it was shuttered in the first place.  I can only confirm that the problem was not with the state of Connecticut, which only shuttered golf courses for the shortest period.

Ironically, this story arises at the same moment I had cause to link to my old writings at Larry Gavritch's site...  Ironic, because the one time I played Yale was as Larry's guest.

More troubling is the need to rename the golf course.  Yes, and that university as well...

Scenes From Crail - As I've shared previously, we've been keeping up on developments at our East Neuk club via a weekly update e-mail from Captain Jim MacArthur.  His most recent installment, however, contained some bad news:

This will be my last Captain’s Update for a few weeks. It started off as a COVID-19 update and grew a few arms and legs. I can honestly say that it has been a real pleasure for me preparing the updates whilst giving me an opportunity to look in a bit more detail at the club’s history.

Others will be filling the void, but the bride and I have come to look forward to Jim's weekly missives, which have enhanced our connection to and knowledge of this historic club to which we belong.

Here's just one example of his deft touch:

1.0 Clubhouse Areas 

Toilets 

I am now very pleased (never mind “relieved”!) to say – ‘The Clubhouse Toilets Are Now Open’. Never in the history of the Society have these few words meant so much.

 Relieved?  Well played, sir.

The prior week, Jim made a tactical error, I'm sure you'll agree, in soliciting updates from Overseas Members as to the status of golf at their home golf clubs.  As reticent as I am to offer my thoughts, I felt the Society membership might be amused by the Great Trolley Famine of 2020:

- Scott Simpson and his wife Theresa who live in Westchester County, NY the county just north of New York City joined Crail last August but have yet to play their first round as actual members. They had hoped to stay in Pittenweem this summer, but reality kicked in recently and they cancelled the trip. They hope to be over in 2021. They play at a club in Connecticut which was shut down for only a week and at this point they only have minimal restrictions and they are now allowed to touch flagsticks and bunker rakes have been returned to the course. However, one of the most interesting issues has involved trolleys. Scott anticipated that there would be restrictions on caddies and perhaps buggies and in the early stages of the outbreak bought trolleys for himself and Theresa. This turned out to be a very smart move as the available supply was depleted, the manufacturers deemed non-essential and closed down and the cost of the trolleys almost doubled. Scott said “Forget everything you have heard about the desperate shortages of ventilators and PPE – please send trolleys”

Oh, we will be there in 2021... Unless, of course, the toilets are closed again. 

This gentleman seems both a kindred spirit and a touch greedy:

- Mike Grice is a member at Southport and Ainsdale and is missing his trips to the East Neuk of Fife where he has a holiday home in Pittenweem. He and his family have not been up since mid-February, are missing their walks along the coast and of course golf at Crail. He hopes it won’t be much longer before they can return

The bride and I played S&A on our 2010 trip to Southport.  It just seems like an awful lot of linksy goodness for one family...  Of course, I'm just bitter over losing my two weeks of links golf for the year.

I'll most likely see you Thursday.