Weekend Wrap

A great weekend of golf, both the playing and the viewing kind.  Shall we cut right to the chase?

Redemption Song - There was that one hinky moment on a two-footer, but the young man is making us forget Fort Worth:

In duel for the (young) ages, Collin Morikawa beats Justin Thomas in scintillating playoff

Now 27, Thomas seems like one of the grand old men of our game.... 

DUBLIN, Ohio — Golf is perhaps the ultimate game of inches. Centimeters, really. Had Collin Morikawa’s two-foot putt on the 18th green at Muirfield Village hit the rim of the

cup just a fraction farther left, it would have spun out, and Justin Thomas would be holding the trophy, and the stories would all be about Morikawa’s inability to make putts when it matters.

And if Thomas’ tee shot on the third playoff hole had rested a few inches right or left of where it did behind a tree, he would have had a clear shot to the green, and those two might still be playing.

Yet Morikawa’s ball lipped in, and Thomas’ ball was stymied, and Morikawa is your Workday Charity Open champion.

“The hole was very kind to me,” Morikawa said. Perhaps it owed him one after Colonial, where he lipped out a three-footer on the first playoff hole to lose the Charles Schwab Challenge just four weeks ago.

No need for thought bubbles to know what he was thinking.  Those short misses stay with us for a while...

You'll hear this little factoid pretty much everywhere:

With the victory, Morikawa now has more PGA Tour wins (two) than missed cuts (one), joining that Tiger Woods fellow as the only two to secure win No. 2 before missed cut No. 2.

Of course, any comparisons with Tiger will flatter the subject.  So, Colin, we'll check back with you when you're making a run at this Tiger scat:

Tiger won 43 times before his 2nd missed cut as a pro.

Sick.

Quite obviously the signature moment was that first playoff hole, as Dylan Dethier recounts:

The duo headed back to the 18th tee for the first playoff hole, where they each found trouble. Morikawa’s tee shot ended up in the fairway bunker, while Thomas’ sailed wide right into the rough. Both found the green, but hardly with close birdie tries — Thomas was just over 50 feet away and Morikawa about half that distance, at 24 feet. 

With Rickie Fowler and a couple dozen volunteers and media members looking on, Thomas poured in his birdie prayer, punctuating the putt with a guttural scream that pierced the quiet air. 

All Morikawa needed to do to extend the event was find the bottom of the cup on a touchy downhiller.

Though Dylan is a good enough player himself to know that a downhiller isn't a problem if it's a must-make.  Just a great back-and-forth between two guys we expect to see a lot of in the near future.

JT will feel he let this one get away....perhaps that's a bit charitable:

“Everything was a positive. I shot 19 under par on a pretty tough golf course. But the fact

of the matter is I just completely gave it up, so that’s just going to hurt for a while,” said Thomas, who was seeking his 13th Tour title. He said he had no idea how long it would take to get over the painful loss. “I hope about three or four days because I’ve got to start another tournament on Thursday. I’m playing great. I have a great chance to win another golf tournament next week at a course that I obviously enjoy and I’m playing well. 

“I just can’t beat myself up, although it’s going to be pretty hard not to, at least the rest of this afternoon. But there’s a whole lot of nothing I can do about it right now. I just need to execute better when I get in that situation in the future.”

No shortage of chances, but that "guttural scream" was that of a man thinking he had put it away...  Of course, it was the two bogeys in the last three holes that cost him the title.  

The Tour Confidential panel had this, after the two Tiger questions required by statute:

3. Collin Morikawa stared down world No. 5 Justin Thomas in a sudden-death playoff at the Workday Charity Open. Morikawa, 23, who started his Tour career with 22 consecutive made-cuts (a mark topped only by Tiger Woods), now has two wins and two runner-up finishes in just 23 career starts. What has been the key to

Morikawa’s consistency? 

Zak: That he’s the best damn ball-striker we’ve seen reach the Tour since … Tiger? Perhaps that’s a bit much, but you can find stats to back it up. It’s no surprise that he and JT found themselves in playoff. Morikawa isn’t quite as long but much of his game resembles Thomas’. Both will have long, long careers because they just hit a ton of greens.

Dethier: Morikawa hit four or five truly spectacular golf shots from over 200 yards on Sunday. Two near-aces. A kick-in eagle. A driver to 15 feet. He’s an absolute sniper and it was really fun to see him get rewarded, despite almost missing from 18 inches just to get into that playoff.

Yes, though CBS took its sweet time informing us of anything that happened before the came on-air.  

Sens: You hit it as close as he does over and over, you’re going to be in the mix. A lot. Dead-eye ball-striking aside, he also has a calm about him. At the first event back in Texas, he hit some glitches throughout the week but each time was able to right himself and keep himself in the mix. The putter betrayed him, ultimately. But clearly he’s got something special going on between his ears as well. 

Bamberger: Great fundamentals. Cool manner. Seems to have no distractions in his life. He’s about the golf. We’ve seen it before most recently with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. He follows in that tradition.

He does seem like a flatliner, which is a good thing in his chosen line of work.

Dylan Dethier is doing his letter-grade thing as well:

Justin Thomas Collin Morikawa down the stretch: A+ 

After Justin Thomas holed his ridiculous eagle putt at No. 15 to get three shots clear of the field, this golf tournament was over. Over! Thomas had played his previous eight holes in seven under par — Surely one of golf’s best closers wasn’t going to look back now. 

But Morikawa hung tough. He made par at 16 to Thomas’ bogey, birdied 17 to Thomas’ par and (barely) wiggled in a two-footer for par at 18 while Thomas made another bogey. Three tough golf holes and a series of delicate shots executed all in a row under pressure to close out a 66 — and, after another searing iron shot on the third playoff hole, the biggest win of his young career.

He seemed to stay patient in the very late stages, a very useful skill out there.  

And this on JT''s three rounds in one:

The Justin Thomas rollercoaster: B- 

Thomas’ day was distinctly tougher to evaluate. Let’s start with the good stuff: Through

seven holes on Sunday, he was three shots back of the lead and scuffling big time. Eight holes later he had a three-shot lead after playing an absolutely spectacular stretch in seven-under including that eagle at 15. Add in the fact that he made a 50-footer on the first playoff hole and you’ve got a pretty good day, right? 

Well, sort of. When you’re holding a lead, it’s important to start fast and slam the door at the finish. Thomas bogeyed two of his first three holes and he bogeyed two of his final three holes in regulation. He missed a nine-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole. He bogeyed the third playoff hole. In all, he lost a lead and lost the tournament despite playing some ridiculously impressive golf. For one of the best players in the world, that’s B-minus-ish material.

Getting it to the clubhouse remains the hardest aspect of our game.  

There's much of interest from Dylan on Viktor Hovland and other aspects of the week as well, though we'll just sample this:

Tournament setup: C+ 

Look, it was good. The golf course is fantastic, arguably the best regular Tour stop (that title likely belongs to either Muirfield Village or Riviera). One mini-gripe would be that this was supposed to be the week things started to get tougher — but the leaders finished at 19-under (and Thomas reached 21-under down the stretch). Still, that’s largely weather-dependent and comes from a need to protect the golf course for next week; I get that. 

My realer gripe comes from a lack of variety thrown into the golf course’s setup. Pushing the tee forward at No. 14 was a fantastic wrinkle, but I’d have loved to see a few more changes tossed into the proceedings so it felt a bit less like Memorial Lite.

I thought Shack had the answer last week, which was to swap the nines.  At the very least, all those critical late round (and playoff) shots would have occurred on different holes than next week's event.

This did seem to work well, which only makes one wonder why it hasn't been tried during the Memorial:

No. 14 from the up-tees: A 

Tournament organizers made one really good call, which was to play the 14th hole from a forward tee that gave players a tantalizing decision to go for it or lay up. 

The hole’s cleverness was perfectly illustrated by the tournament’s final group. Viktor Hovland, needing a spark, went for the green with driver, pushed it just a touch, found the water and effectively ended his chances. Justin Thomas laid up with a mid-iron, wedged it close and made his birdie putt. And Collin Morikawa pulled off the hero shot with driver, holding his tee shot on the green some 14 feet away for another birdie. Better yet, you can see the scatter plot of tee shots on No. 14 Sunday and see that it’s a pretty even split between players who laid back and went for the green. That suggests a cool balance.

The only disappointment with No. 14 was that we didn’t quite get to see it in a playoff. Had Thomas’ final par putt found the bottom of the cup instead of just the lip, he and Morikawa would have had some decisions to make.

Our golf leadership isn't very imaginative.  We all understand why they play No. 18 in playoffs, often more than the once.  Faced with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play interesting holes without the temporal concerns of the crowd, they start the playoff with two additional loops on No. 18.... Sheesh!

I'm just hoping it wasn't for this guy:

The Rickie Fowler behind-18-green appearance: A 

Look, this just made me laugh, simple as that. I think it’s genuinely cool that Rickie Fowler comes to the 18th green to watch his friends finish out; it shows that he likes to watch golf and he’s there to support his buddies, both things to aspire to. But seeing him recording something on his phone, holding a Coke, still dressed in orange — it all just felt very Rickie.

I agree that that it's a nice practice, for which Rickie deserves much credit.   But you know what's seemingly becoming less and less Rickie?  Rickie actually being on-site on Sunday.

And why even bring up this guy?

The Jordan Spieth Comeback Tour: D 

T10, T68, T54, MC. Jordan Spieth’s four starts since the restart do not ultimately inspire confidence in his return to greatness. We’ll continue to watch all-too-closely in hopes of some sort of reversal.

It's getting harder and harder to watch.  I thought folks were way too excited about his play at Colonial, though I'm sad if that hot take proves correct.

I Saw It On TV - Or not, as it it so happens...  But what is to be done under the circumstances that presented yesterday?  The threat of bad late-day weather caused tee times to be moved up to zero dark thirty:

The original plan was for Golf Channel to show live golf from 1-3 p.m. ET with CBS picking it up from there and having the 3-6 p.m. ET window.

Golf Channel and the NBC Sports Gold app did have live golf for two hours on Sunday from 9 to 11 a.m. ET, but that was it. That’s when frustration set in for golf fans with no more live golf on TV right now.

Chances are, whatever city you live in, you’re stuck with an infomercial on your local CBS affiliate and repeats of regular programming on Golf Channel. 

But there are a couple options to stream it on your computer or your phone. 

CBS has the live coverage available on cbsports.com. Typically, you’d need an account on CBS All Access to watch the live stream but CBS is making live golf available today without that. 

You can also watch the Workday on a live stream on the CBS sports app.

Lots of unhappy folks in the golf world... Golf Channel was compelled to respond, though it's hard to see where they can be blamed;

Golf Channel/NBC Sports Executive Producer Molly Solomon took to Twitter to explain her company’s side, as Golf Channel continued to provide updates and analysis (but not live broadcast coverage) via Golf Central before switching to other programming, including a Feherty interview with Thomas. 

“Feel compelled to explain TV rights to all those rabid golf fans,” she wrote. “Golf Channel has rights to the weekend lead-in coverage which is comprised of 2 hours before network coverage begins.

“Golf Channel was live from 9-11 AM and CBS is currently streaming live coverage on multiple sites. They will have tape-delayed coverage at 3 PM. Golf Channel doesn’t have rights to current window. Hence, Golf Central keeping you updated.”

Rabid golf fans?  Oxymoron much?

It seems folks were upset with GC for not covering that portion of the event for which they don't own the rights.  Among those who were upset was our Shack, who convened an emergency podcast:

However, it was a bit of a broadcasting placement debacle compounded by the pandemic and opportunity golf has to gain new fans. I was hardly alone in this assessment. (To be clear, CBS’s crews are doing amazing work in the midst of pandemic constraints.) 

So, here’s a short Shack Show rant about Sunday’s weirdo tease of early live golf hinting at a fantastic young gun showdown in early Golf Channel coverage, only to be interrupted by beancounters, clashing corporate interests and those ironclad contracts that forget about the viewer.

I've heard of and had a few emergency nines, but an emergency podcast is a new one.

Geoff feels strongly about this, though I do think he's a little naive about his sense of what the viewer wants.  I think there are many different types of viewers, which makes satisfying them all quite difficult.

Dylan Dethier was aligned with Geoff as well:

Live TV coverage: F 

I’m not talking about the announcers or the broadcast — this is purely a comment on the fact that the most exciting finish of the golf restart was only broadcast live through streaming on cbssports.com. 

Look, I’m not here to pretend I understand all the finer points of broadcast contracts (and I certainly understand that Golf Channel couldn’t continue to broadcast the golf, as Molly Solomon explained). I’m really not here to point fingers at all. I’m just here to say that it felt weird and unsatisfying that golf’s best product wasn’t available to the masses in real time and required going to cbssports.com, watching ads, dealing with buffering and everything that goes along with a streaming product.

Watching ads?  That has your panties in a twist?  Because aired live it wouldn't be ad-supported?

As noted above, the needs of the viewer are far more complicated than Geoff or Dylan acknowledges.  I would imagine that most of the target audience for golf were themselves on the golf course Sunday morning, so I assume we're talking of a small cross-section of a niche viewership.  Is streaming really an unsuitable vehicle for these "rabid" fans?  

Perhaps the most logical thing would be to throw the coverage onto Golf Channel, which one assumes would be happy for the eyeballs.  But CBS has paid handsomely for those rights, and I presume they'd worry about fewer eyeballs in that 3:00-6:00 window if it were available earlier in the day.  I would imagine that NBC, under common ownership with GC, would be more accommodating here, whereas CBS might expect compensation.

As for me, I'm often picking it up later on tape, so my priority is to maintain the stated broadcast window, to ensure that the event is taped under my DVRs standing orders.  

As the kids are wont to say, developing....

Yeah, We Knew - The Tour has confirmed that which we had already figured out on our own:

DUBLIN, Ohio – Multiple sources have confirmed that the PGA Tour plans to play the remainder of this season’s events without fans or pro-ams. 

Next week’s Memorial had been scheduled to be the first event since the COVID-19 pandemic halted play in March to be played with fans, although the plan called for a limited footprint of about 8,000 fans per day. Last week the Tour reversed course and announced the event will be played without fans.

According to various sources, on Monday the Tour, in collaboration with individual tournaments, will extend that plan to play without fans at the season’s remaining nine events, including the three FedExCup playoff stops.

The TC panel had this take on it as well:

5. According to a Golf Channel report, the PGA Tour will announce that it will play without fans through the Tour Championship in early September due to the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Do you expect we’ll see galleries any event in 2020?

Zak: [Necessary qualifier: no one knows] Nope! And why should we? I sense the majors being in the fall will drum up solid fields for otherwise listless events. Do we need fans there or can we just continue as we’ve done this far, which has been plenty great? Let the other sports like football figure out that Rubik’s Cube of letting patrons into the grounds. 

Dethier: Augusta National may already have developed a vaccine for the sole purpose of welcoming fans through the gates in November. I could imagine them having some fans for the Masters, and maybe some small crowds metered out at the Sanderson Farms, say. I’d guess more than one tournament with fans and fewer than five. 

Sens: The Masters, possibly. But nowhere else.

Bamberger: The Masters, with members only and their families.

I'd have to watch to know if Dylan is correct about the Sanderson Farms, and I'm thinking why start now?

The Masters perhaps, because of the late date and the fact that they don't care what anyone thinks.  

I think the biggest surprise is how much I've enjoyed actually seeing the golf courses...  as well as the absence of grandstanding.  But no one should have any illusions, the business model will break down pretty quickly without those Wednesday Pro-Ams, so the players should enjoy their brief respite from that obligation.

Wither Tiger - He's back, as the Confidentialistas contemplate:

1. Tiger Woods is playing in this week’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, his first start since the Genesis Invitational in February, where he struggled on the weekend, finishing 68th. (In his only other 2020 start, at Torrey Pines, Woods

finished T-9.) Woods has won five times at Muirfield but not since 2012. What are realistic expectations for him this week? 

Sean Zak: I wouldn’t expect him to come out and play super tight golf against a bunch of dudes who have been doing it for weeks, but then I wouldn’t expect him to MC at Muirfield. So T25!

Dylan Dethier: That’s a particularly safe pick. I’ll push the envelope slightly further — I think he has an up-and-down week capped off by a nice Sunday to crack the top 10. I’m going with T8. 

Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?  If he's healthy, he's still pretty good at the golf thing, but we shouldn't be surprised to see rust.  But this will undoubtedly be the only time we see him before Harding Park.

These guys, though, just can't help themselves:

Josh Sens: Tiger wins. Well, probably not. But, like Dylan, I expect a top 10, with winning well within the bounds of “realistic.” 

Michael Bamberger: No. 83, coming at ya. See you, Sam.

So you're saying there's a chance?

So, why hasn't he teed it up before this?  Because he didn't have to... though, I'm pretty sure this guy was kidding:

Justin Thomas teases Tiger: 'He's scared to come out and play against all of us'

Problem solved.  He saw your play down the stretch yesterday, and figured he had nothing about which to be concerned.

Golf In The Kingdom - John de Coupland writes of his day at Royal Dornoch, making your humble blogger feel the acute sting of our cancelled trip.  My bitterness aside, the ancestral home of our game kept their citizens off the links for far too long, so we shall enjoy the fact that they are returning to some base level of normalcy in the last few weeks.

Dornoch itself was open only to members and their guests, but fortunately John's elder son Ross (who you might remember came up to play with us at Lundin Links last summer) has joined and hosted his Dad.  John first noted the deserted feel of the club:

Good luck finding a space in this upper parking lot in normal times... Typically you'd have several cars idling as they wait for someone to leave.

And this of the first tee area looks like a ghost town:

Typically you'd have a crowd four deep milling about.

Perhaps more interestingly (for those that are bored by photos of parking lots), John also provides this of the new 7th hole:

John considers it an improvement on the old 7th, which wasn't one of the better holes on the course.  Of course, being one of the weaker holes on this particular track isn't exactly a stinging rebuke...

Summer of 2021, I'm thinking...

I'll release you to the obligations of your day, and hope to see you tomorrow.  There's far too much golf planned for later in the week, so I'm unsure of my keyboard schedule.