A little blogging uncertainty as we approach the holiday weekend. Golf is on the calendar the next two mornings, so I might give myself a little break. We have a Friday afternoon event, so I'll plan on blogging then and previewing the Tour Championship, which is on a Friday-Sunday schedule.
The Popov Paradox - Cinderella is in search of a lost slipper, as Julie Williams explains:
When Popov won at Royal Troon, she was granted instant LPGA membership. According to Category 3 of the LPGA’s priority status document, any player who wins a major as an LPGA member secures status for the next five years.
Therein went the overlooked detail of Popov’s situation. She was not an LPGA member when she won, thus she went into Category 7 on the tour’s Priority List, which is for non-member wins. If she had been an LPGA member, she would have gone into Category 3, which is for major winners.
Thus, Popov will hold full LPGA membership through the completion of the 2021 season.
Rubber, meet road:
But here’s the asterisk: She is not in the field at next month’s ANA Inspiration or the U.S. Women’s Open in December. Her five-year exemption into those events begins in 2020. That’s largely because the majors are out of order in 2020.
Popov is in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in October. That five-year exemption runs from 2020 through 2024.
Mike Whan, to his credit, addressed this issue in his typically forthright manner...
The ANA Inspiration field was finalized in March to make to sure that players who qualified into the ANA were secure. In doing so, anything that happened after the field was set would be addressed in later years.
“You don’t have to like that, you don’t have to agree with me on that,” Whan said. “But that way, from the very beginning we knew that a winner there was going to qualify for the 2021 ANA.”
As for limited membership, Whan points out it has happened before – and recently.
Who among us can't see the logic of adhering to the previously-established rules? That would be like a mayor of a large city failing to maintain order and protect its citizens' property? What? Portland, huh? Never mind...
This is trivial in the current moment, but WTF! I watched some of the first day of the U.S. Open tennis, and there I expect to see unforced errors... But this is laughable. Mike, your rules are quite silly, as I think you know. But in steering the premiere women's golf tour on the planet, you've committed to presenting the best women players in the world. When the girl that won the last big one isn't included, you've broken faith with your audience.... You're not going to like their reaction.
Oh, and about the sanctity of those rules:
Popov could potentially appeal the rule, an option other players have exercised in similar situations. Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson both used that avenue to gain LPGA membership after winning an LPGA event before they reached 18, the tour’s required age for membership.
“I’ve been commissioner 11 years. I’ve seen plenty of non-member wins at majors,” Whan said. “And I’ve seen almost all of those non-members go onto long and storied careers on the LPGA.”
Which reminds me of this more than anything:
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx
Well, when it comes to appeals to authority, Groucho is the sine qua non.
As reported previously, we have a comparable in the men's game:
Lately, Daniel Berger has been a threat to win every time he tees it up.
The Jupiter, Florida, resident has finished no worse than third in four of the seven PGA Tour events he has played since the re-start, including a playoff victory over eventual PGA champion Collin Morikawa at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Berger was 13th at the PGA and 25th at last week’s BMW Championship.
But here’s a tournament – the biggest tournament of them all – that Berger currently has no chance at winning. The Masters. That’s because Berger isn’t in the field for the rescheduled Masters in mid-November at Augusta National.
That seems ridiculous considering Berger is ranked 13th in the world.
Thirteenth!
Same deal except, you know, for where it's different.
Not exactly the same, but they do rhyme. More so because in both cases there were injury/illness issues that affected their performance pre-Covid. And while these are logically problems unique to 2020, as these events were being rescheduled, eventualities such as these ought to have been covered. if there's one skill demanded in a pandemic, I would think that would be flexibility...
Tangentially-related are these thoughts from Brandel Chamblee:
To Chamblee, though, the incident spoke to a larger issue in the world of golf: the fact thatlengthy exemptions are such a big part of the sport to begin with. On Golf Central on Friday, he made it clear in a conversation with host Rich Lerner he’d like to see the PGA Tour’s current system overhauled to reward players currently on strong form.
“But one of the worst rules in golf that the PGA Tour has — well, they have two of them. The Top 50 and Top 25 all-time money list exemption. If I were commissioner for a day, the very first thing I would do is get rid of those exemptions.”
The exemptions Chamblee is referring to allow players who have had long, storied PGA Tour careers a little extra leeway if they’ve had an off-year. They also often explain why you’ll see top pros of yesteryear playing events without other obvious PGA Tour status.
The PGA Tour has evolved into quite the protection racket, protecting the interests of current members over the kids, so I'm happy at anything that puts that on the agenda. Ironically, Brandel seems to give a pass to the majors in this regard:
“For nostalgic elements and for ceremonial elements, at major championships, I get it,” Chamblee said of exemptions. Some such free passes are famous throughout the sport, like the lifetime exemption for previous winners of the Masters and PGA Championships, the exemption for Open Championship winners until the age of 60 and the 10-year exemption afforded to U.S. Open champions. Chamblee seems fonder of those than the rules governing more usual Tour play.
Which which I agree, until I don't. I too like those traditions... up to that moment when I realize that Sandy Lyle and Larry Mize are in the Masters, and Daniel Berger isn't...
They're Toast - Often headers seem unrelated to that which follows, and such is the case here:
Matt Kuchar and longtime caddie John Wood discuss split-up
It seems they've done more than merely discuss the concept:
At this week’s BMW Championship at Olympia Fields, Matt Kuchar has a familiar face on the bag, but it’s not his caddie of nearly five years, John Wood. Instead, it’s Kuchar’s wife, Sybi, who stepped in as a temporary replacement when Wood and Kuchar split up after the Wyndham Championship.
According to a Golf Channel report, Wood initiated the breakup after he and Kuchar missed the cut at the PGA Championship.
“John Wood called me after the week of Greensboro and said he was going to be done caddying, at least for me,” Kuchar told Golf Channel. “Said that he was going to look into some options with TV. And so I kind of had to piece together a couple caddies in the interim.”
At least he's not trying to peddle that mutual break-up nonsense....Am I the only one that finds that "at least for me" a bit harsh?
But Kooch's loss might be our gain:
The nature of the TV opportunities Kuchar mentioned are currently unknown, but as a longtime contributor to GOLF.com’s Tour Confidential, Wood’s value as an insightful commentator on the game is obvious.
Wood told GOLF.com via text message that he hasn’t made any decisions on his next move. He said transitioning into a new position in golf outside of caddying is a possibility, but that he’s also still open to continuing as a Tour caddie if another opportunity comes along.
The TC for sure, but anyone remember a few years back at Sea Island when they first put Bones behind a microphone? John Wood worked that week as well, and this viewer thought he was better than Bones...
But I do hope they can stay friends....
The Death of Golf, Delayed - Yeah, we're having a moment.... Just don't get cocky, kid:
This probably won’t come as news to any golfers struggling to get a tee time, but rounds played in July moved into record territory. According to industry research firm Golf Datatech rounds played were up 19.7 percent compared to last July. For the year, rounds are also trending up 3 percent.July’s big month set a new standard. It was the largest increase year over year for a peak golf season month since Golf Datatech began tracking rounds played figures in 2000. It also marked the third straight month that rounds played increased compared to 2019. Rounds in May were up 6.2 percent, while June also saw a double-digit gain at 13.9 percent.Golf Datatech’s research showed that every state in the continental U.S. saw an increase in rounds of at least 2 percent. Each of the eight regions of the country tracked by Golf Datatech saw at least a 15-percent increase, led by the Mid-Atlantic region that saw rounds surge by 27 percent compared to a year ago. There were 19 states that showed a year-over-year gain in July of at least 20 percent.
And a standout during the quarter is what the company saw in its golf segment. An area that Dick’s management expects will continue to be a point of strength for the company through the rest of the year.
“The golf business has been great both at Dick’s and [Golf] Galaxy,” said Dick’s CEO Ed Stack on the company’s earnings conference call on Wednesday.
“There’s a number of young people who have come into the game because they’re not playing football or soccer or some other sport,” Stack added. “So they’re out playing [golf]. Guys are out playing golf because they’re not at their kids’ games. Men, women, and kids have really all jumped into this game and we expect that to continue through the balance of the year, too.”
And to think I had been reliably informed that golf is in hospice care...
I would just add that golf's TV ratings seem to be holding up better than other sports' ratings, so this seems to be our moment.
The Foot, a First Look - Just a couple of notes on the next important golf event, including that which I assume to be an auto-fill generated typo. First, a browser tab that's been open for far too long:
U.S. Open 2020 Picks: The 13 best bets to win at Winged Foot
Which would be interesting if it were anything more than a listing of the thirteen best players in the world. I'll just pick one at random (though you'll see through that ruse pretty readily):
4. Collin Morikawa (20/1)Reason to pick: A historic weekend at TPC Harding Park in which he shot a major championship record 128 over his final 36 holes officially put the 23-year-old among the game’s elites.Cause for concern: Winning a second consecutive major would be another historic feat. Then again, nothing has seemed to faze this guy since turning pro last year.
Let me see if I have this right. The guy that won the last major is in the field for this one? How novel, however, I don't think we need to share this with Mike Whan. It'll only make him feel sad.
The funnier bit is that Geoff has begun posting hole flyovers, the first here and second here. But when he gets to the iconic third hole, comedy ensues. As many of you know, the third is quite the test of golf, a long one-shotter with a severe green, most famous for the manner in which it was played by winner Billy Casper at the 1959 U.S. Open:
No. 3 at Winged Foot is a long, demanding par 3 where players will be happy to take par and move on.
— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) August 29, 2020
1959 #USOpen champion Billy Casper famously laid up, and made par, in all 4 rounds, choosing not to take on the narrow, well-bunkered green.
In collaboration with @DeloitteUS. pic.twitter.com/0TvqETe1S3
Geoff's post adds some curious notes, starting with this:
Winged Foot’s 243-yard third is in that sour spot no one likes unless they’re standing on Cypress Point.
Sour spot? Cypress Point? I can't even hazard a guess as to where he was going with this...But that's not the good part...
With a classic Tillinghast bunkering scheme, the steeply pitched green should welcome today’s 4 and 5-irons unless tournament tees are moved up. A particularly goyish house behind the green also highlights OB lurking, though such a costly outcome seems unlikely on a hole of this length.
Before you laugh, I'd just like to point out that Winged Foot and goyish are actual synonyms... I'm assuming he was going for garish, but whose spell check system defaults to Yiddish?
It is a great and demanding golf hole, one on which laying up is a viable option, at least as long as one putts like Billy Casper. And this schematic of the green might be helpful when watching play:
Dan Hicks spent a portion of the COVID-19 shutdown at Winged Foot Golf Club where he’sbeen a member since 2010. The 58-year-old Greenwich, Connecticut, resident, who’s been anchoring NBC’s golf coverage for 20 years, just happened to be there playing alongside NBC Sports Group president and fellow member Pete Bevacqua in late June as negotiations to reacquire the USGA media rights neared a conclusion.A critically acclaimed jaw dropped when news of the forthcoming rights transfer was quietly passed along.“I still can’t believe it happened,” Hicks said. “I knew there were some conversations at the outset about doing a one-off because Fox had some programming issues when the championship moved to September. And then I was actually here at Winged Foot when I found out it was the whole package. Chills went up and down my spine when he told me that we were on the goal line of getting it back.”The commute to Winged Foot is about 20 minutes.
Mr. ZoZo Rising - As noted in these pages previously, it's not just manufacturing that's returning to the U.S.:
After two weeks in Las Vegas, the PGA Tour will now move to old friend Sherwood CountryClub just two weeks prior to the Masters. The “ZOZO Championship @ Sherwood” will not only give players a decent test prior to the Masters, the use of the @ symbol will resonate with the coveted 18-34 year-olds. Win-win!
Tiger Woods won last year’s inaugural ZOZO in Japan but due to COVID-19, the 2020 version of the PGA Tour’s fall Asian swing is getting replaced by a western United States series.
Sherwood hosted ten Shark Shootouts, 13 World Challenges, one prime time match and most recently, three Champions Tour events.
Shadow Creek and Sherwood... God forbid anyone actually comes up with an original idea.
More importantly, did anyone get the header reference?
Wither Tiger - Mike Bamberger has always been one of the most interesting voices in our game, with a very unique take on things. His Bamberger Briefly series is the perfect vehicle to some of his, what shall we call them, random musings...Mike frames his thoughts with the fact that Tiger currently has no swing coach, then segues through 1956 Masters champ Jackie Burke. to arrive at this juncture:
I went to see Burke in 2004, when he was one of Hal Sutton’s deputies on the Ryder Cup team. I sat with Burke in his office at Champions and he casually said something about Tiger that I hadnever heard anybody else say. He said that Tiger’s biggest golf issue, one that was bound to haunt him eventually, was that he did not teach the game. He gave no lessons.
I wish I could tell you Burke’s precise words but this is the guts of it: Tiger would never really understand his own golf swing until he started teaching the golf swing to others. It was Burke’s believe that if things go wrong, and you really know your own swing, you can be your own fix-it man, intra-round and between tournaments. But if you don’t, you can’t.
The premise of Mike's can be discerned from its header:
As Tiger Woods raises a son in golf, might that experience help Tiger’s own game?
I'm skeptical of the basic premise, but happy to have Mike asking such questions.
Been There, Done That - This description of a shot by DJ last week mirrors one that I experienced as a photographer:
Johnson was standing over his tee shot on the 180-yard, par-3 6th hole at Olympia Fields Country Club during the first round of the BMW Championship. His ball was not standing on its tee.Johnson hit the ball through the tee, not the ball off the tee, NBC analyst Jim “Bones” Mackay said during Sunday’s broadcast.Johnson’s shot went about 22 feet right of the pin, and he ended up with a bogey.“When Dustin was playing this hole on Thursday, he teed up his 6- or 7-iron and his ball actually fell off the tee,” said Mackay, who saw the shot as he was also working as the caddie for Justin Thomas, one of Johnson’s first- and second-round playing partners. “He never noticed it, went ahead and hit the shot anyway, with the tee getting between the ball and the clubface and hit it out to the right and made a bogey.“He was told afterward that his ball had fallen off the tee, and it took him about five seconds to get over it. As always the case with Dustin, one of the most resilient guys in the game.”
Resilient? That's what we're calling it these days?
A few years ago, I brought my camera to a Met. Golf Writers outing and filmed friend Bill Baum on the tee of a Par-3. Looking through the viewfinder, I saw nothing, but the other guys reacted as Bill hit his shot into a greenside bunker. When I asked, they told me that Bill's ball had moved during his swing, and the burst mode series of photos later confirmed that. Truly amazing that he could get the ball hole-high...
In Bill's case, the ball moved sideways and was on the ground next to the tee when struck. I assume in DJ's case it fell forward towards the hole, though again amazing that the ball wasn't further off course.
Have a great day and we'll catch up later in the week.
The Doors, jeez I’m dating myself!!!
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