Sorry about going dark there for a couple of days. Just think of it as battlespace prep as we beging our descent into Augusta...
Desert Doings - I watched none of it, but Golf.com has the key takeaways, including this guy whose handicap travels:
Tyrrell Hatton leadsTyrrell Hatton was the best at last week’s BMW PGA Championship after four rounds. He is the best at this week’s CJ Cup after one round.Hatton shot a 7-under 65 to grab a one-shot lead over Xander Schauffele and Russell Henley, and a two-shot lead over Jon Rahm and Tyler Duncan. Hatton played his first three holes at 4-under – birdie, birdie, eagle – added two more birdies for a 6-under 30 front nine, then played the back at 1-under.All that after what he said was a 20-hour, door-to-door journey.“Yeah, I mean, it’s fair to say I’m pretty tired at the moment,” Hatton said. “Still struggling a little bit with jetlag. And you can tell by my voice, picked up a little bit of a sore throat if you like on the way over. So I’m just – today was a long day. Very happy with my score and I just need to try and get back to the hotel this evening, have a good rest and hopefully sleep better than I did last night and fingers crossed for another good day tomorrow.”
The times being what they are, I'm just happy that CTR:F- Hoodie yield zero results...
No disrespect intended, but my guess is that that jet lag hits him with malice and aforethought today...
Golf has log been the Rodney Dangerfield of sports. But, even accounting for that, this leaderboard as currently shown at ESPN.com lacks a certain something:
“I think this is actually a great place for—you know, to kind of have a little checkpoint of where things are leading up to Augusta,” said Rickie Fowler.Speaking to the media Wednesday, both Fowler and Rory McIlroy commented on the similarities between the Georgia and Nevada properties. Specifically, the comparisons of green complexes.“I was saying yesterday with how good the greens are here and how slopey and how fast and how the course is set up, it's actually—it's not a bad place to prepare for Augusta,” said McIlroy, who owns five top-10 finishes at the Masters. “It's bent, the same conditions you're going to get there in terms of grass anyway.”Added Fowler: “These greens could be fairly similar in areas to what we may see at Augusta with what they're capable there with sub-air as well as here. The greens are very firm as of Monday starting into this week. I'm not sure where they're going to take them. Greens are rolling perfect. I think something, two similarities we may see at Augusta.”
I think this tells us everything we need to know.... about Rory's chances at this one-off Fall masters. As for Rickie, I'm really just happy (and surprised) he's in the event. Not gonna take the time to check it, but I can't help wondering if he's one of the lucky stiffs who are in because they froze the field. Since the restart, I've seen our Rickie on milk cartons more often than on Tour broadcasts.
This guy is back, though his presence on the weekend seems...let's go with, uncertain:
Bad breaks mar Brooks Koepka's return to golf at CJ Cup at Shadow Creek
Bad breaks? Do tell:
A yard here, a yard there.
That’s how Brooks Koepka was thinking after he signed for a disappointing 2-over-par 74 in
Thursday’s first round of the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek. Koepka’s luck was running on the bad side with a few of his shots in his first tournament in two months but he remained optimistic heading into the second round.
“I mean, I don’t want to complain about bad breaks, I don’t normally do that, but I feel I was a foot, a yard here, a yard there from being really good and just kind of got unlucky,” Koepka said. “Just nice to be back playing. It feels good. I’ve actually played pretty solid. I was happy with it.
“Disappointed with like the scoring. I played way better. Like I said, a yard here, a yard there and it’s 18, if it’s a yard, 16 if it’s a yard left it’s on the green. Just felt like I got quite a few bad breaks, but it happens, it’s golf.”
Which reminds me of this famous Trevino quote:
There are two things that won't last long in this world, and that's dogs chasing cars and pros putting for pars.
Players complaining about bad bounces very much belongs on that list. I'd like his chances more if he could just admit he was rusty and not sharp, which is exactly what we expect. But this is just direct plagiarization from the Rotella style book:
“I hit it solid, I putted pretty well, I hit everything online that I wanted to and just made one sloppy mistake there, the three‑putt (on 15),” Koepka said. “I had maybe two bad swings. On 9 tee and then the one I hit in the water on the back (on 15). Those are the only two bad swings I made all day.
“I hit good putts, they just didn’t go in. Left a couple of them right short in the jaw. Yeah, I don’t know, I thought I played a hell of a lot better than the score.”
Only one sloppy mistake, except for those fourteen bad swings. I'm just sad that his good buddy DJ wasn't there to welcome him back...
Shipnuck has dropped his latest mailbag, and he ledes with a Brooksie Q&A:
Ship, wanted your take on Brooks and whether he will rediscover what it takes to be a force again? With the cooler weather at Augusta and rush to get back playing can he be the alpha dog again? – @cavedoc
I hope so, because the game is certainly more interesting when Koepka is lurking on
leaderboards. But we’ve now seen a disconcerting trend for a solid decade with this new generation of stars: they go on a tear for a couple of years and gobble up wins and majors and then their game/body/psyche breaks down. Think JDay (’15-16), Spieth (’15-17) and now Koepka (’17-19). Is it the pressure that comes with success that get them sidetracked? The modern golf swing and obsession with training? Despite his injuries, Koepka has way too much game and desire to write him off now, at 30. (At the CJ Cup this week, he said he feels “a million times better.”) So, this Masters looms large for Koepka, as a needed opportunity to reassert himself.
Ship? I thought we were going with Shippy?
Given that JDay and Brooksie have been derailed by injuries, I would think the buried lede is that correlation between muscle mass and injury. Admittedly, Spieth is a different case....
But is it possible that Brooks just isn't as good as we thought? Just asking...
Gearhead Andrew Turskey files this report on the venue that has long intrigued many, also finding curious Augusta similarities. I Though this was the even more incongruous note:
6. Welcome to fabulous… London?
On the Las Vegas strip, you can get a taste of Paris, Italy or New York City. When you play Shadow Creek, you get a taste of London. Located near the 9th and 17th greens are old-school, in-service telephone booths where players can call the clubhouse restaurant and place a food order.
OK, I take a back seat to no one in my love of the iconic red BT phone booths, but isn't this a case of egregious cultural appropriation? I mean, I'm a little unclear on the rules here.
Speed Kills - More nonsense on the road to oblivion, leading with this pretty ambitious appeal to authority. Bryson DeChambeau, the man of the moment in our game, finds historical antecedents in the works of Jones, Hogan and Nelson... Nah, just kidding, he goes full Copernicus on us:
“You Look at Einstein, you look at Newton, you look at all these big-time names in the science field there’s been a lot of people that have been called crazy. Decades later they’re like, wow, that person was actually pretty interesting, he did a lot of amazing things. I’m not saying that’s what I’m going to do but, shoot, I hope so one day. That’d be fun.”
The standardized test writes itself. Of Newton, Einstein and DeChambeau, which one does not belong? It's a bit unfair, of course, because Einstein and Newton didn't have Golf Channel cameramen damaging their brands.
We've had a run of stories on Rory chasing Bryson's speed, this being just one example. Of course, this questioner in Shippy's mailbag nails it perfectly:
#AskAlan can McIlroy’s new 190+ swing speed help his putting…? – @tallboy199
This is what’s amazing about Bryson’s ascendence. All the machismo and testosterone it takes to Hulk-smash drives would seem to have a negative effect on the delicate art of putting but for the 2019-20 season DeChambeau was a superb 10th in Strokes Gained: putting. McIlroy already hits it far enough. As you suggest, I’d like to see him spend more time on his wedge game, putting and mental approach.
For a @tallboy, you're very down to earth.
I'm not even sure Rory knows how bad a putter he is, and please don't get me started on his wedge play. You've heard this before, but I can't think of a Tour player more in need of a firm hand on the rudder. But how likely is he to get that from his childhood best friend?
Now, via Shack, add JT to that list:
Like Maverick and Goose in the 1980s classic film Top Gun, Justin Thomas says he has a need for speed.
“I just want some more speed,” he said during his pre-tournament press conference ahead of the CJ Cup in Las Vegas. “I feel like I’ve been good at having another gear, another 5 or 10 yards if I need it, but I don’t necessarily have that other 20.”
Thomas, 27, averaged 304 yards off the tee last season, good for 34th on Tour, so length isn’t necessarily a concern for him, but it just goes to show how distance is king at golf’s highest level.
So, will he go all Bruce Banner on us?
“I’m not going to put on 40 pounds, I don’t have the height to do that,” Thomas said. “I’m going to look like a beach ball if I put on 40 pounds. I can get stronger in different parts of my body that can help me hit it farther and gain some distance, but I hit it plenty far enough to win tournaments and do well.”
OK, so I'll mark you down as "Not Yet."
Our exit strategy on this subject is this from Golf Digest editor Jerry Tarde:
The Murder of the Par 5
I have Professor Plum in the library with the candelabra...
Jerry's got no shortage of anecdotes:
Justin Thomas, who looks like he fell off a charm bracelet, reached the 667-yard 18th hole at Erin Hills in the 2017 U.S. Open with a 299-yard 3-wood and made the eagle putt for a 63. In the 2020 U.S. Amateur at Bandon Dunes, the champion, Tyler Strafaci, hit a 4-iron to 14 feet on the 566-yard 36th hole in the final. Are par 5s now over, finito, deceased?There used to be a list of what Tom Doak called in 1982 “the untouchables”—par 5s that had never been reached in two. In researching Golf Digest’s ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses today, we’ve found only one untouchable left—the 675-yard 16th at Olympic’s Lake Course.On all of the PGA Tour last year, ShotLink data shows one par 5 wasn’t reached in two (the 623-yard fourth at Sea Island Resort’s Plantation course)—that’s 0.6 percent of all the par 5s played—and on two-thirds of the par 5s, at least half the field “went for the green.” The longest hole in tournament golf today is TPC Colorado’s 773-yard 13th hole on the Korn Ferry Tour, which even at Denver-area elevation has not been reached. Yet.
But spend a moment on this juxtaposition, first his lede:
There’s something about the symphony of a par 5 that makes it greater than the sum of its shots. It requires more forward thinking, more self-restraint and sufferance, risk and reward at once. It can be cataclysmic like Sam Snead’s triple-bogey 8 when all he needed was a par on the last hole in the 1939 U.S. Open, or heroic like a 5 on the 18th at Pebble Beach any day of the week.
With his coda:
My advice would be to change the par, not lengthen the holes and incur all sorts of land, design and maintenance expense. I certainly don’t want to see a universal distance rollback that would shorten my already short drives—every hole over 400 yards seems to be a par 5 for my non-elite game. To paraphrase the British writer A.C.M. Croome a century ago: “Four of those and one of them count 5,” which seems to be the way I make par 5s these days. It’s the score, not the par, that counts.
What makes a Par-5 different is the lay-up on the second shot, a test not found elsewhere in our game, excepting perhaps when out of position off the tee. Lay-ups aren't the most interesting shots in golf, but to me they're actually harder than most understand because of the vague target. I've long thought one interesting example is the second hole at TPC Sawgrass, where the angle of the hole actually creates a cape effect, requiring the player to hit the correct distance on his or her chosen line.
I just find it curious that, having made an eloquent case for the three-shotter, Jerry is awfully quick to sacrifice it to the gods of speed, just so that he can have a few par putts. I get the older golfer-loss of distance bit, but isn't that, at its core, the case for bifurcation?
One last bit on this subject, though I wouldn't get our hopes up:
Masters 2020: Could this Augusta National rule keep Bryson DeChambeau from winning a green jacket?
During the second round of the 2019 Northern Trust, Bryson DeChambeau took an astonishing two minutes and 20 seconds before attempting an eight-foot putt. It’s the kind of thing you have to see to believe. It’s also the kind of thing you probably won’t see from DeChambeau—or anyone else—at next month’s Masters.
That’s not because the Masters cracks down on slow play more than other tournaments—although, Tianlang Guan might beg to differ—but rather, because officials at Augusta National Golf Club don’t allow the detailed green-reading books that have become so prevalent on the PGA Tour.
Isn't it funny how we process information?
To me, Alex Myers offers an interesting data point, to wit, that the players will have less information available on green contours. But then he takes it in the exact opposite direction that I think it leads.
If there's less information readily available, then to me that implies that the players that prepare more diligently should have an advantage. Is there any player that outworks and out-prepares Bryson? Just sayin'.
The Rich Get Richer - Augusta National with a limited time offer for its badge holders:
Golf is rich with status symbols and few logos catch one’s eye more than that of the little yellowsilhouette of the United States, a green pin and red flag planted on Augusta, Ga., and the words Masters (or Masters Tournament).If the Masters is a rite of spring, a piece of merchandise from the tournament is a rite of passage. Save for third-party operators, the only place to obtain tournament merchandise is during tournament week itself, which also means you already managed to scoop up one of the tougher tickets in sports, or at least know someone who did.But with no fans—er, patrons—being permitted at Augusta National for this year’s tournament-unlike-any-other-turned-fall-classic because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, that means the Masters had to adapt when it came to its highly sought-after merchandise, too.On Thursday, the tournament announced that this year’s event will feature “an exclusive online Masters Patron Shop,” meaning that for the first time in the tournament’s history the Masters will make its coveted swag available online only.
Dog bites man, we can all agree. But of interest to me was this Shack comment:
Unless Jack Nicklaus comes out of retirement and shocks everyone by forcing a playoff with Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy, I’m pretty sure no one wants 2020-labeled gear. Even from The Masters.
Like Alex Myers above, I have a feeling Geoff has that exactly backwards. That the 2020 gear (does Masters swag actually have years on it?) actually becomes more coveted just because... Pandemic porn is very much a thing.
Cause -Effect - I love this story:
Fifty-nine watches don’t happen on mini tours. They exist in a Golf Twitter vacuum except for a tiny legion of hard-core enthusiasts. There are no scoreboards. Guys turn in their scorecards at theend of a round and a calligraphist puts pen to cardboard and then everyone knows what they shot. Sometimes, even the players themselves don’t exactly know their score when they walk off the final hole, even if they’ve reached golf’s magic number.Former Georgia Tech standout Luke Schniederjans made 11 birdies and shot 59 on Wednesday in the second round of the GPro Tour’s Mimosa Challenge in Morganton, N.C. But he apparently wasn’t aware of the sub-60 score, thinking that Mimosa Hills Country Club played to a par of 71. It is a 70.
Playing partner Brad Fritsch is the one who outed Schniederjans’ brain cramp with a playful tweet.
Hey how’d you play today? “66. Not bad.” Were you low in your group? “Uhh lost by 7.” Luke shot 59...and when I said to him “hey that was 59 right,” he thought it was 60. He thought it was par 71. https://t.co/1XzngLmhtu
— Brad Fritsch (@BradFritsch) October 14, 2020
While the D-word is not used, the implication is that he shot 59 despite not knowing where he stood, whereas the reality is that he was likely only able to get it to the clubhouse because he didn't know. Or, at least, that's how it would have been for your humble blogger... Don't be fooled by the baseball cap, he is Ollie's kid brother.
Count Me Out - I think I'd prefer to be on line at 3:a.m. at Best Buy:
The Match 3 is on – here’s who is playing and who isn’t
I'm guessing it's the latter that's most important. Though, to be fair, that first installment was only the second biggest Thanksgiving Weekend disaster for Tiger. If you have to know:
Tiger Woods is out.Charles Barkley is in.The third rendition of The Match is swapping one of golf’s most lauded swings for perhaps its most lampooned, according to a Sportico report on Thursday. Barkley is not the only basketball player playing, either. Steph Curry is in, and they will play alongside Phil Mickelson, who has played in the first two Matches, and Peyton Manning, who played in the second edition. The Match 3 will take place on Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving. Sportico did not say where the event would be played, and the sports business website cited sources involved in the planning.Barkley was part of the first two Matches – as an announcer.
Barkley was the only positive from that first disaster, but hasn't his golf swing reached its sell-by date?
If Tiger is giving this a miss, isn't that a pretty good hint to the rest of us?
Alan in Full - A few more bits from that mailbag, and then I'll release you back into the general prison population. This ne relates especially to the Jerry Tarde item above:
Could Augusta really “fix” a couple of the holes by moving tee boxes 5-10 yards one way or the other or are current Tour pros too good for it to make a major (pun intended) impact? – @Jwilliams263
It could certainly make a difference, especially on the back-nine par 5s. I’d love if the 13th tee got pushed way over to the left, making the hole more of a horseshoe and creating a far more exacting drive. (That would also prevent players from cutting the corner, over the trees.) Same with 15 — if the tee went left the trees down that side of the fairway would be far more in play, creating more dilemmas and difficult decisions. Moving the 18th tee to the right would also make a tight driving hole that much more fraught. We know the modern Tour player can pound the ball but can they also shape it properly with a green jacket on the line? That would be fun to watch.
Irony alert, as I've been long arguing that I'd prefer they play No. 13 as a Par-4 rather than using that newly-acquired land to lengthen the hole. My concern is the severity of the dogleg, which Alan wants to make even more severe.... Can anyone cite a good "horseshoe-shaped" golf hole?
#AskAlan: If you could go back in time to cover one event, which would you choose? For me I think it would be the 1960 U.S. Open. – @david_troyan
This is an excellent choice — as Dan Jenkins later wrote brilliantly about that epic national championship,”Small wonder that no sportswriter was capable of outlining it against a bright blue summer sky and letting the four adjectives ride again: it was too big, too wildly exciting, too crazily suspenseful, too suffocatingly dramatic. What exactly happened? Oh, not much. Just a routine collision of three decades at one historical intersection. On that afternoon, in the span of just 18 holes, we witnessed the arrival of Nicklaus, the coronation of Palmer and the end of Hogan.” The Duel in the Sun deserves strong consideration, as does Bobby Jones closing out the Grand Slam in 1930. But I would pick Hogan’s triumph at the 1953 Open Championship, dropping the curtain on maybe the most legendary stretch of golf ever played. Hogan’s sojourn to Carnoustie has the ring of myth and it would be incredible to witness it and report on it, especially since so few scribes were there at the time.
Fun subject for sure... I'll remind that Shack had a truly eccentric suggestion on this topic a few years back, that 1929 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.
The 1960 Open very much belongs on this list, though the Duel in the Sun to me less so.... I don't especially like the Grand Slam, only because the outcome was never in doubt. Jones won each and every match handily, closing out the Slam on the 11th green at Merion.
But, amusement aside, doesn't the answer have to be Ouimet and Vardon?
Is anyone going to miss the Open Championship this year? My favorite major, but given the year, hard to say I’m going to miss it. – @spyhillbill
You mean besides me?
Certainly an autumn Masters is going to renew conversation about what the lords of the R&A could’ve/should’ve done to get the Open in. Was the cancellation driven by money? Surely. But this has been such a weird year for all of us, and given the climate/daylight issues in trying to squeeze in a delayed Open, I can’t be too hard on those old chaps.
Really, Alan? What part of the organization responsible for golf's oldest professional championship selling its birthright for a mess of pottage did you find most attractive? The other majors have come off without much of a hitch, and it makes the R&A's money grab all that much distressing.
Let’s imagine a mixed-gender team event … what team is the crowd favorite? Which team would make the best villains? – @GolfBurner
Crowd favorite: Danielle Kang-Tiger Woods
Villains: Cristie Kerr-Patrick Reed
Why, does Christie use her clubs to improve her lies as well?
With the LPGA at Aronimink, it got me thinking: What other classic course should the LPGA take majors to? Merion just up the road seems like a no-brainer. – @DavidAStorm
I’ve been advocating for decades for Cypress Point to host a women’s event as a tip of the cap to Marion Hollins, who was indispensable in the creation of the club. At 6,500 yards CPC is laughably short for male professionals, or even top amateurs; I recently heard the glum story of a college coach making his players move their drives back by 40 yards so they could somewhat replicate the shot values that Alister MacKenzie intended. But 6,500 yards is the perfect length for an LPGA major, so Cypress and Merion and National and Crystal Downs and Chicago GC and every other grand old course that is too short for the dudes would be be an incredible venue for the women. Here’s hoping.
Alan seems to forget that they took that Senior women's event to Chicago GC already, and the USGA is taking Walker Cups to Seminole and Cypress Point as well. Quite frankly, the interesting one is Merion, which time has over-taken but the USGA tried to force the issue in taking the man back as recently as 2013.
Isn't this one interesting?
Why do people who like blind shots like blind shots? What is the appeal of not being able to witness the shot itself, only the result? – @HenriDeMarsay
I love blind shots! And you get to witness plenty — the start line and trajectory of your ball tells you a ton before it disappears. The charm of the blind shot is the suspense, the not-knowing, and the elation that comes when you crest the hill and discover your fate. Also, I tend to produce really good strikes on blind shots because I’m not fixated on the target but lost in the process. Obviously you don’t want too many of them but I suggest you access your inner-romantic and learn to love the mystery baked into blind shots.
Alan is referring to that which I call The Reveal, which has its own intrinsic drama. I also think it's interesting in that blind shots aren't all created equal. For regular readers, you might recall my Blind-Not Blind analysis after one of my visits to The National, where one cannot actually see the landing area, but the contours of the fairway are visible and the mind instinctively fills in that which is not seen.
And the perfect exit question:
The three most overrated things in golf are what? – @scott_pianowski
Fancy private clubs, balls that cost $50 a dozen and … this column.
Have a great weekend and i'll see you on Monday.
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