Midweek Musings

I guess Hump Day was actually yesterday, at least for those those who work.  What's that these days?  A couple of hundred at most, right?

No firm plans for a return to the keyboard, so expect me when you see me...  And have a joyous Thanksgiving, if only because of how it will piss them off.

Did It Now? - As you well know, I'm not at all reluctant to take an unpopular or minority position, so put me down for "Time will tell":

The year that changed everything

As my late mother always noted, beware the early call...  It's Golf Digest editor Jerry Tarde, so let's see what he's got:

We’ve all talked about the quality hours and days we’ve spent with our families. Hanging out with our kids— especially grown kids who have moved back home—we took long walks, we cooked meals, we conversed like friends, we watched Netflix, we did board games, and we even played golf together. Boy, did we play golf!

Yes, you played golf, because there was literally nothing else you were allowed to do...   As long as that remains the case, our game has no worries.  And not belabor it, but for every parent delighted to have his or her adult children home, I'll provide an affidavit for those relieved when they again moved out...

“I’ve heard people say, ‘It’s been the greatest summer of my life,’ ” Dr. Bob Rotella says. “Not getting on planes, not traveling, working from home, spending more time with my wife and kids. Even when we play golf, we just play. There’s no 19th hole, no lingering, just four hours of clearing your mind.” It’ll be the year we look back on that changed everything.

I've heard that from exactly no one.   I've no issue with the healthy instinct to escape the world around us on the golf course, but that world is just as depraved at the end of our loop...

As the pandemic forced us to quarantine and wear masks, golf became our great escape. “Men never talk about mental health or wellness,” sport psychologist Jonathan Fader told me. “Ninety

percent never go to a therapist. They deal with their mental health through an activity, usually sports. Golf is the only sport you can do in groups and do it safely. We deeply need to be together. The real pandemic victims are the people who have tragically been affected by death. But for more of us, it’s been a pandemic of isolation—a loss of control. Golf helps you regain control. If you’re depressed, the two best things you can do is walk every day and be around people.” That sounds like a sport I know.

“Golf has helped reboot our mind,” says Rick Sessinghaus, a performance coach best known for his work with Collin Morikawa. “The game gives us a wider horizon to look at—simply being outdoors in nature shifts our perspective. Getting away from golf and then coming back has made us more grateful. ‘Gosh, I missed it so much.’ The message is about appreciating something taken away and given back.”

Yes, but that only triggers the outrage about how they've tried to take it away from us, and are doing so again in places like Scotland and Ireland.  And why?  Simply because they can...

But who's to argue with science?

One of the more beguiling studies was conducted by Golfsupport, a British sporting-goods retailer: Based on a survey of 6,500 sports fans worldwide in September of this year, golf was found to be the happiest sport. Golf fans scored the highest “happiness ratings,” followed in order by fans of track and field, tennis, Formula 1 racing, cricket, baseball, boxing, basketball, football and soccer. I don’t know if I actually believe the science of this study, but why not.

So what is golf’s secret sauce? The best answer I heard was from Dr. Fader (the perfect name for a golf psychologist): “There’s a mindfulness about the game,” he said. “It requires focus and a willingness to engage. What separates golf is the amount of time it takes.”

Profoundly silly on so many levels, my first reaction being whether there are similar results from pre-pandemic, to understand whether this is an actual change..  Might be interesting to see longitudinal data on that, no?   Tarde is making a good point here, the irony of long golf rounds having suddenly become a virtue, simply for maximizing the escape value from the s**t that is the rest of our lives in 2020.  

As for your humble blogger, I'm most amused by that comparison with other sports fans.  Let's see, a "golf fan" probably chases a little white ball on his weekends.  Does a Formula 1 fan similarly jump in behind the wheel of a Lotus on his day off?  How about that boxing fan?  Shall I go on, or do you see the rather stark difference?

I don't know to what extent these changes are permanent, for the simple reason that I don't know what life look like when this is over, if it's ever over.  So, Jerry, can we revisit this in a year?

The Match III, An Unenthusiastic Preview - There sure ain't much to muse upon, but will I be that bored by Friday afternoon?  Magic 8-Ball says, Outlook Cloudy.

I do think this bit from Phil is a good fit for the current political moment:

Lefty was involved in the first two Matches. He defeated Tiger Woods in 2018 at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, but when he teamed up with Tom Brady earlier this year, they lost to Woods and Manning, a defeat that Mickelson jokingly questioned.

“We really should’ve won that match,” he said. “There were a couple things down the stretch, I mean, Peyton’s iron shot on 16 to 3 feet. I don’t know if that was legit. I don’t know what happened. I missed something. I couldn’t see the green … and somehow his ball is three feet from the hole when it’s all said and done. I don’t know, I question that.

“So I don’t wanna like, file lawsuits, you know, question the outcome or any of that stuff, but I do have a question on that one.”

OK, Hillary.

But this is a puzzler as well:

Mickelson will likely have to carry plenty of the weight on Friday. Curry is a talented player, and Manning has shown he can swing the stick a little bit himself. As for Barkley, well, we’ve all seen that swing.

“At Stone Canyon, we actually have Chuck tees,” Mickelson said. “They’re a little bit further up.”

Mickelson described Stone Canyon as “pretty penalizing in spots because of the desert but it’s also got a great mixture of fun holes, like drivable par 4s, reachable par 5s.

“Our sixth hole is a spectacular par 3 with waterfalls and such. It’s only about a wedge. But it’s a very demanding shot.”

Mickelson then described part of the strategy that he and Barkley plan to deploy later this week.

“If I can hit the green, and let him putt, that’s our strategy on that. Same thing on the drivable par 4s. We saw what happened in Match II where we were really getting beat up pretty good and then Tom and I, on 11, I drive the green and he rolls the putt in for eagle and it just turns the whole match the other way.”

Well, not completely the other way...

But does anyone know what format they're playing?  It sounds like alternate shot, which was the best part of that prior installment.  But alternate shot is a bit weird with the one touring pro in the field, so maybe they could share that with us at some point?

 But do you have the stomach for this deep dive?  

‘It wasn’t for lacking of trying’: An unauthorized history of Charles Barkley’s tortured golf swing

Your call... The Page Down key will be on your far right.

 The most interesting bit is that it wasn't always this way:

At 63, the former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Roy Green has been around a while and seen lot of things, but if he looks back long and hard, through the misty rings of time, he can still make out a picture most people can’t imagine.

He remembers when Charles Barkley had a buttery swing.

It was the early 1990s, and Barkley had just moved from Philadelphia to Phoenix, in a deal that sent him from the Sixers to the Suns. Stars from different sports with a shared interest in golf, Barkley and Green became close friends and frequent playing partners.

Buttery?

At Gainey Ranch Golf Club, one of Green and Barkley’s favorite Scottsdale-area courses, then director of golf Jim Murphy, who is now the club’s general manager, became part of the hit-and-giggle-at-the-other-guy gaggle.

Barkley, Murphy says, “was a solid all-around player,” with sound tempo, soft hands and a sharp tongue.

“He and Roy were as thick as thieves, always giving each other lip and just about the funniest people you could ever be around,” Murphy says. “It was basically free entertainment.”

I'm gonna need video.  You'll of course be asking the obvious follow-up question:

“My brain’s got so many voices in it,” Barkley acknowledged earlier this year on GOLF’s Subpar podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz.

In his own telling, Barkley’s woes began when he moved to Phoenix, and found that every functioning adult, from the barber to the banker, was either a Tour pro or a Tour pro-wannabe. He felt pressure to improve.

“I started taking lessons from every Tom, Dick and Harry,” Barkley told the Subpar hosts.

But this guy it seems should be paying reparations:

In Green’s recollection, a dark turn in the plot came about two decades ago, when he and Barkley

visited San Diego for a Nike-sponsored event, one of those corporate shindigs built on fancy late-night dinners and long days on the links. Crossing paths with a golf pro, Barkley, inevitably, asked for input.

“This pro got Chuck to make a slight pause at the top,” Green says. “And the next couple of rounds, man, he was smoking it. He was playing the best golf I’d ever seen from him, shooting 75, 76. We all said, ‘You got it, Chucky! This is it.’”

Until the pause became a stall, which morphed into a stutter.

“It was all downhill from there,” Green says.

Is there a reason we're protecting his reputation?  I'm sure this isn't at all frustrating:

Perhaps the most frustrating part — puzzling to non-golfers but perfectly relatable to anyone who plays — is that Barkley can pure it on the range; his swing only palsies when he’s in performance mode.

Well, that's easy, he just needs to avoid the spotlight...  What?  Friday?  Is this wise?

 That in a nutshell would seem to be the case for watching the event.  This, not so much:

McCord, 72, said the offer to work this event, which will be held within driving distance of his home at Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Ariz., “came way out of left field.” He agreed to participate for one simple reason. “Well, I’m doing OK, I’m not dead, but I am kind of bored,” he said. “I’ve had a year off, so … you know that whole deal. This should be entertaining.”

We all are, Gary, that fact being one of the few reasons to tune in.  But these things go South when the participants try too hard:

“That’s what we’re waiting to hear,” McCord said. “You know Phil is going to be in the middle of it. I was texting Charles during the telecast in May [Barkley was part of the broadcast crew] and told him he nailed it when he said, ‘We all have that friend who’s annoying; that’s Phil.’ So my deal is to prompt Phil when Charles drives into the desert and then just let him go.

“I’m not there to tell you, ‘Wow, he’s got an 8-iron from 180 yards.’ I’m there to step into the chaos and keep it going. I can still do that. I can do that all day.”

Yes he can, but whether he can do so without it feeling forced and contrived is the issue.  As a pro tip, I'd advise eschewing any references to bikini wax and body bags..

Phoenix On My Mind - As we've discussed, fans are not likely at be allowed at PGA Tour events until the Florida swing, at the earliest.  Which leaves The Wasted in an awkward position:

The annual event at TPC Scottsdale is known for its raucous, jam-packed crowds. It can feel like

a tailgate party, rock concert, beer festival and sporting event rolled into one. It is a defining event on the Valley’s social calendar, an excuse even for non-golf fans to head to the course and bask in the sunshine.

But no one knows what elements of Phoenix Opens past will be visible the first week of February, when the tournament is scheduled to take place.

For now, organizers expect to go forward with the event. They say it will be scaled down in every respect. Gone will be many of the temporary structures that ran parallel to the course. Organizers hope to have fans, albeit nothing close to the 200,000-plus who typically turn out on Fridays and Saturdays.

They are making no assurances. Rather, they are planning and they are hoping. It is the best they can do.

I'm quite sure that The Chainsmokers might have availability for those dates...

Most folks don't realize it, but that build-out on No. 16 is quite the big projext:

During a typical November, construction would be more than a month old on the course’s dozens of venues. The work takes four-plus months to complete. Last year, the event featured 28 venues, including the three-level, coliseum-esque enclosure that surrounds No. 16, the event’s iconic hole, and the Bird’s Nest, the event’s party hot spot.

This year, Jenkins said the number of venues might be closer to four or five, intimating that the focus would be on the final three holes. Most likely, that means no Bird’s Nest and a more restrained version of the build at No. 16.

I have Zero on my fantasy roster...

They are still hoping to have some folks on site at the People's Open, but planning for the worst.

Brora On My Mind - A special place for sure, but one that we knew to be in trouble due to the pandemic.  This four minute video offers up a nice Holiday portion of linksy goodness, combined with the news that the wider golfing community has supported the club:

It's every bit as memorable as the video notes, but the feature that most captivates a foreign audience is that one shares the golf course with the livestock:

Low-voltage fences keep the animals off the greens, but otherwise everyone mingles well.  We've only played it the once, a deficiency that cries out for rectification.  Elsie and John, keep a light on for us...

That's as good an exit piece as I'll find, so I'll send you on your way and wish you a joyous Thanksgiving.