Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Midweek Musings - Year-End Wrap Edition

This will be it for the blogging of the annus horribilis that is 2020.  I can't remember, did anything of interest happen this year?  Most of us will be happy to turn that calendar page, though my lede item will throw shade on the year ahead...

Rut-Roh - Of course it makes sense to defer any decision, but I was reliably informed that November was to be a one-off:

The Masters Tournament has delayed its ticketing process for the 2021 championship as it seeks a way to allow some spectators to return for the first major of the year.

With just 100 days until the first round of the 2021 Masters scheduled for April 8, the club has to make decisions quickly.

"As planning continues on how to stage the 2021 Masters Tournament safely and responsibly, we would like to inform you that Augusta National is delaying the ticket process for Patron Series Badges, which traditionally begins Jan. 1,'' the club said in an email to ticket holders.

"Our intention is to communicate our decisions for the 2021 Masters to all patrons of record by the end of January. No further action is needed with your account at this time.''

The screenshot above is from Geoff's post on the story.  I love the badge on the lower right, which promises "Premium Quality Golf"...  That "Since 1934" is also a nice touch.

Geoff's conclusion seems all too logical:

As Harig notes, all 2020 practice round tickets sold will be honored in 2021, adding to the decision-making challenge. Given the already lagging vaccine rollout and continued difficulty in getting rapid test results, the prospect of normal-sized galleries this April seems unlikely.

I think the reasonably optimistic standard would be for them to have some galleries, but it's hard to see things back to normal quite that quickly.

The Year That Was - In the absence of actual news, thumbs will continue to be sucked.  Eamon Lynch does his best stay in glass-half-full mode:

Lynch: As a bleak year draws to a close, remember what was salvaged even as many boxes remain unchecked

The beatings will continue until morale improves...  Eamon actually salvages the undertaking with a brief review of the nes cycles before the Wuhan flu hit:

The news-making events that preceded the shutdown now seem so distant as to require many more page flips on the calendar. Patrick Reed siccing his lawyer on Brandel Chamblee for his blistering criticism of Reed’s bunker excavations in the Bahamas. The USGA and R&A releasing their joint Distance Insights Report, which will eventually be seen as the first shot in a war for the future of the game. Dustin Johnson confirming that he would skip the Tokyo Olympics to focus on the FedEx Cup, potentially setting himself up for the rare feat of passing on the same Games two years in a row. That Johnson went on to win the FedEx Cup was considerably less impressive than the fact that a FedEx Cup was completed at all, or that we have embarked on a new season, even if it looks and feels wretchedly familiar.

 It all seemed important at the time...  Oh not Olympic Golf, but when even DJ recognizes that...

All sorts of ways to capture the year, which James Colgan attempts through a memeology.  Tis is a good one, though mostly because of the priceless photo:

8. Morikawa drops the Wanamaker

Collin Morikawa closed out his first-career major with one of the clutch shots of the year at the PGA Championship. For most of the week, he wore the demeanor of a golfer twice his age. But when it came time to celebrate with the Wanamaker Trophy, he had his first rookie moment.

Morikawa picked up the trophy and watched in horror as the lid flipped off and fell at his feet. As our Sean Zak pointed out, that’s not the first time the trophy has fallen.

To me, the size of that trophy screams "compensation", in the psychological meaning of the term.  

This one still gets me, though for my typically eccentric reasons:

14. The Great Wall of Dinah

The ANA Inspiration featured some of the best golf we’ve seen all year. It also featured unequivocally the most hilarious sponsor-created contraption we’ve seen all year. “The great wall of Dinah” (as it came to be known) became part-backboard, part-social media punching bag throughout the week at Dinah Shore. Still, we’re forever grateful for the jokes that followed.

I derive ongoing amusement from the fact that a wall built solely for the sponsor's purposes includes a font so undersized as to make the advertising content unreadable.  #youhadonejob!

Adam Woodard, a previously unknown-to-me Golfweek writer, has the quotes of the year, including this that might be considered TMI:

Tyrrell Hatton 'cuddling the toilet' at 5 a.m.

Not enough people give Tyrrell Hatton the credit he deserves.

From (perfectly?) tossing clubs in complete disgust in October to shooting at and flipping off a pond at Bay Hill in March, the 29-year-old Englishman entertained us all year long. In fact, he went on to win at Bay Hill, leading to a victory celebration that quickly went down the toilet.

What would a quote summary column be without Brandel Chamblee expressing his appreciation for those long-suffering foot soldiers of the game?

Remember when Brandel Chamblee said 'bitch-slapped into reality'?

There’s no real need to tease or explain this one. In a Q&A with Golfweek in March, Brandel Chamblee said golf instruction has been “bitch-slapped into reality.” Then he tried to walk it back, but the damage had been done.

I'm still unclear the point he was trying to make, not by any means an unusual occurrence.  Though I think Eamon gets the last word:

You'd think a guy who goes out of his way to provoke would have necessarily developed a tougher skin, but not our Brandell:

Brandel Chamblee says he’s blocked over 20,000 people on Twitter

 That piece is actually from 2017, so we might be in six figures by now...

We seem to be featuring Eamon this morning, so let's grab one more:

When our columnist used 'gobshite' in his lede

Eamon Lynch – I’d say my colleague but I’d hate to offend him – has a certain way with words that few can rival. This opening line from a July column on Bryson DeChambeau deserves a shoutout.

It’s one of life’s more reliable axioms that if a man has to tell you he’s a good dude, there’s a fair chance he is actually an insufferable gobshite.

 Are you allowed to use "gobshite" in a family paper?  Apparently so, though just barely:

Noun[edit]

gobshite (plural gobshites)

    1. (Ireland, slang, moderately offensive) One who engages in nonsensical chatter or unwanted conversation.
      What's that gobshite talking about now?
  1. (Ireland, slang, moderately offensive) A person of very poor judgment and unpleasant character.

Usage notes[edit]

    • The collective expression shower of gobshites ("group of idiots") is quite common in Ireland.

We usually aim higher than merely moderately offensive, but we've expanded your vocabulary, and that "shower of gobshites" has been safely stored for future reference.

It so happens we have a pop quiz for you as well:

Quiz: How well do you remember what happened in golf in 2020?

I was expecting the worst, though I actually remembered most of them...  For the record, definitely not this one:

1. Harold Varner III broke an impressive, and slightly odd, PGA Tour record at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. What did Varner do?

A. Made the most consecutive pars to start a tournament
B. Became the first player to shoot in the 60s with three triples on card
C. Made the most sand saves in one round
D. Led the field in birdies and bogeys

More than slightly, methinks:

1: A. Varner opened the WMPO with a par ... and over the next two days, followed with 31 straight similar scores. For those of you scoring at home, that would be an amazing 32 straight pars, which set a PGA Tour record for most consecutive to start a tournament in the ShotLink era. K.J. Choi was the previous title holder with 27 pars at the 2006 Colonial.

Let me just say that, if you're going to pose this question, shouldn't the names be required?

10. How many players did Jim Mackay caddie for in 2020?

A. 0
B. 1
C. 2
D. 3
For the historical record, I got the answer correctly and two of the players.

10: D. Bones came out of retirement for fill-in loops for Justin Thomas, Jimmy Walker and Matt Fitzpatrick this year, highlighted by a victory with Thomas at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

I forgot Jimmy Walker but, then again, just happy to confirm that he's still out there....

On a sadder note, another previously-unknown to me writer, Greg Guttfield at Golf Digest, pays tribute to those we lost in the game in 2020.  The giants are here, Pete Dye, Peter Aliss and Mickey Wright, most notably, but also quite a number of those with whom you won't (and I wasn't familiar).  For instance, I missed this quite horrible story"

Justin Riegel, 38, June 3

Philadelphia-area golf pro and director of golf at Philmont Country Club killed when a tree crashed into the club’s pro shop and cart barn during a storm.

Lest you think you had a bad 2020....  Pure stream of consciousness here but, if that one wasn't bad enough for you, I caught this story at  Golfweek:

A Houston-area golf course groundskeeper who was using an ATV to set up tee markers died on Monday when he accidentally drove into a pond and drowned.

According to KTRK-TV in Houston, dive teams pulled the body of 59-year-old Agustin Rojas Canchola out of a pond at The Clubs at Houston Oaks — a renowned private club in the city’s northwest suburbs.

The station reported that sometime around 7 a.m. on Monday, Canchola apparently lost control of his vehicle and it veered off the cart path and down an embankment into a pond on the golf course, fully submerging both operator and vehicle.

2020, Man!

Brian Wacker has this interesting recap:

The costliest shots on the PGA Tour in 2020

It may be cruel to bring up this one, though I think his reaction tells you all you need to know about the man:

A short drive on Riviera’s short 10th hole

Riviera Country Club was playing particularly tricky on Sunday at February’s Genesis Invitational, but that doesn’t necessarily explain what happened to Harold Varner III on the famed drivable par-4 10th. In contention to win his first PGA Tour event, Varner chunked (topped?) his 3-wood off the tee, the ball traveling a meager 129 yards. “I missed the ball,” Varner acknowledged after the round. “I couldn’t tell you what exactly happened. I just know that I hit the dirt before the ball.” Varner doubled the hole and never recovered, making three more bogeys down the stretch to tumble to T-13.

What might be slightly more interesting about this was Golf Channel's attempt to bury it, similar to the later treatment of Danny Lee's six-putt.  

And this one, of course:

Bad timing for Rickie Fowler

All the strokes count the same no matter when they happen, of course. But Rickie Fowler missing—and nearly whiffing—a six-inch tap-in to miss the cut at the PGA Championship was apropos of 2020.

Orange man bad, right?

If you're looking for someone that had a worse year than Rickie, this might just be your guy.  The tell is that his most memorable shot of the year didn't, yanno, take place in an actual tournament:

An ace or a double bogey?

Even when there wasn’t any professional golf being played because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some guys just couldn’t catch a break. Jordan Spieth, pegging it up in a charity event in Carrollton, Texas, nearly aced the 17th hole at his home course, Maridoe Golf Club, only to see the ball hit the foam spacer inside the cup and bounce into a water hazard.

Good riddance to you, too, 2020.

I'm pretty sure that Jordan not wanting to play with Patrick will not be an issue at next year's Ryder Cup, or even any thereafter.

The Year Ahead - Yeah, not sure I want to dwell on this too much, but a couple of bits to note.  on Monday we had most of the Q&As from the weekly Tour Confidential roundtable, but there was this one forward looking bit I missed:

The surge in golf’s popularity in 2020 was undoubtedly a bright spot in an otherwise tough year; tee sheets were jammed and equipment flew off the shelves. What steps can the game take in 2021 to build on this momentum?

Zak: Make sure those jammed tee sheets don’t lead to six-hour rounds. 10-minute intervals! I know this is a niche detail, but many courses will respond to great demand by scrunching their tee times to 8-minute intervals and worsen the experience. Many of us would gladly grind to get up at dawn for a 3-hour round than enjoy our sleep and play 18 in 5.5 hours.

Dethier: This is an awesome suggestion. Just because you technically can get more golfers onto the course doesn’t mean you should! Nine minutes at the bare minimum.

Sens: Keep encouraging short courses, nine hole outings, alternative loops — anything that makes it easier to squeeze in some golf, any golf. For a lot of would-be golfers, the biggest impediment is time.

Dethier: Stay welcoming! Despite major strides in the right direction, golf still has a super-high barrier to entry. Every course should have a checklist to review to make sure it’s beginner-friendly: Do you have a clear, simple website? Do you have beginner-specific clinics or lessons available? When someone gets to the golf course, is it clear where to go from there? Is your staff receptive to answering questions and making everyone feel at home? Are there affordable options for rental clubs? All this little stuff goes a long way.

Bamberger: Even 10-minute intervals results in overcrowding and slow play. Shorter rough, shorter courses, play OB where it went out, play lost ball where you think you lost it and for god’s sake walk to your golf ball as best you can without interfering with others. Get your yardage and get your club in hand while somebody else is playing. Golf is a game of forward momentum.

Interestingly, at Fairview we were at 8 minutes in previous years, and settled back to ten minute for the bulk of the season.  I'm just not sure there was any discernable difference in pace-of-play.

This guy might not want to get ahead of facts on the ground:

20 for 20: 20 reasons why golf could be even greater in 2021

For instance, these events are far from guaranteed:

Ryder Cup is back

In 2012, before his tee shot on 1 during his Sunday singles match at the Ryder Cup at Medinah,
Bubba Watson asked for noise from the crowd, the crowd answered, and he swung away. The event is as much about the fans as it is the golf. It made sense, then, to move it from ’20 to ’21. When the American fans can cheer DJ and JT and boo Rory, and the European fans can cheer for Tommy-Tommy-Fleet-wood, and boo Captain America.

 The Open Championship is back

Three men’s major championships were played in 2020. One was not. The oldest one. The Open Championship was canceled last April, but it will resume in July. Fans on one side of the pond will celebrate a champion over dinner, and fans on the other side will celebrate over breakfast.

We'll see, but it'd have been better to not tempt the golf gods by saying it out loud.

As for this, remember how they scared us about touching anything?

Those lost balls? Hopefully yours again

Should you and I, when it’s safe again, find a golf ball in the woods, or under a leaf, or, shoot, on the green, it’s yours again, (somewhat) worry-free.

Speaking of, this brings up one of my funnier stories of the year.

Back in March, I wrote, “Golf and the coronavirus: How to play with confidence, according to an expert.” The second rule — “How you should handle your golf balls” — led to this quote from my infectious disease source: “If you’re picking up random golf balls, don’t touch your mouth. Maybe leave it behind.” Except the original quote didn’t have the word “golf” in it — which led to a text asking if I could add that in, as the source’s co-workers had printed the story out and put it on a bulletin board.

Remind me again, did the so-called experts get anything right?

Looking to our game's future, Jay Busbee pens one of those columns, yanno, the kind where the author's contempt for our little game is evident throughout.   this is pretty much as good an argument as he makes:

Golf is one of the world’s best-known sports, played on almost every continent. Its stars — well, one of them, at least — rank among the best-known celebrities on the planet. And yet the financial, systemic, cultural and environmental barriers to entry shunt untold thousands of potential players into other, more accessible sports.

The issue of race remains phenomenally touchy in the world of golf, so much so that many in the sport would rather simply avoid the question rather than address it. Multiple PGA Tour players either declined to speak or didn’t respond to a Yahoo Sports inquiry on diversity in the ranks of golf. The First Tee program also declined to speak, aside from providing statistics on the program’s reach.

Gee, it's hard to see where those guys didn't want to go on record with you, because it's not like you have an agenda or anything...  Amusingly, after that castigation for not worshipping at the shrine of diversity, he makes this admission against interest:

To bridge the gap between desire and opportunity — or, in some cases, to introduce younger children to the game in the first place — organizations around the country have sprung up in recent years, most notably the PGA Tour’s First Tee program. Founded in 1997, First Tee is now nationwide, using golf skills and competitions to teach kids in schools and community groups.

“We see golf as a metaphor for life – a game with unexpected challenges and ups and downs that help build strengths beyond the technical skills to play the game,” the group’s mission statement reads. (First Tee officials declined to talk to Yahoo Sports for this story.) “Through introspective questions, interactive games, and immersive golf exercises, we design each lesson to help kids build a better understanding of themselves and empower them to strengthen the parts of them that they take to everything they do.” 

At a more localized level, there are organizations like Detroit’s Midnight Golf, where high school students absorb life skills as they improve — or, in some cases, learn — the game of golf. Inspired by Midnight Basketball, where communities opened up gyms to allow at-risk youth to play basketball rather than roam the streets, Midnight Golf isn’t actually played at midnight. But since 2001 it has given the same sorts of opportunities for teens to learn about worlds they never would have known otherwise.

“That first year, they knocked door-to-door at public housing, offering golf lessons and free food,” says Clover McFadden, Midnight Golf’s communications director. “They thought golf was going to be a tough sell. So they were surprised to see everybody coming back every week.”

How it must have paned to acknowledge the steps taken by this poster child for racism:

It’s no small irony that some of the more visible steps to move the game forward in recent years have come from the same place that embodied exclusion: Augusta National Golf Club. The home of the Masters has, in recent years, supported a range of initiatives to grow the game of golf, including amateur championships in Asia and Latin America. Two years ago, the club debuted the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship, a significant turnabout for a club that admitted its first female members only within the last decade.

Several weeks ago, the club took steps to right the wrongs suffered by Elder upon his first visit to Augusta, naming him an official starter for the 2021 Masters, and endowing golf scholarships and creating a women’s golf team in his name at Paine College.

But bean-counters will count beans:

Tiger Woods is wrapping up his landmark career as one of only four full-time Black PGA Tour players. The LPGA, meanwhile, is 55% white across both its top-level and developmental tours, with another 31% of its constituency of Asian descent and 9% of Latina origin. Times are changing in golf, at every level, and the broad spectrum of players now making their way to the professional ranks is a testament to that.

Le Sigh!  It really pisses them off that the professional game remains a stubborn meritocracy, resistant to their cries for social justice.  They'll ruin golf just like they've ruined academia and every other sphere of life with this nonsense, at least if we let them.

Read of the Day - Friend of the blog Mark W. writes to share this great story:

It’s March 2, 2018, and Mike Manthey is sitting at his desk. Manthey is the superintendent of Midland Hills Country Club in St. Paul, Minn., and his office is a part of the addition that was
built on to the maintenance facility in 1991. He has posters and pictures on the walls, dozens of books behind him and a couch in front of him. In the closet to his left, which is filled with boots, tools, hats, maps and filing cabinets, one of the ceiling tiles is slightly dislodged, revealing a gap of an inch or so, enough to be noticed but never a nuisance. It’s been like this for years. For whatever reason, Manthey decides today is the day he’ll finally repair it.

He pulls up a chair, steps on to it and pushes the tile aside. Peering through the opening, he spots what appears to be a rolled-up map against the wall. He retrieves it, brings it back to his desk and knows immediately that it has been up there for many years — canvas maps of this type haven’t been made for decades. Manthey places the drawing on the floor of his office and peels open a corner.

You got to be kidding me, he thinks. Is this really what I think it is?

We even have a George Bahto cameo, the worlds foremost dry-cleaner-turned-golf-architect:

But somehow, two items had always eluded him, believed to be lost over time: the founding club’s history from the 1920s, and architect Seth Raynor’s original course map.

The map, Hamburger says, was mentioned in club documents, but he never had any luck finding it, despite exhaustive searches. Chances he ever would unearth it took an ominous turn in 2003, when George Bahto visited. Bahto was an expert on the lives and design careers of giants C.B. Macdonald and Raynor; he wrote the design biography The Evangelist of Golf: The Story of Charles Blair Macdonald and, up until his 2014 death, was working on a design biography of Raynor. Interested in learning more about its past, Midland Hills hired Bahto to review the property, which led to his visit. During his tour, Bahto said Raynor never kept much from his projects, so he doubted he would have held on to the routing. It was more than likely gone.

It's just a great story, that you'll want to read in its entirety.  I'll just leave you with this image of that Raynor routing:

At this time featuring wistful recollections, I'll just add that Mark is as responsible as anyone for the existence of this blog.  Absent his support for my early golf writings, I can't see where I'd have thought to share these random musings....  

Not sure when I'll return to the keyboard, as the plan right now is to be on an airplane Monday morning.  Of course, nothing is taken for granted, so best to check back early and often.  A healthy and happy 2021 to all my valued readers.

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Monday, December 28, 2020

Weekend Wrap

 Not so much the weekend, as the entirety of 2020.  Though, perhaps you'd rather be left to forget it... 

The Year That Was - There were a couple of high points, no?  Charlie Woods?  Yeah, give me some time and I'll come up with something else...

Lots of golf writers trying to pin down this bizarre year.  Shall we sample a specially-curated selection?  Of course, by "specially-curated: I, of course, mean a random selection of items I tripped over, such as this group effort from the Golf Digest writers:

What we'll remember about golf in 2020

This entry covers two popular themes, though the linkage seems tenuous:

By its very nature, because of the questions it asks of those who play, because of its demands for physical exactitude and mental vigilance, and also because of its maddening unpredictability, golf has a way of producing moments that inspire and bring awe. Two satisfying results emerged this
year from championship competition, and it’s likely they will be celebrated well beyond the bounds of this calendar.

Sophia Popov’s victory in the Women’s British Open was special because of that always-welcome narrative of the underdog emerging, and her surprise performance moved us to cheers. And there was Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world, the very opposite of a long shot, capturing that unique November Masters in record-breaking fashion. Having endured a well-documented odyssey of disappointment and chaos in the majors, Johnson’s “breakthrough,” if we can call it that, brought a poignant denouement that nearly brought him—and us—to tears.

But we’d be remiss to not acknowledge the bigger picture, and that is the undeniable truth that the game itself commanded the spotlight in 2020. As the world collapsed because of the unknowns from the coronavirus pandemic, golf provided a haven of normalcy and hope. It offered spiritual and physical renewal. It invited us outside, allowed for a semblance of camaraderie with friends and reminded many people who had given up on or forgotten the game of its innate virtue as an uplifting exercise of body and mind. Golf was rediscovered as a sanctuary, and because of that the game enjoyed an explosion in popularity. Golf proved to be the ultimate champion in this troubling year. —Dave Shedloski

Dave certainly wanted to get each and every one of those points in...  It's just that the last bit seems the far more important.

Most of these are intensely personal moments, in which the writers find the sanctuary and camaraderie denied them while in lockdown.  Perhaps it's the mod I'm in, but they actually just make me angrier and the leaders that took this away from folks (and, in far too many places, continue to deny it to folks).  This one at least conveys something I had forgotten and predates the Wuhan flu:

I will always remember Jan. 26, 2020, as a horribly sad and surreal day. That Sunday at Torrey Pines, a golf course shrouded in fog during the early morning, we in the media watched
thousands of fans make their way to their favorite spots for the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open. There was a considerable buzz of anticipation, with Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm among the contenders. Tiger Woods was five shots off the lead, a considerable gap, but he’d pulled off magical things on the South Course before, and he was seeking his record-breaking 83rd PGA Tour win. Then, suddenly, who won or lost seemed not to matter at all. Reports came in that Kobe Bryant was in a helicopter crash up the California coast in Calabasas. Bits of awful news trickled in. The former NBA great was gone at age 41. His 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, was with him. They were heading for a youth basketball tournament. There were eight people who perished.

In the media center, reporters stared blankly at their laptops. We spoke in whispers. It was almost impossible to focus on the golf. Many of us made our way out to see Woods, who was a friend and former workout partner to his fellow icon. We watched Tiger closely, took note of his expression and posture. Did he know? Had somebody told him? Fans shouted, “Do it for Mamba!” and Woods would later say he was puzzled by that.

As it turned out, Tiger wouldn’t learn of Kobe’s death until caddie Joe LaCava told him as they walked from the 18th green to the scoring room. Tiger stopped in his tracks. “Excuse me?” he said. One player after another paid tribute to Bryant when they finished, and would do so with words and deeds in the coming days and weeks. Tony Finau (shown above at the Waste Management Phoenix Open) recalled his love for the Lakers and his own mother’s tragic death in a car accident.

I truly felt sorry for Marc Leishman. The good-natured and talented Aussie shot an impressive 65 in the final round to beat Rahm by one and seize his fifth PGA Tour title. It was Australia Day back home, no less. But Leishman’s win would always be tinged with tragedy. “A very sad day,” he said. —Tod Leonard

Not really a golf story, but interesting how it seems to have occurred decades ago...

Golfweek has an interesting take, at least in your humble blogger's opinion:

#AGoodWalk: This was the year golf returned to its walking roots

 Count me as a fan, though the accompanying photo was a tad...well, ironic:

I still love that DJ didn't know how to carry his bag but, as much as I loved seeing these four studs (or, if you prefer, three studs and Rickie) carry, it didn't work on TV because it left them far too much dead air.

This is used to link to a couple of items on great walks in golf that I had missed, first this from Eamon Lynch, covering walks with which your humbler blogger has a passing familiarity:

Scotland looms large among my most memorable walks. Like the living history tour that comes with any round at Prestwick, where the first Open Championship was contested three weeks before Abraham Lincoln was elected. Or any walk around St. Andrews, regardless of whether one has a tee time on the Old. That never disappoints, even when the weather does. A few years ago, I wandered Links road alongside the 18th hole watching dogged golfers stagger home in a thumping hailstorm. And that was in summer!

Good stuff, though this is the Great Minds Think Alike bit that I wanted most to share with you: 

Every golfer has a handful of those in the memory bank. Among mine: the ascent from the Punchbowl green on the 15th hole at Sleepy Hollow in New York to take in the panorama of the Hudson River at the breathtaking 16th, where I whisper as a blessing the name of Gil Hanse, whose restoration erased what Rees Jones had wrought.

I got there first, Eamon, in my 2013 take on Gil Hanse's first restoration of Sleepy Hollow (in conjunction with George Bahto), in which I dug out these archival photos of that 16th hole:

The version on the right I dubbed the Reestrocity, though Tillie's version on the left isn't much better.  

They also link to this piece of favorite walks of their writers which, with the expectation of Maidstone, suffers from being far too predictable.  You think Pebble is a nice walk?  How edgy.

Cypress Point earns a mention, no edgier a choice than Pebble, though it does allow one to Lord over their colleagues that one got an invite.  Your humble blogger is one of the lucky few, though those invites were back in the 1980s, when I wasn't a serious golfer or world-renown golf blogger.  In any event, since I just happen to have this tweet from Alan Shipnuck in one of my hundreds of open browser tabs:

I usually refer to tee shots from elevated tee boxes Golf Porn, but this even more so.

The Tour Confidential panel took their own shots at summing up our year, with all but one passing this test:

It was a strange, challenging but ultimately successful golf year with many memorable and important stories emerging from all levels of the game. When you look back on 2020, which single story — from the professional or recreational ranks — do you think was most significant and/or impactful?

Sean Zak: It’s difficult to look beyond the game’s amateur resurgence. I’ve said this a bunch now, but it’s been delightful to realize how many more golf buddies I have now than I did a year ago. People who I had no idea were interested in the game were suddenly making tee times for me.

Josh Sens: Golf being the first major sport to return to action was a big deal, for sure, especially in the way the Tour helped demonstrate that the game could be played responsibly and safely. But I’m with Sean on the amateur front. It was like something out of Revenge of the Nerds. The same friends and neighbors who used to scoff or roll their eyes when they heard me talking golf or saw me loading my sticks into the car suddenly started treating me like the cool kid on the block. What a great time to be a golfer. Now, if only my favorite local muni weren’t booked solid two months out.

Michael Bamberger: The packed tee sheets at public courses, and private ones, too. All of golf’s health stems from the desire for people to play.

I do think that Mike's point needs to be restated as often as possible.  

The Year That Was, Professional Edition -  I approach the professional category with a notable lack of enthusiasm.  I think it was great that they were able to get back out there, I just think it's secondary to the stunning embrace of the game among civilians.  But also, Jay Monahan's continued assertion that the resumption of play on the PGA Tour somehow drove the volume of recreational play is one I find uniquely delusional and hubristic.  Am I alone in finding it a really smug and off0putting cry for relevance?  It's hardly the first time this year that Jay has shown contempt and indifference for his customer base.

One needn't look hard for encomiums to the Brave Sir Robins of the Tour:

DiMeglio: Covering the PGA Tour in 2020 amid an eerie emptiness revealed silver linings and signs of resilience

It has become a world of adaption, and the PGA Tour was up to the challenge. From the get-go after the COVID-19 shutdown – which began on Friday the 13th of March – the Tour adapted quickly and quite impressively. A disturbing scare in Hilton Head at the RBC Heritage the second week back, where spring break was raging along with the coronavirus to form an appalling twosome, was among the reasons PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan flew north from Florida to the Travelers Championship in Connecticut the following week to read the riot act to players and caddies. Monahan’s words did not fall on deaf ears as the players and caddies fully bought in and safety measures to combat the infectious predator were taken seriously and have been actively followed.

If you say so... I think they did mostly fine, it's just I don't assign an especially high degree of difficulty to it, given their resources.  I'm instinctively more supportive of this effeort:

Nichols: After months of nothing, the LPGA charted a triumphant return befitting of its founders

 For instance, this telling anecdote from the reboot:

The first day back after the LPGA’s 166-day break from tournament golf, my head swiveled back ’round to the 10th tee at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, after spotting Sophia Popov carrying
Anne van Dam’s staff bag. Popov had been lighting it up on the Cactus Tour, a women’s mini tour in Arizona which never stopped throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. I made a mental note.

 Times were tough for everyone, but especially for those who had lost their LPGA cards.

The next week, still in Toledo, it was the sleek, minimalist pull cart van Dam sported at the Marathon Classic that caught my eye. The story got even better when I discovered that it was actually Popov’s high-end pull cart, and that she was using it for the afternoon wave.

Two players, one pull cart.

That's your soon-to-be Open Champion, not just humping with a pull-cart, but humping with a shared pull-cart.  

Of course, LPGA majordomo Mike Whan seemed to lose the plot in 2020.  Not only did he allow the Great Wall of Dinah, undermining their signature major, but he squandered the best story of the year, Ms. Popov, by not figuring out how to accommodate her in the fields of several events, most notably that aforementioned ANA.  He now seems to understand the error of his ways, but too late to do him or us any good:

LPGA commissioner Mike Whan pushing to retroactively award CME points to non-members who win

Great, Mike.  Let's revisit your wonderful season-ending event, in which two major championship winners, Popov as well as U.S. Women's Open champion A Lim Kim, were not included, while simultaneously allowing Natalie Gulbis to show of her assets, both of them, one last time.  Natalie posted a tidy +24 in the event which obviously had no cut, a full nine shots worse than anyone else in the field.  Do you see the problem?

Back to the TC, and that one dissenting vote on the most impactful golf story of 2020:

Dylan Dethier: You guys are right in terms of the golf world at large. But in the professional world, Bryson DeChambeau’s transformation was the biggest story — not so much because of the specifics of his gains but because of the conversation it sparked. Bryson became for golf what Steph Curry was for basketball, sparking a revolution in strategy and analytics that’s changing the way other pros see the game. It’s just beginning.

Lots of Bryson-specific coverage, not least this from Alan Shipnuck's coverage of the six most significant stories of the year:

Bryson DeChambeau’s outsized impact in 2020 extended far beyond just his own game

In 2020, Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Open, the PGA Tour stop outside of Detroit and
racked up eight other top-10 finishes. He finished 1st in strokes gained off the tee, 6th in money ($4.99 million) and 7th in scoring average (69.24). He had a historically great run on the greens, making 91.2% of his putts from 10 feet and in, the best average recorded since Jim Furyk in 2002.

Then there was DeChambeau’s whirlwind of off-course activities and the endless buzz around him: his enigmatic mini-movies posted to social media; his stream-of-consciousness musings while playing video games on Twitch; the obsession (his and others’) with clubhead speed; the fascination with his shake-and-potatoes diet (protein shakes, that is); the end-is-nigh cacophony from purists as his newfound length off the tee remade the sport; and a million other little ways that Bryson’s persona threatened to overwhelm his accomplishments.

 True enough, and every endeavor can benefit from having a villain...

The TC panel did throw in this interesting query, which is very much up my alley.  

Which golf story from 2020 didn’t get the attention it deserved?

For instance, how is this decision aging?

Zak: The British Open not taking place. I know there are many monetary reasons and plenty of legitimate Covid speculation that kept it from happening, but it certainly was forgotten when the PGA of America, the USGA and the Masters all successfully held their majors. Then when the Women’s Open Championship delivers one of the best stories in years, it tends to look even worse.

It looked plenty bad when announced, and even worse now.  But "monetary reasons" is letting Mr. Slumbers of the hook far too easily...  He took the thirty pieces of silver.

Sens: Not that it got ignored, but I think it’s hard to overstate the growing role that gambling is starting to play in golf. We saw some of its influence this year in the growing popularity of gaming apps and office pools and assorted stats and graphics, as well as in tournament broadcasts that allow viewers to customize who they want to follow. Bigger waves are coming, which, depending on whom you ask, is either cause for celebration or concern.

Early days, but Josh is spot on.  

Dethier: Jin Young Ko capturing the CME Group Tour Championship and the biggest check in the women’s game despite just four starts on the LPGA Tour in 2020 was quite the late-season flex for the world No. 1. She said she wanted to win enough money to buy a house — I hope she got the one she wanted!

Pretty absurd, though I'll give Mike Whan a pass here.  Not much could be done with the South Korean girls all at home when the pandemic hit.  She certainly showed why she's the top player in the game, but she basically lost a full season.

 Mike Bamberger sums up nicely:

Bamberger: The packed tee sheets at public courses, and private ones, too. All of golf’s health stems from the desire for people to play.

I feel like I've heard that before, though it actually benefits from the repetition.

I'm sure we'll have more of these types of stories through the week, but let's spend just a little time on some other stories.

Olympic Golf -  Chief Inspector Dawson is about to ride off into the sunset, though there's that sticky bit about ensuring the proper legacy.  I find amusing the fact that they continue to crow about the success of that 2016 competition, yet there's a defensiveness that always creeps into any discussion.  The Chief Inspector wants us to be very clear that any dissatisfaction with the format should not be blamed on him:

Dawson underlined that the decision to use strokeplay for the individual male and female golf competitions at the Olympics - criticised by some in the run-up to Rio 2016 as being too slow - was effectively demanded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"They [the IOC] wanted the format in the Olympic Games that was prevalent in the sport, not some fancy format for the Olympics," he said.

"And strokeplay is the way that golf largely determines its major champions."

Largely  More like exclusively, but talk about missing the point.

Do we determine major champions by allowing them to compete against only a handful of other world-class players?  The problem isn't stroke play of the individual competition, it's rather the small field of world class players invited.  Peter, if you can't understand that or don't have the influence to fic it, then you're doing the game a favor by getting out of the way...  

If you want us to take it seriously, then do the hard work of making it a serious competition.  As things now stand, the 2021 event will include Rory Sabbatini but has no place for Xander Schauffele, Webb Simpson or Patrick Cantlay.  Remind me again of why I should care?

Which is not to say that this wouldn't be a good idea:

Asked if he sees that changing, Dawson responded: "We would like to try to find a way, potentially, of getting at some kind of team format as part of the golf process.

"It would simply be the addition of the performances of the individuals, adding together their gross scores.

"There have been other formats where that has been done – at the Canada Cup and the World Golf Championships.

"A personal view is that I would like to see that add to the competitive landscape of the Games - but that’s a matter for others now.

"I’m sure those discussions will go forward.

"But these are very much embryonic thoughts."

Embryonic or stillborn?  So, remember all those hagiographic stories  of golf's governing bodies cooperating for the good of the game?  We're all in this together, or so they continually tell us, though their actions paint quite the different tale.  But this article on the subject at golf.com tells us why Peter's limited approach to a team competition was rejected by the IOC:

“They also made it clear, and this is maybe a subject of ongoing discussion, that they don’t want team sports that are simply the addition of individual performances,” Dawson said. “For example, football is a team sport, where everyone interacts. It’s not just the addition of performances, although some sports in the Olympics are still like that and have been for a while.

This may be a first, but I agree with the IOC.  Staying with this piece, you'll be shocked, shocked, I tell you, to learn that we're not all in this together:

The Olympic Committee’s objections weren’t the only issues in implementing a team format. Equally difficult was negotiating a schedule gap to allow for Olympic competition with each of the major professional tours.

Even if the IGF managed to secure approval for a second team-based event (mirroring events like swimming, track-and-field and gymnastics), getting the professional tours to agree to a two-week work stoppage was unlikely.

“We didn’t have the option in the bidding process of putting a team format together,” Dawson said. “And Tours didn’t want to stop play for two weeks for the Olympics, they wanted to stop for one week. So there wasn’t time for a separate team event.”

Chicken, egg?  Is Jay selfishly maintaining his prerogatives at the expense of the greater good of the game, or did he just take a look at the profoundly unserious format and determine that he's not shutting down his goldmine for that nonsense?

Back to the TC panel who try to do Peter's former job for him:

IGF President Peter Dawson said in an interview this week that he would like to see a team golf competition at the Olympics, though there are no current plans in place for such a change. What would be the best way to structure a team format for Olympic golf?

Zak: The main issue, it seems, is that the PGA and LPGA tours are uninterested in taking multiple weeks off during peak season. That’s understandable, but we have to meet in the middle and just make a more efficient schedule. Sixty men and 60 women playing the same course on the same day for singles. Then after four days we have 32 doubles teams (16 men, 16 women) playing a match play tournament. You could get it all done in 11 days, hand out six gold medals and take a 3-year breath before having to do it again.

Sens: I personally wouldn’t miss the singles at all. We get plenty of individual golf competitions throughout the year already. Skip that part. Make it two-player teams. Make it a round-robin, as they do any number of Olympic sports.

Dethier: The fact that the Olympic golf competitions are just 72-hole stroke play tournaments is one of the most backwards, preposterous things in all of golf. It’s the Olympics! How do you not build in any of the intrigue that comes with a team competition, the stuff that makes the Ryder, Solheim and Presidents Cups so much fun? Some version of Sean’s tournament makes sense, but however it begins the event should end with doubles teams of men and women playing match play alternate-shot (or modified alt-shot) representing their country. This would be so much fun it’s crazy it hasn’t happened.

Bamberger: Completely agree with my distinguished colleagues above.

I remain amused at how confused folks can get on this subject, failing to understand why an event like the Ryder Cup can de so damn exciting.  It's the combo guys, both match play and team competitions are worthy concepts, though in each case they can leave you wanting more.  Serendipity can be found in the combination of the two, look no further than the NCAAs.

Two-man teams could work, but the obvious issue is how many teams will the U.S. (and the South Korean ladies) be allowed.  Does anyone remember how many East German sleds were allowed in the bobsled?  

If you want to make it memorable, team match play is the path.  If you want to make the individual competition at least credible, then the field size needs to be dramatically increased and the limitations on participants per country dramatically relaxed.  otherwise, there's nothing there that's interesting or meaningful.

I had hoped to cover a few more items, but have consumed the available time.  We'll leave those for another day.

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Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Midweek Musings

With nothing going on, it's actually surprisingly difficult to decide where to begin...  Perhaps with some good news?

Now Is The Winter of Our...Content? - Golf's moment in the sun has legs, as per Golf Datatech:

Golf Datatech unveiled the results of its National Rounds Played Report for the month of November 2020. According to data compiled directly from golf course owners and operators, rounds of golf at public, private and resort courses nationwide were up 57 percent for the month and over 13% year-to-date through November 2020.

“Since golf returned from a near national shutdown in late spring due to COVID-19, we’ve recorded double digit growth every month for the last seven months” said John Krzynowek, partner, Golf Datatech. “November was another excellent month for rounds, up an astounding 57 percent over the same month in 2019. Typically, it's a time of year when much of the country is starting to wind down for winter and it can be uncomfortable to be outside to play. This year, however, we had above average weather for playing the game, continuing a lengthy streak of minimal precipitation and warm temperatures.”

Perhaps it was weather-assisted, though it doesn't speak well of our golf leadership.  For all the eons of grow-the-game nonsense, and Hack Golf springs quickly to mind, all these clowns had to do to salvage our dying game was.... well, shut every single other activity down.  What took so long, guys? 


Joking aside, it's quite the moment for our game, and one it will be fun to watch our leadership squander.  But one doesn't have to dig too deep to find discouragement:

November’s rounds data indicated that only three states, Hawaii, Florida and New Mexico showed negative results for the month. This is due to a season long decline in golfer travel to Hawaii, while Florida, especially southern Florida, was hit hard by rain caused by tropical storm Eta that hit in the early part of the month and caused flooding in some areas. Additionally, New Mexico was under a statewide order to close non-essential businesses including golf courses Nov. 16-30.

We've been dealing with this here pandemic since March, and I have one simple question.  Has there been a single case of Covid-19 transmission on a golf course?  Combined with the correlation of Vitamin D deficiency to bad results, is there any logic here?  If your objective was to kill as mnay of your citizens as possible, what would a governor do differently?

 Of course we're seeing the same reaction in Scotland, our game's ancestral home.  Golf is about all that got us through the summer, so naturally our elected officials have it in their crosshairs...

Mining a similar vein, Sam Weinman digs a little deeper into those extra rounds.  In your humble blogger's opinion, the tendency is to over-state the new golfer phenomenon:

A triumphant golf story requires context, however. Start with who precisely was driving the surge in play. According to NGF projections, there were 20 percent increases in both junior and beginning golfers this year, around 500,000 more in each category that many retailers experienced firsthand.

At Golfdom, a popular golf store in Tysons, Va., president Buddy Christensen said it was common for new golfers to purchase beginner sets this year, then seek an upgrade in drivers and wedges not long after. “That’s a cycle that would take at least a year and it was happening in four to six months,” Christensen said.

If it sounds like the beginnings of another golf boom similar to one Tiger Woods fueled at the turn of the millennium, there is still reason to tread cautiously. For starters, the uptick in beginning or lapsed golfers still doesn’t fully explain the sharp increase in play. Even if there were 1 million new golfers in 2020 who each played 10 times this year, that would still only account for a fifth of the extra rounds played.

I guess Sam didn't get the memo that math is racist, but for years we've heard tales of woe about those 5 million lost golfers, though those guys and gals played once a year.  Even accounting for the math, though, I think he misses the larger point:

More likely is that this was a year in which core golfers simply played more. It’s why Christensen said he saw a 30 percent increase in his club-repair business, or why an NGF analysis of private clubs had more reporting “a good or great financial state” than previous years (64 percent versus just 46 percent four years earlier). Both reflected how the game had taken a more central role in golfers’ lives in 2020.

“People who were playing five times a year were now playing five times a month,” Christensen said.

Good for golf, yes, but with it, a flip side. If more people played golf in 2020 than they had in years, it’s in part because their gyms and offices were closed, because the youth sports seasons were wiped from the calendar and because, especially early on, everything else seemed fraught with risk. One could argue the extent to which golf flourished is inversely proportional to the other parts of life that suffered. Which is to say, people weren’t just flocking to golf, but away from everything else.

I'm sure that core golfers played more in 2020, but I'm unclear how a big a factor that might have been.  Personally, I didn't play that much more for the simple reason that there stubbornly remain only seven days in the week.

To my eye the bigger effect may be on the great morass of begrudging golfers, those for whom the game is less than primary.  Let me share an anecdote from the last month of play at Fairview.  One of our usual suspect's wife is a successful travel agent, whose business continues to asymptotically approach zero.  As I've recounted previously, I've taken great pleasure in seeing the Fairview wives play so much golf this year, and the woman of whom I'm speaking is atop that list, as I've seen her out there seemingly every day I played, often carrying her bag.  Hubby told me that they are now talking golf over dinner, he specifically recounted a conversation about figuring out how far she hits each club.... 

Just one anecdote in a country of 300 million souls, but don't we think this is happening at every club in our great land?  We don't know if we go back to anything that looks like our status quo ante, but I'm betting that our Jane Doe referenced above continues  to play more golf, because she's now been hooked by our addictive game.  That's the silver lining, of we don't screw it up.

I'll leave tis topic with one last bit from Weinman:

What solace there is to take from such an equation extends beyond self-interest, but in embracing the role golf played in steering people through some of the darkest hours of the pandemic. The game represented an outlet and a distraction, and an opportunity for the type of social connection that Instagram or Zoom couldn’t foster. Maybe it wasn’t that golf was the only game in town, but the right game for the moment.

“Men never talk about mental health or wellness,” sports psychologist Jonathan Fader told Golf Digest editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde in his column, The Year That Changed Everything. “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.”

Yes, we do, so why are our elected officials trying to isolate us further?  Because they can, though I recommend tar and feathers as a response.

The Charlie Effect - I did not rebut Sam Weinman above, in his oft-repeated reference to the Tiger boom in golf participation.  Like Nessie and the Yeti, out-of-focus photos are as close as we come to finding such a species in the wild.  But I was curious as to how many eyeballs Charlie might produce, and the answer is...well, a few:

Here's Geoff's take:

The 2020 PNC Challenge (aka parent-child, child-grandparent, etc…) delivered better ratings news than the run of recent fall events, reports ShowBuzzDaily. Boosted by Charlie and Tiger Woods, the event drew a .88 (typo above) and an average of 1.5 million viewers or so both weekend days.

That’s a nice bump from last year’s playing on the same weekend as the Hero World Challenge in early December. The event doubled its audience from 2019 and more than doubled the audience size of the last fall PGA Tour event of 2020, which also aired on NBC.

I actually thought Charlie would drive higher ratings.  That's the object lesson of life in our golf bubble.  It all seems important and buzz-worthy to us, but the audience is invariably borderline insignificant. 

Geoff even finds mixed news for the gals. Not all good news, as Beth Ann Nichols fever dream that that Monday U.S. Women's final round would be lit were untethered from reality:

The news was also solid for the LPGA Tour’s season-ending event. Played in late November 2019, the CME Group Tour Championship drew a .30 and average of 395,000 viewers. Those numbers jumped to a .47 and average of 686,000 for Sunday’s early start won by Jin Young Ko.

The weekly numbers also include Monday’s U.S. Women’s Open final round rating of a .19, barely higher than rounds one and two of the 2020 CME.

NBC can draw 686,000 pairs of eyeballs for a rerun of Gilligan's Island, so Mike Whan's fetish to have the gals on network TV seems, well, unsustainable.

The Year That Was - I'm having an adverse reaction to many of the annual review stories, most especially those that fall all over themselves in sucking up to the Tour.  Alan Shipnuck has this typical take on it all:

The following week, as the Tour reached Hartford, the chickens came home to roost. Among the handful of players forced to withdraw because of the virus were headliners like Brooks Koepka,
Webb Simpson and Cameron Champ. “That gave all of us a pretty big wakeup call,” Collin Morikawa says of the spate of withdrawals.

Then something beautiful happened: a tour of rugged individualists came together for the greater good. Players and caddies began aggressively policing each other’s behavior and following more stringent rules that the Tour nimbly put in place. “The whole organization had to dig really deep to get this show back on the road and to keep it going,” Adam Scott says.

Rugged, Alan?  It would be hard to find an adjective less apt for our class of pampered touring professionals...  Of course, Alan also elides one telling detail, to wit, that he called for the shutdown of the Tour (along with Shack) when those positive tests hit, a bit of histrionics that the Tour fortunately ignored.

 Though this might be the biggest quibble:

What happened between the ropes in 2020 will long resonate.

Will it?  Because I've already forgotten much of it.  Alan goes through his checklist, leading with this:

Dustin Johnson emerged as a player of historical importance, with a record-smashing victory at the Masters preceded by a run of wins that landed him the FedEx Cup. Before Johnson put a stranglehold on the top spot in the World Ranking, other emergent talents got a taste of being number one: Justin Thomas, 27, whose explosive game carried him to a pair of marquee victories; and Jon Rahm, 26, who has matured into a threat to win every time he tees it up. Rahm’s walk-off 66-footer to beat Johnson in a playoff at the BMW Championship was one of the highlights of the restart, which featured a series of outrageously clutch putts.

Marquee victories, for sure, but none bigger than... well, the Father-Son? 

Most interesting to me is the DJ bit, specifically how that Masters win will look in the rearview mirror.  

Set aside DJ for a sec, as Joel Beall has the feel-good stories of the year.  I think this is a synecdoche for the year writ large, in which those events in the professional game are far less interesting than those from the real world.  For instance, while this is nice enough:

Lee Elder’s honor

Lee Elder’s legacy at the Masters was already established, breaking the tournament’s color barrier in 1975. That legacy will take on a new life next April, as Elder will join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as honorary starters for the 2021 Masters. “The opportunity to earn an invitation to the Masters and stand at that first tee was my dream, and to have it come true in 1975 remains one of the greatest highlights of my career and life,” Elder said. “To be invited back to the first tee one more time to join Jack and Gary for next year’s Masters means the world to me.” Along with the first tee ceremony, Augusta National will fund a Lee Elder scholarship at Paine College in his honor.

Not to be churlish, but your lead nominee for feel-good story of 2020 is an event that is scheduled for April 2021... 

I think Joel is on more solid ground with this:

On this one I can only wish that he were correct:

HV3’s words and run

Days before the PGA Tour’s restart at Colonial, Harold Varner III spoke of his experiences with inequality. The message was eloquent and passionate, offered perspective and understanding. Then the most remarkable thing happened. Varner, at a juncture where the lines of sport and society are blurred, contended at Colonial. He ultimately did not win the event; didn’t even finish top 10. But with his words and resolve, with a performance that can only be measured against the pain and uncertainty and fear we all face, Varner showed us the best that golf can be.

Varner is a great guy.  But his words speak to a desire to live in a world where we don't obsessively focus on race.  The truth is the opposite of what Joel contends, Varner has unfortunately been cancelled.

Here's a DJ-specific retrospective, though you might be surprised to find that there were lows:

The highs and lows of Dustin Johnson's spectacular 2020

Admittedly, this was quite curious at the time:

July: Oddities, worries and the quote of the year

It was an unforgettable year for Johnson but July is a month he’d rather forget.

After two weeks off following his Travelers win, Johnson came out humbled at Muirfield Village,
shooting back-to-back 80s for a quick out at the Memorial. “I just struggled. It was one of those weeks,” Johnson said of his Columbus blues. The Travelers conquest still fresh, Johnson’s performance was more curious than troubling. (And a reminder that if the best golfer in the world can look this lost, there’s no hope for the rest of us.)

What was worrisome was Johnson’s next outing at the 3M Open, where he withdrew following an opening-round eight-over 78 citing a back injury. Johnson’s agent said it was merely tightness. Still, after looking so invincible at the end of June, DJ looked very, very human heading into a seven-week stretch featuring two majors and the tour’s postseason. The lone bright spot: Johnson made a quadruple-bogey 9 at TPC Twin Cities’ 18th hole, and described it as follows (emphasis ours):

“Hit a great drive on 18 and we only had like 199 [yards] to cover from where I was, 208 flag, it was a perfect 6-iron. Hit it right at it and never once did I think it was going to go in the water. That never crossed my mind when it was in the air. Just went in the water and I hit two more shots in the water, then I hit a good one, made a tap-in for a 9.”

Not quite Seve Ballesteros’ “I miss, I miss, I miss, I make” golf, but darn close.

I still think that back must have been worse than he admitted, but what a crazy game we play.

Of course, this take on 2020 figures to feature DJ as well, no?

The year in PGA Tour WAGs (2020)

I was appropriately complimentary of Paulina for her Masters attire, in which seems to have learned from her Oakmont microskirt, which you'll recall had Employee No. 2 using the v-word.  But while I saw this scene live, I certainly didn't catch DJ's...well, what do we call it, handsiness?

Not that I exactly blame him...

You can scroll through at your leisure, but you might want to give Clan Donald a miss.

Let me share something on a tangentially related note.  Remember seeing Elin at the PNC?  I'm more cynical than the average bear, but 2009 was a long time ago and is there anything controversial about a mother watching her child?  This Alan Shipnuck tweet confirms that there is, but also revisits an incident that I've mentioned a few times:

I think Alan is misremembering that Gulbis bit.  I remember them showing her standing forlornly on that empty golf course, as how else would I remember it.  But the most humiliating part was when they asked DJ about Natalie's presence on camera, and he publicly denied being with her.  In case you were wondering what could possibly be more humiliating than having your hook-up announced on national TV, we have your answer.  As I recall, he didn't actually say, "I'm not with the skank", though that was pretty much  the message.

While We Obsessed Over Bryson... - The great Bobby D. writes to make us aware that DeChambeau might be the least of our concerns:

During a rare moment on the eve of the 2020 Masters in which the conversation shifted from Bryson DeChambeau, Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee turned his attention to another big hitter. "Imagine Kyle Berkshire," Chamblee said with Augusta National Golf Club as a backdrop. "Imagine him out here if he could chip and putt."

At that point, few people had considered the possibility of a World Long Drive champ trading in his title belt for a green jacket. Even fewer knew Berkshire had already begun making the radical transformation from pro hitter to tour pro.

2020, man!  Now you know my premise is that Bryson has moved the needle only at the margins.  What would revolutionary change look like?

With the ability to swing a golf club more than 150 miles per hour and produce ball speeds over 230, Berkshire doesn’t just hit golf balls, he hurts them. The same could be said for the 100 driver heads he's estimated cracking the past three years. Those staggering numbers led Kyle to a convincing win at the 2019 World Long Drive Championship. And at 22, Berkshire looked to have a long and lucrative long drive career ahead of him.

Bryson has struggled to generate ball speed above 200 m.p.h., so this is, in theory, a quantum leap.  Well, perhaps it's more than just theory, but Bob makes the argument for giving this guy a few sponsors exemptions, just for the fun of it.  I would think that will happen, and it should be good fun, although I'm unsure that they can do the logical thing in pairing him with Bryson.

I don't anticipate success for Berkshire, for two complementary reasons.  First, distance above and beyond Bryson has to run into the law of diminishing returns, plus we tend to underestimate how accurate the Tour's long drivers are.  Remember our discussions after Winged Foot, to wit, that it's less about how many fairways are hit, than it is about missing on the correct side.  

The other obvious point is that, while Berkshire does the one thing exceptionally well, a successful touring pro does everything exceptionally well.  But this is less about the one guy than it is about the trend lines and the effect of the one upon the other:

Patience is one thing Berkshire seems to have. He says he’s “ahead of schedule” and has received encouragement to start playing from many, including DeChambeau. The two have become friends and the mutual admiration for each other was apparent during a recent meeting. Berkshire was impressed by DeChambeau's gym routine while Bryson was blown away by Kyle's distance, including a 302-yard 8-iron that went viral.

Yup, that's not a typo.  As a contrast, Shane Ryan posts an assortment of oddball statistics from the 2020 season, defying the contention that modern players don't know how to bunt:

Jim Herman and his “old school” length

You want to know which player hits his drives less than 240 yards more than anyone else? It’s Jim Herman, the only player to fall under what I’m now calling “The Herman Line” more than 10 percent of the time in the 2019-’20 season (77 out of 732 drives). This is, of course, a dubious distinction—the 43-year-old has only done it eight times in 206 drives so far in the 2020-’21 season—but in some ways doesn’t it make you respect the fact that he actually won an event in Greensboro? This is like an NBA team winning a championship without being allowed to shoot three-pointers, or a baseball team capturing the World Series with no home runs. Take heart, all who are intimidated by Bryson: It can be done!

Be very afraid.  Not of Kyle Berkshire per se, but of the influence of the long-drivers on a game already negatively affected by the distance gains of the last two decades.  Not that there won't be some fun to be had, although Bob argues for sponsor's exemptions for the kid, while I think he'll need to show something in those mini-tour events before he'll get a start with the big boys.  Maybe this is more realistic for a Korn Ferry event, or even for one of the development tours.

I shall leave you here and catch you down the road.  Not sure when, so you'll want to check back early and often.

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