Midweek Musings

Lots to cover, likely with an emphasis on all things TV.  

On a scheduling note, I'm currently planning to head to Utah on Friday morning, so we might not meet again until Monday.  Unless, you know, something compels me to the keyboard tomorrow.  But what are the odds?

 

I Saw It On TV - The major golf publications have long functioned in the role of Pravda, but they also seem to be carrying water for CBS as well, at least as far as one could tell from this open-mouth kiss:

Changes coming to CBS golf coverage under new leadership in 2021

For anyone unfamiliar with this annual ritual, this is the week that the Tour heads to Torrey Pines, and things get real.  Well, as real as they can get inside the pampered bubble of elite men's professional golf.  Those first few weeks of the year (not of the season, counter-intuitively) are really quite ugly, as professional golf vies against the NFL playoffs for an audience, and finds none.  More on that in just a bit...

Meet the new boss, presumably same as the old boss, an enjoy the vainglorious framing:

It’s not just the most exclusive job in golf, it’s one of the most exclusive jobs on earth.

Since 1959, there have been 62 Masters champions. Tiger Woods has won 82 times. Thirteen

U.S. Presidents have held office. Myanmar has installed three governments (and has gone by three different names).

And Golf on CBS has had two coordinating producers.

The network’s incredible run on talent began in 1959, when Frank Chirkinian — the father of golf television — was hired as the network’s first true “lead” golf producer. Chirkinian radically changed the way golf television was viewed, introducing the concept of scores “over” and “under” par, instant replay, and even the practice of spray-painting the edges of holes white. In 1997, Chirkinian was succeeded by Lance Barrow, his protégé, who commandeered the network’s coverage for the next 23 years.

On Saturday, the number of coordinating producers in Golf on CBS history expands to three.

Talent?  OK, I'll stipulate to that as far as the Ayatollah is concerned, but have you not watched a recent CBS broadcast.  So, the only thing I know for sure about the new guy is that he has quite the weird name:

“I’m thrilled to welcome Sellers Shy to our role as the coordinating producer,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said on a conference call previewing the 2021 season. “He’s the perfect person to carry the mantle from Lance Barrow. When you think about the heritage and the shoes he’s stepping into, it’s pretty august company.”

Sellers Shy, a veteran producer whose time on the CBS Golf team dates back to 1987, begins his post as the network’s third coordinating producer at 3 p.m. ET Saturday at the Farmers Insurance Open. Shy is a Memphis native and decorated former junior golfer — a talented, multi-sport producer for CBS who succeeds the newly retired Lance Barrow.

“I have ultimate faith in Sellers, he’s got a great production mind,” McManus said. “He lives and breathes golf, 52 weeks a year. He’s innovative, he’s organized, he works incredibly well with talent, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Sellers is going to bring us forward.”

Were his parents Pink Panther fans?  Of course, I'd like to ask Mr. McManus what the broadcast needs to be brought forward from, though that might get ugly.  So, let's just sit back and see what these "changes" might be...  

“We’ve worked very hard on making sure that there is a slight difference, a re-energized few areas,” Shy said. “All I’m going to do is repeat what Sean (McManus) said and say that we’re really excited about it. In the first hour, you might see three, four, maybe even five new looks.”

Among the most significant changes: new music, updated graphics and a constant mini scoreboard in the lower righthand corner of the screen. The goal, Shy says, is to keep the leaderboard on-screen on a near-constant basis, similar to the score bugs used in other professional sports broadcasts.

How's that for an all-world mission statement?  They've worked very hard to make a slight difference...  Or, translated into English, the deck chairs have been rearranged.  But to a golf audience screaming for them to show some actual golf, perhaps you'd enjoy new theme music....

But wait, there's more:

“We like to think that viewers love the score bug on football and on basketball, and we’re attempting to make that a standard position for golf for our mini-leaderboard,” Shy said. “I’d like to think that whenever anyone comes in the room and they want to know who’s leading the tournament, you’re going to find out very shortly.”

It's that "We'd like" that grabbed me, as I'm equally certain that they'd like to think we enjoy their broadcast, though the truth is out there.  As for that guy that just came in the room?  Nice of you to worry about him, but you might give a thought to the far heavier traffic going the opposite direction.

We've touched on golf ratings a couple of times in recent weeks, but the latest numbers should be sending up flares at Fortress Ponte Vedra Beach.  I'll lean heavily on Geoff's post here, riffing on these golf ratings from ShowBuzzDaily:

Yes, you are reading that correctly, the LPGA kicked Jay Monahan's butt:

With the two NFL games drawing audiences of 41 and 44 million thereabouts, golf had little chance. There were more people trying to scrape the last bit of guac out of the bowl at any given time than watching golf.

 Don’t believe me? Look at the numbers. With a very strong microscope.

For reasons known only to people who draw six and seven figure salaries, the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour continued their bizarre tradition of trying to finish against the NFL’s conference championship games.

The 2021 final rounds of the Diamond Resorts TOC and American Express Championship played out on NBC and Golf Channel respectively. Both were better-than-average finishes, with the LPGA averaging 557,000 viewers to the PGA Tour’s 297,000 according to ShowBuzzDaily.

The LPGA’s season opener drew an almost identical number last year on NBC.

My first reaction, which I've noted recently, is that the biggest loser in this would seem to be American Express.  I simply can't understand why they would tie themselves to the weakest event on the Tour's calendar, weak not least because of the, well, week it's played.  But they're consenting adults, so Unless you're an Amex shareholder...

I will note that a certain event has carved out a model for competing with the biggest NFL game of all.  I speak of course of the Wasted, which draws the vast Mongol hordes to their event every year, despite finishing on Super Bowl Sunday.  That event peaks on Saturday, but they're Sunday crowds and TV ratings are respectable, though admittedly they finish before kickoff.

I do have one more item on the men, before we segue to the ladies.  I guess this makes sense:

The next joint effort by the PGA Tour to cater to the ever-growing populace of golf bettors and

fantasy players will be unveiled the week of the Waste Management Phoenix Open. NBC Sports will produce a second-screen broadcast geared specifically to gamblers and broadcasted on Peacock Premium, in partnership with PointsBet, an official betting operator of the PGA Tour and the official betting partner of NBC Sports.

The show, “NBC Sports Edge Betcast,” will debut on Thursday of WMPO week and include two Golf Channel staffers, Steve Burkowski and George Savaricas, on a set overlooking the famed 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale, along with Teddy Greenstein of PointsBet. The broadcast, according to David Preschlack, executive vice president of content strategy for NBC Sports Group and president of NBC Sports’ regional networks, will follow a featured group, similar to PGA Tour Live, but the announcers will be discussing various betting markets and player odds on each hole for 2½ hours each tournament day.

First, CBS has the Super Bowl this year, so NBC jumps in to cover Phoenix when that happens.  But, does this sound remotely interesting?  Can't wait to see these numbers...

I do think it makes sense to keep this nonsense out of the flagship broadcast at the very least.  They're already \not showing enough actual golf shots, so better to avoid another tangent for them to fetishize.

So, the ladies have been on a high since that final round of their season-opening event, one that several commentators (Dylan Dethier, call your office) deemed the best possible kick-off. Let me also note that, while your humble blogger has had some concerns about Mike Whan's network fetish, last weekend's ratings would seem to support his strategy.  That said, it's still a tiny audience, and I've noted several times any absence of the needs to actively attract their audience, they seem to consider it a birthright.

If you think last week's LPGA event cannot be improved upon, you might want to reconsider.  The Fried Egg's Will Knights fires a warning shot that will go unheeded:

With Jessica Korda in close on the 16th hole of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, Danielle Kang knew she needed to make a birdie of her own to maintain her one-shot lead. Putting from off the green, Kang was interrupted by a gas cart starting up to shuttle volunteers back to the clubhouse. She went back to the beginning of her pre-shot routine, only to be interrupted again. “I’m just going to wait,” Kang said, laughing it off. “We’ll be waiting on the next tee anyways.”

The final round of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions was an opportunity for the LPGA Tour to start 2021 with a bang. Three top American players—Danielle Kang, Nelly Korda, and Jessica Korda—separated themselves from the field and were ready for a Sunday showdown on network television.

It turned out to be a worthy battle. The Korda sisters both made charges at Kang, and Jessica prevailed with a playoff birdie. Yet for viewers at home, the day looked like a failure.

 Failure might be a tad strong, but you'd like to think they see the problem:

The first hour of Sunday’s telecast on Golf Channel was decent, highlighting shots from most of the women in the field. But when NBC took over for the final nine—you know, when the most

important part of the tournament was unfolding—the coverage became borderline unwatchable. The broadcast was filled with celebrity interviews, commercials, and other nonsense that distracted from three of the best players in the world vying for a title. According to one intrepid viewer, nearly 63% percent of the broadcast was devoted to something other than a professional golfer hitting a golf shot.

More egregious than the lack of televised shots, however, was the pace of play. At multiple points on the back nine, the Korda-Korda-Kang group waited more than 10 minutes between shots. One of those pauses consumed NBC’s opening segment. The first 13 minutes of the network’s broadcast featured just one shot from an LPGA Tour player: a putt from Lexi Thompson. We didn’t see anything from the final group until well into the coverage—not because NBC was avoiding them, but because the leaders were waiting on the 13th tee.

If you were interrogating a prisoner and wanted to break him, making him watched Lexi putt on an endless loop would be pretty effective.

In this case, it does seem that the amateur component was over-emphasized:

Here’s what it came down to: three of the most marketable Americans in the women’s game were MIA in the opening minutes of a national telecast because they were stuck behind a retired tennis pro, a former NFL kicker, and the Yankees center fielder. Those amateurs were, in turn, stuck behind other amateurs ahead of them.

So the poor viewing experience wasn’t entirely NBC’s fault. Of the 90 players in the field, just 25 were professionals, some of whom had finished their rounds by the time NBC’s coverage started. With Kang and the Korda sisters dusting the rest of the field, the network didn’t have many in-the-hunt pros to show.

I think I saw more of Aaron Hicks than Nelly Korda, and that doesn't exactly convey a sense of confidence in your core product.  And you humble blogger is a die-hard Yankees fan, though I also saw more of Aaron Hicks on Sunday than I did in the entire 60-game 2020 baseball season so, yeah, I'm bitter.

Will makes this strong point as well:

Granted, pro-ams have been a part of pro golf for decades, the most famous (or infamous) being the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. CBS’s Saturay coverage of the tournament is almost always one of the most dreadful viewing experiences of the PGA Tour season: nonstop footage of B-listers and athletes hitting terrible shots and giving vapid interviews about how much fun they’re having and how beautiful the course looks.

But that’s Saturday. On Sunday, when the tournament is actually on the line, CBS shifts the focus to the pros and their efforts to win at one of the country’s finest courses.

It's still CBS, so that focus is still a bit tenuous...  But while Will makes a strong case, pace of play at regular LPGA events is equally dreadful, and causes the same issues with continuity of coverage.

I may be over-interpreting, but whoever succeeds Mike Whan better be focused on delivering a better product.  Of course, effective January 20, 2021, women's sports are, well, about to be sacrificed to the gods of equity and inclusion.  I'm sure we'll all enjoy that... 

Failing Upward - I totally get that he's a nice man, and there's nothing wrong with that.  But when your resume high-points are as follows:

1. Presiding over the biggest collapse in Ryder Cup history, and;
2. Flaming out as an on-course broadcaster before the press release ink has dried.

Wouldn't you think that the next gig would be, you know, hard to arrange?  But a warning, be sure to control your excitement:

Davis Love III, who as a Charlotte native was the logical choice to lead the United States team in

next year’s Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club, has enjoyed longer ties to the biennial competition than any other player in PGA Tour history.

Love played in the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994 in Virginia, but he actually learned that previous fall that the tour was creating its own event fashioned after the Ryder Cup. A player rep on the tour’s board, Love was sharing an airplane with Tim Finchem as they headed to a board meeting. Finchem at the time was the tour’s deputy commissioner under Deane Beman, and he definitely knew his audience.

Weeks earlier, Love had emerged as one of the heroes in what remains America’s last Ryder Cup victory in Europe, winning the last two holes against Costantino Rocca to score the clinching point for Team USA at The Belfry.

The header calls him the perfect pick, yet the author can't get through the second 'graph without noting the long history of failure...  What rankles most is that the principal authors of those repetitive failures  continue to take care of each other:

Interestingly, it was Woods who informed Love just before Christmas that he would be the next U.S. captain after the 1997 PGA Championship winner served as an assistant captain for three straight matches, beginning in 2013 under Fred Couples at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Love wasn’t exactly surprised. Since Quail Hollow was announced as site of the 2021 matches—pushed to 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic forcing postponement of the 2020 Ryder Cup—it was thought that Love, a two-time Ryder Cup captain, would lead the U.S. squad in the state where he was born and where he attended college and became a three-time All-American at the University of North Carolina.

“It was really cool that Tiger called me and said, ‘Hey, um, we have decided that you're going to be Presidents Cup captain in Charlotte,” said Love, whose initial reaction to Woods was to ask in reply, “Who’s we?”

Well, that would be Tiger and Phil, since you asked...  And their record?  He's unsuccessful and he's boring, so the qualifications were what exactly?  Socialism is fine, kids, as long as you're part of the nomenklatura...

Tulsa On My Mind - We have a wiener, folks, as we know where to head in May 2022.  The PGA of America is taking us back to Southern Hills, and Geoff is happy for the following reasons:

Not August

I carry three distinct memories from an early week trek to the 1994 PGA. It was impossibly hot. I got to meet Dan Jenkins. And I’m still haunted by the moment when opening the pro shop’s small

front door on Wednesday afternoon. Standing there was Jose Maria Olazabal wondering when I’d get out of his way. He was headed for the locker room. Hopefully the reigning Masters champion was headed for the shower. He carried with him a bodily odor unlike any other. Think packed Paris subway car during a heat wave.

 Thanks for sharing, but the PGA of America developed quite the specialty in steamy August venues...

Strange things happen at Southern Hills

The winner of the 1946 U.S. Women’s Amateur had her status reinstated in the middle of a 1931-1954 run winning six AP Female Athlete’s of the Year. They even let Babe Zaharias and the field in the clubhouse that week, no sure thing back then. In 1958 Tommy Bolt (71-71-69-72) was the only player to not post a round higher than 75 in winning the U.S. Open over 22-year-old Gary Player. Hubert Green captured a U.S. Open with a death threat hanging over his head. Tiger Woods was the first to shoot 62.5 in a major, right? And the 2001 U.S. Open finish was totally bizarre.

Yowzer, I'm not sure those names will resonated with today's Live Under Par™ crowd.   And while that 2001 finish was as wacky as Geoff notes, is that one we actually want to remember?

This would seem more the point:

A replenished new-old design

Good players win at Southern Hills because they have to hit every shot from all kinds of stances. So while it’s always been a beautiful property for golf, the camera has never been kind to Southern Hills. Some of that dramatic ground movement and the best natural features were shaded out. That’s now changed. Maxwell’s most renowned work has seen bunkers returned to their original location with enhanced character. The green shapes recaptured lost hole locations and creeks have been exposed by tree removal.

The reference is to the recent Gil Hanse restoration, which is likely a good thing indeed.  That said, I can't imagine that the course will televise especially well, but it should prove to be a fine test.

Back To TPC - It was twenty years ago today...  Yeah, not really, but it does feel like it, no?  Via the local Jacksonville paper, we have details on the Players Championship:

Monday morning, Players Championship Executive Director Jared Rice announced the

tournament will allow spectators for the $15 million tournament. Attendance will be limited to 20% of capacity.

“We feel that hits our priority of how we can deliver the tournament in a healthy way and with the safety of everybody in mind: Our sponsors, our fans, our volunteers. All of that is mission critical to us,” Rice said.

“…From a hospitality perspective, we have modified everything. So, that means in hospitality zones we will have open-air venues. We’re looking for ways to make sure it's as safe as possible, limiting some access there. From a fan perspective, we are looking at ways we can focus on social distancing as part of the food and beverage experience and make it great for our fans.”

And capacity would be how many?  I find it strange that such an article doesn't answer the most basic of questions, how many spectators will be on site.  Of course, your humble blogger is in no position to throw the first stone as relates to typos and the like, but aren't these folks supposed to have proofreaders:

Since the PGA Tour returned in June, it has welcomed fans at a handful of events. Former Players Champions Si Woo Kim won The American Express in La Quinta, California, on Sunday afternoon without no fans in attendance.

So there were fans?

Most importantly, CTRL:F - Chainsmokers yields zero results.

Your Strange Read of the Day -  Eamon Lynch is a guy with strong opinions, so we love having him in our golf ecosystem.  Mind you, some days we love him more than others, but his current offering is a bit curious.  See if you agree...

The premise is contained in his header (though only a portion thereof):

Lynch: PGA Tour needs to plan for life without Tiger.

I'm guessing you have a couple of complementary reactions to that.  First, it's a header we've seen repeatedly for more than a decade now, and simultaneously there can't be anything new to say on this subject.  Yet, Eamon goes in quite the strange direction:

The Tour’s now-discontinued marketing slogan, ‘These Guys Are Good,’ was always closer to a doctrine than a catchphrase, reflecting a desire to present players as beyond reproach, a traveling caravan of upright, family-loving philanthropists who wouldn’t as much as look sideways at a puppy. As image-making goes, it was resolutely sober, highly successful and wholly synthetic. There’s not a family or workplace in America where that actually holds true, and certainly not in a lucrative sport peopled with driven individuals.

I'm sorry, is that how you understood These guys are good?  Because I took it to mean that these guys are very skilled at the golf thing, and found it refreshingly limited in its scope.  

Now Eamon is quite correct that the Tour has tried to has tried to curtail any coverage of the more unseemly aspects of life on Tour, and he's on solid ground here.  I've been all over this subject, including the refusal to share disciplinary actions and the aggressive take-down notices to social media platforms, but the marketing slogan was pitch perfect.  I'm in complete agreement with Eamon here:

That entrenched mindset will need to transition as the Tour faces a future post-Tiger. There must be a willingness to let fans see a handful of part-time sinners while it deifies the full-time saints. It won’t take much: making disciplinary infractions public, ceasing the habitual clamping down on public needling between players, not smothering any online video that casts players in an unflattering light. In short, the PGA Tour needs to cast-off its girdle, to demonstrate less maternal protectiveness and more fraternal playfulness when it comes to it’s product.

I think that's an important point.  The Tour's posture under Nurse Ratched was to stifle any story that might cast aspersion in its members.  Fact is, I think the tour's members are in large part a good group of guys, and hiding disciplinary actions and the like just makes me suspicious that there's much more that we should know.  I would think the better strategy is to let the chips fall where they may, and let the public decide about these guys based upon the preponderance of the evidence.

 But Eamon's solution for the post-Tiger tour seems, well, curious:

Which is why DeChambeau strikes me as the ideal prototype to meet golf’s uncertain future. Not because of his performance—though he could deliver in that respect too—but because of his personality, his almost endearing eagerness to put himself and his process out there in painstaking (sometimes cringeworthy) detail. To wit: in his first start of the year at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, DeChambeau proudly revealed he’d been chasing swing speed so hard that he almost blacked out. (“I blacked out a few times over the break too,” one of his fellow Tour pros texted me with more than a hint of derision).

Eamon, did you catch any of the golf in 2020?  Maybe the bit where Bryson confronted the cameraman and spoke eloquently about his brand?

I think it's silly to think in terms of any one player filling that void, but Eamon seems clueless as to how off-putting Bryson can be.  That's not the worst thing in the world, necessarily, as any entertainment can use its villains:

DeChambeau’s transparency has helped him become a figure of fascination, of admiration, of awe, of mockery and of scorn. That’s the menu sports fans demand be served, and he is a one-man banquet. Crucially, he seems able to handle that maelstrom. But DeChambeau is not the only box office personality about whom golf fans can and do feel conflicting emotions. There’s the trash-talking, pricklish Koepka, and a supporting cast that includes regular cameos by the dependably infantile Sergio Garcia, the volcanic Tyrrell Hatton and the [choose your own adjective] Patrick Reed.

But there logically needs to be someone in a white hat, and I'm just not sure that folks will ever warm up to Bryson in that way.  There's little doubt that Bryson is the most interesting player right now because he's experimenting and sharing the results thereof, I just don't think he's the poster child we need.

I shall release you here, and see you when I see you.

Weekend Wrap

That sound you hear is the heads of millions of Brady-haters exploding....  I did, though, manage to watch a bit of the golf.  Just not much of this one...

But we get to that, just a heads up that the promised long-form piece, focused on architecture and history, can be found below.

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here - That's a bit of a stretch, methinks.  per the Divine Comedy, that's the inscription at the gates of hell, though we blew past those gates back in mid-March, if not earlier.  But the second part of the joke is the Hope bit, since I'm guessing more than half the field couldn't tell you who Bob Hope was...

I've had some fun recently with Saturday night headers, so you'll have guessed that I couldn't let this one pass:

Tony Finau in a familiar spot. Can he close this time at the American Express?

I'm gonna go with "No", final answer.  See how easy this game can be, if you just have the good sense to play it Monday morning.

So, horses for courses?

Si Woo Kim wins on another Pete Dye course, taking title at American Express

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Si Woo Kim staked his claim to the presidency of the Pete Dye Fan Club on Sunday.

Kim, who had won his biggest title, the 2017 Players Championship, at Dye’s most infamous house of horrors, the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, shot a bogey-free 8-under 64 in the final round of the American Express at PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course to edge Patrick Cantlay by one stroke.

Kim’s fondness for PGA West dates to 2012 when he passed PGA Tour Q-School here at age 17.

“That’s why I feel confidence whenever I come to this course. So, that helps a lot for me this week, especially I try to focus on the memories that gave me good scores, so that’s why it drove me to the win,” he said.

It was the 25-year-old South Korean’s third career victory and first since the 2017 Players Championship.

 Like anyone else that plays our sick game, it doesn't always go according to plan:

That wasn’t the only sign of Kim’s growth as a player. A year ago, Kim withdrew from this tournament, citing a back injury after shooting 15-over 87 in the first round on PGA West’s Nicklaus Tournament Course, one of two courses this year in the tournament rotation.

We know what the next Pete Dye course they'll play, so the Live Under Par™ brigade have until March to get their betting strategies devised.  Lots to unpack from the week, just none of it having to do with the outcome or the winner.  In fact, it's one of those weeks where Golf.com's Tour Confidential panel fails to even acknowledge this event, except for a rules controversy that we'll get to in a sec.

If we're looking for actual significance, did you happen to catch Patrick Cantlay's weekend pyrotechnics?  After making the cut on the number...

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Patrick Cantlay’s magical weekend fell just short of an unforgettable

ending.

Cantlay shattered the course record by two strokes with an 11-under 61 at PGA West’s Pete Dye Stadium Course. After making the cut on the number at 4-under, he exploded for 20 birdies over his weekend 36 holes, tying the best score in relation to par in the final two rounds of a 72-hole event on the PGA Tour (18-under).

It took an equally flawless round of 64 from 54-hole leader Si Woo Kim to edge him out for the trophy at the American Express.

“I did everything I could,” Cantlay said. “He just played unbelievable too.”

Amusingly, this is how Geoff lads his post on Patrick's weekend:

Let’s table the whole PGA West Stadium Course-has-turned-into-Indian-Wells discussion for another day

Geoff, you feel OK?  Must be a closet Packers fan, because I don't remember him ducking this...well, ever.

But this is the course that for years was too difficult to be used for the tournament.  And while that might have something to do with the amateurs, this was a year when they didn't need an am-friendly set-up.  For years, one of  the serious arguments of those against regulation to curtail distance was that scoring hadn't decreased accordingly.  While I thought there explanations for that in agronomy and set-ups, I also think that we are now seeing these distance gains (not that there aren't other factors) reflected in lower scoring.  

Did you happen to catch the penalty assessed against Matthew Wolff?

Wolff, who shot 5-under 67 on Friday, was assessed a one-stroke penalty from Thursday’s opening round of the American Express for violation of Rule 9.4b (Ball Lifted or Moved by You – Penalty for Lifting or Deliberately Touching Your Ball or Causing it to Move).

Here’s what happened. On the first hole at the Stadium Course at PGA West, Wolff drove his ball 336 yards into the left rough. Wolff’s ball moved during his back swing and Rules official Slugger White discussed the situation with Wolff.

It was originally addressed by Wolff with the PGA Tour’s Rules Committee on Thursday, with the decision subsequently reversed on Friday after the Rules Committee gained access to video evidence not available at the time of the ruling that showed Wolff was responsible for the movement of his ball. With the one-stroke penalty, Wolff’s first-round score was bumped up to 72 for a 36-hole aggregate of 5-under 139.

“The incident was filmed on PGA Tour Live and was not brought to our attention until Matthew was well into his second round today,” said PGA Tour Tournament Director Steve Rintoul. “Once we realized there was video evidence, we had to look at it. Matthew was extremely professional and initially thought he was in a disqualification situation. But, fortunately for him, it was not.

“He was acting under the jurisdiction of an official yesterday and understood how the penalty applies when a ball is moved by the player. Matthew said he didn’t feel like he caused the ball to move, but certainly understood that he could have. He was extremely professional about the entire situation.”

In the bad old days he's have been DQd for signing an incorrect scorecard, so there's progress of a sort.  I still have a lingering concern, but let's first see what our friends from the Tour Confidential panel think:

5. On Friday, Matthew Wolff was hit with a penalty stroke at the American Express for an infraction he committed on Thursday. Any qualms with retroactive rules reviews?

Sens: Back when viewer call-ins were allowed, absolutely. But now, no. They make a lot of sense. I appreciate Michael’s point about owning your card. But if not all players are going to be equally willing to own their cards, I’d rather have a system in place that helps.

 Josh, remember that logic class you took in college?  What?  You didn't?  Yeah, we guessed...

A viewer call-in vs. new video footage coming up after the fact seems to this observer a distinction without a difference.  The question is whether scorecards remain open to further adjudication or not, the source of said information being rather secondary.

Bamberger: I much preferred the old system. When you sign for your card, you own the card. It made the player responsible, as the player should be. This is completely different.

Zak: We’re stuck in this spot where players do things, explain themselves to rules officials and then the official takes them at their word, despite clear video evidence in hindsight. I don’t see a way to make the system better. From the video, it appears nothing but Wolff could have made the ball move. But what he says goes. Beyond that, I’d prefer that what happens on a Thursday be applied on Thursday, and not ensuing days. In other words, when the sun comes up, those scores yesterday are finalized.

Dethier: Use video at the end of a player’s round to try to get it right, but don’t drag it out. I’m with Zak: When the clock strikes midnight, the former day’s penalties should turn into pumpkins.

So, dear reader, consider how events would unfold if the same set of circumstances occurred on Sunday, instead of Thursday.  On Monday morning, Mr. Rintoul is informed of this new Golf Live footage and immediately adds a stroke to Mr. Wolff's score.... Except, no, the tournament is over when they sign their cards, so there's effectively different rules Thursday-Saturday, than on Sunday, arguably when it's most important.  

Did you catch Phil's Friday round?  Not exactly Faldo at Muirfield:

Phil Mickelson did something he had never done in 2,200 previous rounds on the PGA Tour. He

made 18 consecutive pars in the second round of the American Express.

Eighteen pars for golf’s wild thing? Think about how many U.S. Opens he would’ve won if he’d ever done that in a USGA event. But golf in a dome as defending champion Andrew Landry describes it, isn’t about making pars; it’s supposed to be a birdie-fest.

When informed that he’d achieved a first for him, Mickelson responded as only Mickelson can: “Which is surprising,” he said, “because I really try to hit fairways and center of the greens and just make easy pars and for that to be the first time it’s really shocking.”

We love the tongue planted firmly in cheek, but wrong event, Phil.  Guys are shooting 61's, which has Phil slamming trunks.

One last bit...  Did you catch this?

 Well, this is a new one. 🤷‍♂️#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/5Ufc6mb0F4

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 22, 2021

It's called the snail:

Mark Hubbard, through 35 holes at the American Express, had taken 56 putts with his two hands on the grip of his putter.

He took his 57th with one.

And his right pinkie finger — and only his right pinkie finger — wrapped around the bottom of the shaft, inches from the ground.
Which was after he had taken his right hand off the grip.

And extended his right arm out to his right. And extended it forward. And lowered it.

While gyrating.

I eagerly await Brandel's detailed analysis of the stroke and set-up, but I thought Trevor nailed it:

“That is next level right there,” analyst Trevor Immelman said.

What it was is what may come when you double-bogey your 14th hole at PGA West. And bogey your 17th. And your tournament is one made putt from being done.

“So everything looks good right about now — posture looks great — but the extension in the right arm is where it’s at, and the pinky, the pinky just sticking out there, and now wrapping around the lower part of the shaft, that’s just textbook technique,” Immelman, playfully, analyzed.

“I’ll tell you what: The playing of the stroke was spot on. He’s clearly done this before.”

As did Curt:

“You think this game doesn’t drive people crazy, or what?” Byrum said on the broadcast.

The TC panel wouldn't miss this one:

6. Mark Hubbard, on his last hole at the American Express during Friday’s second round and not close to making the cut, employed one of the more unusual putting strokes we’ve seen, when he putted with his left hand on the grip and just his pinkie on the bottom part of the putter shaft. What’s the wildest putting technique you’ve seen in action?

Sens: Mike Hulbert putting one-handed back in the day comes to mind. So does Bernhard Langer’s yip-prevention grip around the time of his second Masters win, when he took to clutching his left forearm with his right hand. He looked like a guy trying to prevent himself from falling off a cliff.

Bamberger: Snead, croquet style.

Zak: That’s the one — Hubbard’s. Easily the winner here. At first glance, I thought he was injured! I’ve never seen anything like it.

Dethier: A friend of mine is convinced that the ideal putting strategy is just to change grips every time you play, just to keep your brain guessing. So crazy it just might work!

Haven't heard Hulbert's name in a million years, though I need to give Dylan's comment much thought.

Diamonds  Are A Girl's Best Friend - The aforementioned Dylan Dethier watched the ladies kick off their season, and declares it the best start imaginable:

If you were building an ideal start to the LPGA season, it would look an awful lot like the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions did on Sunday.

Let’s start at the end, because every great golf tournament should have a dramatic finish. That’s exactly what happened when Jessica Korda poured in a 30-footer for birdie at the first playoff hole, punctuated by a top-tier fist pump. (That’s an important element, too. The best tournaments have celebrations to match.)

Of course, it did have that interesting final group:

The Intriguing Cast of Characters

Check. Big-time check. Sunday’s final group put Danielle Kang, Nelly Korda and Jessica Korda in the same threesome. Over the past year, the former two have separated themselves as the top American stars in the game. Last summer, Kang won the LPGA’s first two events post-hiatus, while Nelly has racked up top-fives.

But Nelly’s older sister, Jessica, reminded us of her presence in the very first nine holes of 2021, shooting seven-under 30 to jump out to the Tournament of Champions lead. She bettered that nine on Saturday, when she shot nine-under 28 on the back nine to cap off a preposterous third round of 60. Then came Sunday.

“You guys finally get your wish,” Jessica told reporters, referring to the star-studded group. She was right.

Folks tread carefully on this subject, but the LPGA desperately needs American women to step up, and by now we should be resigned to the fact that it won't be Lexi...  It's probably better as well that the older sister reminded us that she can play a little as well.  Shall we see what the TC gang thought?

4. A day after shooting 60 (!) at the LPGA’s 2021 season opener, the Diamond Resorts event, Jessica Korda fired a fourth-round 66 to advance to a playoff, where she beat world No. 5 Danielle Kang on the first extra hole. Korda played in the final group on Sunday with her sister, Nelly, the fourth-ranked player in the world, which served as a nice reminder of the sisters’ combined firepower. What most intrigues you about these super siblings?

Sens: The way they seem able to switch it on and off in a snap, from loose and laid back to fiery in an instant. You see Jessica today bopping to the music on the 18th tee, and then fist-bumping moments later? They both have that higher gear they can shift to in an eyeblink, but neither ever seems at risk of blowing a gasket.

Bamberger: The role that the athletic gene plays in determining who makes it and who does not. All that nature, in conjunction with all that nurture. The whole family is gifted. Mom, dad and bro, too.

Zak: What intrigues me most is we don’t know who is better! A great problem to have. Could we get two Korda majors in a single season? For sure. We’ve spent 2020 waiting for Nelly to break through in a major, but perhaps Jessica’s win could come first? They’re fun, that’s the bottom line.

Dethier: Jessica pointed out on Saturday that she’d been winning plenty — five times, to be exact — before Nelly got on Tour. It was a lighthearted comment, but with some truth to it, too. This week’s victory was particularly intriguing because it flipped the recent script of Nelly as the ascendant talent and Jessica as the supportive older sister. Shooting 126 on the weekend is serious business.

Of course, most of the best Korean women were elsewhere this time of year, so hold that triumphalism.  But still, as per Dylan, an awfully good start....  Except, you know, for Danielle.  Had to be a tough, or at least weird, pairing for her.

The Euro Beat - This guy seems to be coming up fast on the outside:

A day in the desert supposedly set up to endorse Rory McIlroy’s chances of claiming an elusive Green Jacket at Augusta National in 11 weeks’ time instead delivered only further evidence that

Tyrrell Hatton should be targeting majors of his own.

Hatton brushed McIlroy aside at the Abu Dhabi Championship, thereby delivering a fourth worldwide success since late 2019. When golf’s world rankings are published on Monday, Hatton could find himself above McIlroy and as high as fifth. The 29-year-old from High Wycombe is worthy of more widespread plaudits than have arrived this far.

Rory winning the Masters?  Heh, that's a good one, Ewan.  But just a word of caution... If you're inclined to lay a few bob on the event, I do hope you "Know when to lay up™.  But Hatton ranking higher than Rory in the OWGR is a shocker for sure.... hopefully it shocks some urgency into the Ulsterman.

But Hatton is one of those guys that's demonstrated he can win, though his play at the biggies hasn't been up to his standards:

Hatton has all but secured a place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team for later this year already. He is

entitled to further, lofty goals. “Everyone in their career, their goal is to win a major and I’m no different,” said Hatton. “Obviously the majors last year for me were disappointing, I missed the cut in all three. But golf’s a funny game. You’re trying your best every single week, and some weeks, it sort of works out better than others. So I’m hoping that in 2021, the majors fall in good weeks for me.”

Hatton has struck up a wonderfully successful partnership with the charismatic Scottish caddie Mick Donaghy. “Mick has won four times the amount that I have,” said Hatton with a smile. That point relates to experience. “I love our partnership and working together. I’m hoping that continues for a very long time.”

Not only do I assume that will change, but he'll be a beat at Whistling Straights for sure...

In posting on the event, Geoff ties it to the Englishman's Tuesday obligations.  What were those?  I guess you missed this from the amusing folks at the Euro Tour's media ops:

These guys are good, to coin a phrase...  The problem is... well, you know the humorless bunch from Ponte Vedra Beach?  Geoff articulates the same concern that I feel:

I know, we should enjoy these until the PVB Fun Police pounce and scrub from the internet.

 Video comes down in 3,2,1....

But methinks Alistair Tate way overinterprets with this:

Want to know where that huge intangible called team spirit comes from that’s helped Europe win nine of the last 12 Ryder Cups despite often having weaker teams? Watch the European Tour’s latest social media success: Angry Golfers.

The European Tour social media team has once again produced a vignette that’s not only entertaining, but helps explain why European Tour players come together every two years to form a cohesive unit to take on the might of the United States.

The European Tour social media team has obviously scripted and planned this brilliant vignette, but they wouldn’t have had to cajole the players into taking part. In fact, I bet there was no need to go through management groups to get to the participants. The players would have been up for it right from the get go. It’s just an extension of the banter, the practical jokes, that never stops on the European Tour.

Making putts is also good...  I'm not saying this isn't a factor, but I think the far bigger issue is being the underdog.  

Tait's premise would go down better, had he not used it in connection with this guy:

“I started to think it was a bit of a fallacy all this talk about the camaraderie about the European Team, that maybe that idea was over-played because half the guys play in America and the other half play in Europe but it’s real,” McDowell said. “It does exist. I saw it this week in front of my own eyes. I saw Rory McIlroy lift Tyrrell Hatton’s spirits. I saw Justin Rose being able to lift Thorbjorn Olesen up to his level. I’ve seen it happen. I know it’s real.

“European players naturally gel together without thinking. They become different people every two years. It comes naturally. Rory McIlroy’s a different person this week than he is week to week on the PGA Tour when he’s looking after himself. Seve was the same. So was Ollie (Jose Maria Olazabal).”

Really?  Because the Rory we saw yesterday in Abu Dhabi looked remarkably similar to the Rory that went out first in singles against Patrick in 2016 and against JT in France...  As for comparing Rory to Seve?  People have forfeited their commentary license for less...

The TC panel considers Tyrell, though with this rather over-the-top framing:

2. In the past 14 months, Tyrrell Hatton has won the Turkish Airlines Open; the Arnold Palmer Invitational; the BMW PGA Championship, the Euro tour’s flagship event; and, on Sunday, the Abu Dhabi Championship. Is Hatton the most dangerous player in golf right now?

Not even close, no disrespect intended.

Sens: Not as long as Dustin Johnson is still walking the planet.

Bamberger: No, but he is most underrated. Until all those wins were put together in one sentence rich in semicolons, I had no idea.

Zak: He’s dangerous in the sense that we won’t take him totally seriously … and then he’ll bag another big victory. Could he win the Masters? TOTALLY. And then he’d seem even more dangerous. But as Sens said, DJ owns that title until he finishes outside the top 20 in any big event.

Dethier: Hatton is among the 10 most dangerous players in golf right now, which seems like a high level of danger. There are still times that Hatton doesn’t seem wholly comfortable — he missed cuts at all three majors in 2020 — but hoo boy, when he’s in the zone, flagsticks get scared.

He's a nice little player, but until he starts showing up in bigger events, I'd have him just a little lower than that world ranking.  

Of course, these two things are not at all alike:

3. Among the players Hatton beat in Abu Dhabi was Rory McIlroy, who led by one going into the final round only to do something we’ve seen time and again from him in recent months: come up short on Sunday; McIlroy shot an even-par 72 that left him five back off Hatton, in solo third. Meanwhile, at the American Express, in Palm Springs, 54-hole co-leader Tony Finau, who also has struggled to close out events, shot 68 to finish four back of Si Woo Kim. (Finau’s fourth-round score was two worse than that of any other player who finished in the top five.) See any similarities in this duo’s Sunday struggles?

Sens: Sometimes the obvious answer is the right answer. And the obvious answer is that it’s become a mental issue for them both. No one is immune to the hobgoblins in this game.

Bamberger: I would agree. To paraphrase Bob Jones, there’s Thursday, Friday and Saturday golf, and then there is Sunday golf, and it is not at all the same thing.

Zak: I definitely do not want to equate the two. Finau can’t get it across the finish line anywhere. Rory contends so much he’s going to struggle to seal the deal at times. He’s probably thinking about it a good bit. I’ll get worried if he doesn’t win by summertime.

Dethier: What’s most similar about their Sunday struggles is that they’re generally still playing solid, if unspectacular, final rounds of golf — and getting beaten by ridiculous performances by other golfers. It would be easier to criticize these guys if they were shooting, like, 79 every Sunday. But Finau shot 68 this afternoon! He’s hardly going to change careers anytime soon.

Yeah, the bit about it being in their heads is likely true enough, but they're quite obviously at different stages of their careers.  There's no reason to over-react to Rory in Abu Dhabi the first week of the year.  The far bigger issue, and I'm not sure what the comparables would be, is that he plays his worst when he wants it the most ( see, for example, Augusta and Portrush).

One last bit from this event, az worthy contender for the title, worst lie ever.  I'm just going to show you the lie:

Sheesh, looks like that ball is wearing a toupee.  Here's the skinny:

Miguel Vidaor was called for a ruling. Jorge Campillo, during Friday’s second round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, had hit his drive down the 1st fairway at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. Vidaor, the tournament director, saw Campillo. Vidaor saw Campillo’s clubs.

“I got close to him, and I said, ‘Jorge, what’s the problem?’ because I couldn’t see any balls lying around,” Vidaor said on a video on the European Tour’s social media feeds.

“And he said, ‘Well, that’s my problem.’”

For sure.

Campillo’s ball had hit about a 3-golf-ball-long divot left by a previous player, and upon contact, it improbably, completely covered the front of the ball and provided shade for the rest. So particularly placed was the strip of grass and mud that Vidaor, at first, thought it was done purposefully.

“Obviously that wasn’t the case because there was evidence to that,” Vidaor said on the video, “so I spoke to the scorer who was scoring the hole, and he saw it all live, and basically what happened was the divot was left in an awkward position, and the ball actually went at the divot in speed, and the divot kind of wrapped the ball and ended up on top of it.”

But who doesn't like a story with happy ending?

As hard as that might be to do, the ruling is easy.

Campillo could hit the ball, but Vidaor estimated that he’d have to hit three or four inches behind it in order to not move it ahead of time. Campillo could also remove the divot without penalty, as it’s a loose impediment. But, according to the Rules, if “your removal of a loose impediment causes your ball to move, your ball must be replaced on its original spot (which if not known must be estimated). If your moved ball had been at rest anywhere except on the putting green or in the teeing area, you get one penalty stroke.”

Campillo, Vidaor said, “decided because it was so bad, the amount of divot he had between him and the club, he thought, ‘Well, this is like a penalty stroke so I might as well take the risk of moving the divot and hopefully the ball won’t move.’”

Campillo, under the eye of Vidaor, grabbed both ends of the divot, and after about 15 seconds, had moved it without moving the ball. “I would have to say he would be a good surgeon,” Vidaor said.

Alas, not THAT happy, as Campillo missed the cut.

That's all for today folks, and we'll gather again later in the week. 

The Lido Shuffle

This is the long-form piece to which I referred on Wednesday, on a subject about which I've long wanted to write.  We'll start in the present tense, with this news story:

One of the most revered course designs in the annals of golf architecture is coming back from the dead.

The original Lido Golf Club, the revered Long Island layout designed by C.B. Macdonald and later destroyed by the U.S. Navy during World War II, is being reborn – in its original form – in the sands of Central Wisconsin. Tom Doak and his Renaissance Design team are heading up the re-creation of the Lido on an 850-acre property adjacent to the Sand Valley Golf Resort.

If you sense Keiser involvement, you’re right.

But rather than Mike Keiser, the visionary behind destination golf resorts such as Bandon Dunes, Cabot Links and Sand Valley, it’s his sons, Michael Jr. and Chris, who are taking the lead on the Lido project. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with total estimated costs of approximately $16 million for the course, infrastructure and a clubhouse. A tentative opening is set for 2023.

The 18th hole at The New Lido in a digital rendering by Peter Flory.

Lots to unpack here, so you might want to freshen that coffee. I've had cause to reference the Lido several times over the years, but always in passing. But you're well within your rights to ask, What is this Lido you speak of?"

From Garrett Morrison at The Fried Egg:

Built during World War I, the original Lido was a massive, unprecedented feat of engineering. Architect C.B. Macdonald and his partner Seth Raynor installed the course on a tract of seaside swampland by dredging an estimated 2,000,000 cubic yards of sand from the bottom of an inland channel. The project cost nearly $800,000—an astonishing sum for the time.

After the Lido opened in 1917, it received widespread praise. A survey by the New York Metropolitan Golfer in the late 1920s ranked it the second best golf course in the United States, behind only Pine Valley. Writer Bernard Darwin called the Lido “the finest course in the world,” and Masters champion Claude Harmon referred to it as “the greatest golf course ever.”

Daniel Wexler, whose book The Missing Links is our source for the above details, described the original course this way:

“It was… the first truly ‘man-made’ golf course, its massive earth shaping rivaling that of almost any project undertaken in the modern era. It was also, without a doubt, a most authentic-looking creation, its barren, links-like expanse broken only by the six-story Lido Club, an enormous clubhouse/hotel erected at ocean’s edge in 1928. And while frequently noted for its great toughness, it was also a strategic masterpiece, providing the player with numerous shotmaking options, several alternate fairways, and some of the best replica holes [also known as ‘template holes’] ever built.”

A Plasticine model of the Lido routing, designed by Macdonald himself.

Boy, does "Replica Hole" sound off-putting.  Not an argument for today, but I'll just say that a "Replica Hole" is what I picture a bad version of a Template Hole" being...

The struggle is to understand what this course was, what it could have been, that having lasted a mere ten years, can maintain its undiminished mystique more than a century after its creation, when no man that played it still lives.  

Anyone needing a Macdonald primer, would do worse than this from Andy Johnson, also of The Fried Egg.  Macdonald is quite simply the Father of American Golf Architecture, and perhaps the father of American golf as well.  He had, at the point we pick up the story, already built the first 18-hole golf course in the United States, Chicago Golf Club, and had completed his masterpiece, The National Golf Links of America, as well as highly-regarded Piping Rock.  That bit, having already peaked in a sense with The National, leads to one of the serendipitous aspects of this tale we'll get to soon.

The first thing you need to know is that, having inspected the 115 acre parcel compromising mostly marsh and swamp, Macdonald wanted nothing to do with it.  Ironic, for sure, but one can understand his reaction to what must have seemed flat, featureless land.  But, also ironically, Macdonald was convinced that that negative was actually a positive (alas, they didn't use the bug/feature metaphor in the day), in that he could create whatever he wanted, as an unlimited budget allowed sand to be pumped to create any contours desired.  One can also readily see the appeal of that to Macdonald specifically, a man renown for his rather elevated self regard.

The 175-yard Eden third at the Lido, with the footbridge to the fourth fairway seen at left.

The next bit is the payoff on that reference above, as Macdonald understood that he couldn't necessarily improve on some of those template holes at The National (an assessment with which I agree), and saw a need for something new.  The widely-respected golf writer Bernard Darwin was in New York in 1914, and Macdonald convinced him to run a design contest, which Darwin did in the magazine, Country Life.  The panel of judges is its own story, including amateur champion and Old-Tom fishing buddy Horace Hutchinson and Walton heath creator Herbert Fowler, in addition to Darwin.

The 20 quid winning prize was awarded for a design that became the Lido's 18th hole, including an ingenuous triple fairway, one of which was on an island in the lagoon.  The entry was submitted by a Dr. Alister MacKenzie, from whom much was to be heard..  Now, a myth has developed that this contest plucked Mackenzie from the anonymity of life as a country doctor, but that just wasn't the case.  He already was a practicing architect, was referred to as such in the magazine, and had already designed Alwoodley, one of his noted successes, though there's also little doubt that this jump-started his career.  To this day, the Alister MacKenzie Society maintains its Lido Design Competition, form which we can only hope to fond new Dr. MacKenzies.

This obsession with the Lido isn't new for the Keisers:

Mike Keiser’s* interest in the Lido dates back at least to 2002, when George Bahto published his C.B. Macdonald biography The Evangelist of Golf. (*To distinguish between father and son, we refer to Keiser Sr. as “Mike” and Keiser Jr. as “Michael.”) According to Stephen Goodwin’s book Dream Golf, Mike Keiser called Bahto to ask if the historian thought it was possible to rebuild the Lido. When Bahto said yes, Keiser invited him to see a property on the Oregon coast.

That property, just north of the recently opened Pacific Dunes at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, turned out to be ill-suited to a Lido. Keiser ultimately hired Tom Doak and Jim Urbina to design a collection of tributes to Macdonald’s “ideal holes.” The course, under the cheeky name of Old Macdonald, opened in 2009.

This process revealed to the Keisers how difficult it would be to recreate the Lido. Mike Keiser’s golfing friends, whose opinions he always took into account, were concerned that the course would be a mere novelty. For his part, Doak did not want to bulldoze Oregon sand dunes for the sake of an historical homage. Besides, as he told Stephen Goodwin, “I didn’t really believe George or anyone else had good enough information on the Lido to build it just like it had been.”

I think was very much the right call, as the property that became Old Macdonald features massive ridgelines and other interesting landforms that would have been shameful to expose to earth-moving equipment.  And as good as some of those template holes on Old Mac are, in reviewing the course for Larry Gavrich's site way back when (Part I here, followed by II and III), I tried to make the point that the architects did their best work in some cases by ignoring their playbook, and allowing the land to dictate the routing.  

So, what do we know about the project?  To begin with, lots of effort is involved, beginning with the aforementioned Peter Flory:

Now, a decade later, researchers have found more information, and perhaps more important, they have organized that information more rigorously. Leading the effort is Peter Flory, who runs a consulting business in Chicago.

A few years ago, Flory’s work slowed down, and he began looking for a new hobby—“something to be creative,” as he put it in an interview with The Fried Egg, “a kind of zen activity.” Flory became curious about lost golf courses by reading Daniel Wexler’s books. Meanwhile, he was teaching himself the software of The Golf Club, a video game that allows users to create highly detailed virtual builds of courses. “And I thought to myself, What’s the holy grail of lost golf courses?’”

So in early 2018, Flory set out to create a digital version of the Lido. For help with research, he started a thread on the Golf Club Atlas message board. He was surprised by the number of maps, photos, and other archival scraps that came his way. “I became a kind of repository for Lido information,” he said.

What Flory ended up producing in the Golf Club game astonished other Lido researchers.

Which then piqued the interest of all sorts of interesting folks, including Tom Doak and the Kesiers:

Flory’s work received wider attention in May 2019, when Golf Channel aired a brief feature on the history of the Lido. Still, he had no reason to believe that his passion project would end up providing the basis for an actual golf course.

That changed in the fall of 2019, when Flory received a call from Tom Doak, himself a regular poster on Golf Club Atlas. Doak wanted to know more about the virtual build—how accurate it was, how the research had been done. “I think I convinced him that it’s not 100% accurate, but it’s really good,” Flory said. “It’s as good as you can do with the information available.”

“When you looked at the graphics,” Doak told Andy Johnson in an upcoming episode of The Fried Egg Podcast, “you thought, ‘That looks pretty close. I mean, I don’t see anything there that looks like it’s clearly wrong or out of place. That’s kind of amazing.’”

In early winter, Flory’s phone rang again. This time, Michael Keiser was on the line, and he asked permission to use one of Flory’s renderings to pique the interest of prospective Wisconsin Lido members. “Not only did he say yes,” Keiser said, “he offered to help in any way he could.” Keiser invited Flory to Madison for a meeting, and soon the virtual builder was an official advisor for a real build.

That Golf Channel video, featuring Jim Urbina, is here:

Urbina worked for Tom Doak, and is credited for much of the wonderful shaping of Pacific Dunes.  Doak and Urbina had separated at the time Old Macdonald was built, but at Mike Keiser's insistence, Urbina was named a full co-designer.  How's that for a job reference?

This project will be quite the departure for the Keiser family, who have earned their minimalist street cred by eschewing the movement of earth.  In this case, they're recreating a "man-made" course, so heavy equipment will be involved:

To replicate the terrain of the Long Island Lido, a great deal of Wisconsin sand will need to be pushed around—approximately 700,000 cubic yards, Keiser estimates. This is another change of pace for the Keisers, who have garnered praise for how little earthmoving their courses have required.

But unlike, say, the Old Macdonald site, the Lido Conservancy does not have massive landforms that would be tragic to lose. It is relatively flat, and its sandy base is malleable. While a far cry from the seaside swamp where C.B. Macdonald manufactured his masterpiece a century ago, the Wisconsin property can—and will—be refashioned in service of an ambitious vision.

“Compared to what we’ve done in the past, it’s a massive construction project,” Keiser said. “But given the quality of the golf course, it will all be worth it.”

Hey, it's the friggin' Lido, move as much earth as you need to...  Here are some more of those photographic renderings, this of the MacKenzie 18th hole with it's multiple fairways:

And this of No. 4, the Channel Hole:

There's another aspect in which this course will also be a departure for the Keisers:

Although next door to Sand Valley, the new Lido will not be part of the resort. Rather, it will be a private club that allows regular public play. At the moment, the Keisers plan to give members the run of the course on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning. From Sunday afternoon through Thursday, tee times will be available within specific windows to Sand Valley guests.

This is the first time since 1995’s Dunes Club that the Keisers have experimented with private golf, and they want to make clear that their Lido will not be an exclusive enclave. It will instead emulate the relaxed model of many Scottish and Irish golf clubs: members will get preferred tee times and other privileges, but visitors will have ready access to the tee sheet.

“There is so much that inspires us about the architecture and culture of golf in the UK,” the Keiser brothers said in a press release. “Golf clubs in Scotland and Ireland generously welcome guests onto their grounds to play their extraordinary links. We look forward to introducing this hospitality to golfers here in the U.S.”

“Private golf [in America] needs to change trajectory,” Michael Keiser added. “Hopefully there will be several different models that will emerge, and this could be one of them.” Keiser is not, however, looking to make further forays into the club business. “The private [element] is very different” for the family, he said, “and it’s a one-off.”

Generously?  That originates less in generosity than in necessity, as the fees paid by traveling golfers supports the Scottish and Irish clubs, keeping dues at a level that the citizenry can afford.  We've had several opportunities to discuss this recently in light of the pandemic shutting down travel, putting most of the clubs in an existential fight for survival.  While club economics are quite different here, it's not like our private clubs don't have their own long-term viability issues.

One last bit, and then I'll move on.  Mike Kesier has worked with most of the name brand architects of the current minimalist era, including notably Coore-Crenshaw, Tom Doak and David McClay Kidd, who got his start on the original Bandon Dunes course.  The name that jumps out as missing from the quiver is Gil Hanse, so enjoy the irony of this:

This isn’t the first time the original Lido has served as inspiration. Gil Hanse recently completed an 18-hole layout at a private club in Thailand called Ballyshear Links that pays homage to the Lido. Hanse also sought to replicate the “lost” Lido in his course, which is opening later this year, but the collaboration between Doak and the Keisers will bring the mythical Lido back for golfers in North America to experience.

Well, Gil does good work, but Wisconsin is a heck of a lot closer than Thailand.  Sand Valley has been very much on my radar, though a trip there has suddenly been pushed back to 2023, at the earliest.