Fans will be allowed at Augusta National for the 85th Masters in April, chairman Fred Ridley announced in a press release on Tuesday, but numbers will be limited, provided it is deemed safe to welcome patrons on property.
That means that the euphoric winners of the 2020 Masters tickets lottery who were unable to attend the patron-less November edition may still be out of luck this year.
According to the press release, Augusta National is currently communicating with all ticket holders and will issue refunds to patrons who are not selected to attend.
Anything more aggressive would have been unrealistic so, as the astute analysts noted, it is what it is. I know the compassion of my core audience, so you'll no doubt be worried about those Masters badge holders:
“While we are disappointed that we will be unable to accommodate a full complement of patrons this year, we will continue our efforts to ensure that all who purchased tickets from Augusta National will have access in 2022,” Ridley said in the press release. “Provided conditions improve.”
Gee, thanks Fred. Contemplating April of 2022 without improved conditions is just what your humble blogger needs to get moving. Off this ledge, that is...
No doubt this will be the most welcome news for folks:
Ridley also noted that the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals will also continue as scheduled in April, and both of these competitions will host a small number of spectators.
I could readily insert the typical "Woman and children hardest hit" bits here, but this good news indeed. Now, if they could only get their heads out of their you-know-whats and move the date of the Women's event to eliminate the conflict with the Dinah. Yeah, who am I kidding?
In other venue news, this event confirmed the obvious:
Genesis Invitational organizers announce upcoming event will be played without fans
Translated into English, that's Riviera (which, actually, is an Italian word). But given that it's in California, perhaps the bigger question is whether they'll have electricity.
Fresh off their social media success with that Golf's Biggest Events graphic, the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach have a wee issue:
The PGA Tour is expected to announce shortly that the WGC-Mexico Championship will not beplayed in Mexico City this year. The Feb. 25-28 event is likely to be relocated because Grupo Salinas, the sponsorship group in Mexico, was unwilling to stage the event locally without the ability to have spectators or hospitality because of the coronavirus pandemic. That means the event's future as a WGC in Mexico City is uncertain.
The event that dates to 1999 (when it was known as the WGC-American Express Championship) was won by Patrick Reed last year at Chapultepec Golf Club and moved to Mexico City in 2017 after sponsorship issues caused a move from Trump Doral following the 2016 tournament.
Whether a new sponsor is needed to put on the event, or if there is a reduced purse from the $9.5 million offered last year, is still to be determined.
If, as believed, the event moves to a venue in Florida, it will give players a four-tournament swing that includes the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship and the Honda Classic.
Gee, where could they find a Tour-ready venue in South Florida?
More importantly, as this drags on and on, we should anticipate continued fallout among the sponsors. I can't imagine their economics looks very promising, and I've long believed this is a house of cards even before the pandemic. So, I'm guessing Jay and his minions will have a busy year.
'22 And Me - May 2022 will be here before we know it, and everyone and their brother has a suggestion as to where the PGA of America should take their flagship event. Let's start our tour with Dylan Dethier, who selects the public option from the drop down menu.
Damn, I just embeded my first Instagram post... Now, if only I could figure out how to center it.
But the suggestion of Bethpage is profoundly silly, given that it's in the rota and they were there in 2019. But Torrey North? How many reasons do you need to laugh at that? Not only is the USGA there this coming June, but if your objective was to ensure the PGA Championship is perceived as a second tier event, what better plan than to use the second best golf course at a venue?
By the way, Dylan, if you want a worthy course that's the second best at a facility, perhaps look a bit further North at Spyglass Hills.
The most interesting suggestion might just be Chambers Bay, though that's quite the rehabilitation effort. Here's Dylan's case:
1. Chambers Bay
Ah, Chambers Bay. If you spend too much time on this website you’ve already read me unapologetically shilling for the municipal pride of the Pacific Northwest. Chambers hosted the
2015 U.S. Open and got mixed reviews, because it was a strange tournament. Fox was making its broadcast debut, Tiger Woods was bottoming out, Jason Day got vertigo, the greens got too baked out and Billy Horschel got upset.
But in reality the course produced a terrific tournament, a top-tier leaderboard and an awesome visual product. Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth battled to the very last hole, after all! Now, it’s even better: Chambers has new greens. The conditioning is fantastic. And it’s the essence of a high-quality city park course; joggers, beach-goers and kite-flyers frequent the course and its surrounding property. It’s time to take the PGA back to Chambers Bay.
How's that for a rousing cri de coeur? Let's take the PGA back to a place where it's never been held. That'll rally the troops.
To me, the PGA Championship is one that struggles to find its own identity, not least because of their fondness for hand-me-down U.S. Open venues. So, the obvious question is whether they need another of those, especially one that didn't exactly wow the world in its debut.
But this is also Hazeltine redux. That Minnesota venue hosted the 1970 U.S. Open, summarized thusly on Wikipedia:
Hazeltine hosted the U.S. Open in 1970 and the course received much negative press as many big names and nearly half the field didn't break 80 the first day. The weather had been very cool and windy. After his round on Friday, Dave Hill said that the only thing Hazeltine was missing was "80 acres of corn and a few cows." Tony Jacklin (that year's reigning Open Championship winner) won the tournament with a seven-under-par 281. The course played to 7,151 yards (6,539 m) and Hill placed second.
Kind of a matched set with Chambers Bay '15, no? Now Hazeltine got a mulligan in 1991, one that my namesake gifted to Payne Stewart twice on the 16th hole, not that I'm bitter. I still think it's a curious concept to host either the U.S. Open or PGA on a links, given that other event the R&A used to hold.
Others opining on potential venues include Sunday's Tour Confidential panel, who offer up quite the mad mélange of choices. But it's fun mad, mostly:
Michael Bamberger: Any course not associated with Donald Trump. Some suggestions in different categories. Innisbrook, Florida resort course. East Potomac G.C., muni with a view of the Washington Monument and no need to do much to it–just let the fellas play, whatever they shoot, they shoot. Cypress Point Club, private club, nice views, good course. (Regarding scores: ditto.) Augusta National, a month or so after the Masters. The first Senior PGA Championship was held at Augusta National and that went so well the second one was held there, too.
Josh Sens: Baltusrol will be fresh off a renovation. Or Canterbury in Ohio. Great championship pedigree that hasn’t hosted a biggie in some time. Or (Bay Area bias alert), bring it back to Harding and let our city course have its crack at another major. With fans this time.
Luke Kerr-Dineen: How about Riviera? It’s an iconic course everyone loves that’s hosted two PGA Championships in the past, there’ll be lots of birdies to go around, and it’s obviously on the west coast, so you’ll get the championship into prime time.
Alan Bastable: Given it’s super-short notice, the stand-in is going to need to be a plug-and-play venue that has hosted big-time golf in the past. It’d also be nice to keep the event in the Jerz. Baltusrol comes to mind, though I’m not sure that’s many fans’ first choice. And Liberty National is reportedly a front runner. But I’d love to see it at a more classic design that only coincidentally is a five-minute drive from my house: Plainfield, you free?
Dylan Dethier: Anyone who visits this space regularly already knows what I’m going to say: Chambers Bay. It made for spectacular tournament viewing the first time around, and that was before they redid the greens — no player-grousing this time around! If we ended up with half the quality of leaderboard we had last time, it would still be a rousing success. Plus, what better time to highlight muni golf?(If I’m limited to a non-Chambers answer, let’s head back to Royal Melbourne. Yes, I know, it’s the PGA of America … but just file this one under “growing the game” and let’s all head Down Under for a week or two.)
Alan Shipnuck: Shoal Creek. For so long, it was a symbol of what’s wrong with the game. But the club has changed, and returning the PGA there would be a symbol of progress at exactly the right time.
The first two Senior PGAs were held at ANGC? Why didn't anyone tell me?
Baltusrol has a 2029 PGA awarded, not that that's disqualifying necessarily. I actually like Shipnuck's suggestion, which works far better in May than in August. I actually also like Riviera, though I'm typically not a fan of taking majors to regular Tour stops. Royal Melbourne is a fun thought, but that only lasts until you consider the time of day the event would be broadcast... Unfortunately, our game continues to stubbornly require daylight.
One last list of ten possibilities with much overlap from the Golf Digest staff writers, though the Honorable Mention list is laugh-out-loud funny:
Honorable mentions: Bethpage Black (just held ’19 PGA with ’25 Ryder Cup on horizon), Streamsong Resort (tricky logistics), Tobacco Road (could only work without fans), Friar’s Head (ditto), Blackwolf Run (Whistling Straits has already hosted three PGAs along with this year’s Ryder Cup), Gozzer Ranch (give Idaho its major!)
In our GMTA moment for the day, they tout Spyglass, which I hadn't seen when I threw it out above, but also this "members' course" as well:
Winged Foot (East), Mamaroneck, N.Y.It might be overshadowed by its bigger, meaner older brother, but the East Course is known locally as the more enjoyable of the two tracks. Is it long enough for a major? Probably not, but then again, what course is these days? And this is the PGA, not the U.S. Open, so we can stomach a birdie-fest. Plus, it’d keep the tournament in the NYC metro area. Who says no, besides the Winged Foot members? —DR
A fun thought, but this club seems to be back in the USGA orbit, so it fails the reality test.
When I first heard the news, my immediate reaction was Valhalla, because this was exactly PGA of America's stated reason for acquiring that club. The only negative is that the Louisville venue had already been awarded the 2024 PGA Championship. But this would seem to be the path of least resistance, and it logically far easier to then find a replacement venue in 2024, with two additional years of prep time.
About That Doc - I haven't watched it, nor am I sure whether I will. But heads will explode at this start turn:
There’s one big thing missing from HBO’s new documentary on Tiger Woods:
Tiger Woods.
The 15-time major champion didn’t sit for an interview or help craft the story for the two-part doc entitled Tiger — the first part of which was released Sunday night — citing an existing media relationship. It wasn’t just Tiger missing; nobody from Woods’ current inner circle participated.
But that cleared the stage for a central member of Woods’ former inner circle to take over: longtime caddie Steve Williams.
You'll no doubt remember the point I made on Monday, in response to the producers' claim that they gave Tiger his voice through those that were close to him. The obvious issue is that they had access to a very specific subset of those insiders, to wit, those that no longer have insider status.
But I'm not sure that at the time I knew this:
Williams wasn’t there at the beginning, during the hyper-accelerated golf development of Woods’ childhood. And he wasn’t there at the end, when Woods completed his legendary comeback at the 2019 Masters. But in between, Williams was there for a heck of a lot of Woods’ life, on and off the course. He was by Woods’ side for 13 major championship victories, serving as his caddie, and he was by Woods’ side on his wedding day, too, serving as best man.
Stevie was Tiger's best man? I find that really depressing for some reason...Though Steiny would have been even more depressing, admittedly.
In any event, Stevie's got some stories (Spoiler Alert, some of these are from Part II, which airs this coming Sunday):
To hear Williams tell it, everything was done with winning major championships in mind. Thatwas their partnership’s clear No. 1 priority. Sometimes that took him to spots he couldn’t believe, like the side of one Canadian road:
“I remember we were driving down this freeway and he goes, ‘Stevie, stop the car, stop the car,'” Williams recalls. “And he got a golf club out of the trunk, and he’s there swinging on the side of the road. Now here’s Tiger Woods on the side of the freeway in Toronto, swinging a golf club.
“He’s got this thought in his head, and he couldn’t wait till the next day or until we got back to the hotel, it had to be now. No one would do that. Nobody.”
And this about the circumstances of their divorce:
In 2010, in Woods’ first start after the scandal, he tied for fourth at the Masters, then took off more time in the months that followed. Williams asked if he could caddie temporarily for Adam Scott.
“I ran that by Tiger, and he said absolutely, no problem, but then a couple days before the tournament Tiger changed his mind. He had his agent call. He said, ‘If you go and caddie for your friend, that’ll be the end of your time caddying for Tiger.'”
He caddied anyway, assuming it was an idle threat. But a couple days after the tournament, Williams got the call: Williams was out. Really out. “I didn’t think that we’d have no communication for the rest of our life,” Williams said. “That just didn’t even enter my mind.”
Kinda funny, given that he should have noticed the treatment of Fluff and Butch... Of course, we never think the Grim Reaper is coming for us...
The Tour Confidential panel would not have had the opportunity to see it when they convened Sunday evening, so they came at it from this angle:
6. Part I of HBO’s Tiger Woods documentary, Tiger, debuted Sunday night. In your mind, what is the most intriguing element of Woods’ life/career arc?
Sens: The comeback. Though I don’t know how you separate that arc of the story from the rest of the narrative, since part of what makes it so enthralling is the heights to which he rose and the depths to which he fell. It was basically a Greek tragedy, with a Hollywood ending.
LKD: His various golf swing changes. That Tiger never rested on his laurels, even at his very best, is perhaps the greatest insight of all into the way his mind works. He has an unrelenting drive to keep improving, no matter what.
Bastable: I’m with Sens — tough to beat the long climb back to that magical week in April 2019. But watching the doc, I also was reminded of the epic-ness of his 2008 U.S. Open win at Torrey. The film did a great job illuminating the dire state of his body in the run-up to that week and Tiger’s stubborn refusal to succumb to the pain. One of the all-time great W’s in any sport from any era.
A digression, since Alan mentions Torrey '08. This from Stevie:
And he was there when Woods defied conventional and medical wisdom at the 2008 U.S. Open.
“I said to him, ‘Hey Tiger, you might be jeopardizing your career here. Maybe this is a time to quit.’ And I’ll never forget: He looks at me and he says, ‘Stevie, f— you, I’m winning this tournament.'”
Now you know Bamberger will have an interesting take, and he doesn't disappoint:
Bamberger: I’ve watched the first part of the documentary, and I don’t know why Mark Steinberg would think it is anything other than outstanding. It humanizes Tiger immensely. I think it is a superb piece of journalism and storytelling. It sets up everything that is surely coming in the second part: the stiletto parade; Tiger’s body giving out on him; the roadside arrest; the fifth Masters win. Which was great, that win, if you think winning takes care of everything. The most intriguing thing to me about Tiger’s life, to answer the posed question, is how and when he will discover the depth of that lie. Earl provided Tiger with the jet fuel that made his life possible, and Earl was also the retaining wall in Tiger’s life that he could not scale.
(Ed note: Both Bamberger and Shipnuck appear in the documentary.)
I just can't imagine that Tiger or Steiny was amused by this roman à clef, despite its absurdly upbeat conclusion.
Dethier: The most intriguing element of his life is the only thing we’ll never really know: What it’s actually like to be Tiger Woods. The doc was great! I don’t want to minimize that, because it was a complex portrait painted by a compelling cast of characters. Everyone should be particularly eager to watch pt. 2 next week, starring Michael Bamberger. But its best moments were when it gave us windows into Woods’ first-person perspective through the peaks and valleys of an unparalleled career. One moment in that documentary got particularly close for me, though, when Steve Williams recounted this quote from Woods:
“Sometimes you feel you just can’t be yourself, because you’ve got so many people depending on you, so many people watching you, so many people invested in you.”
What’s that like? Hopefully we’ll find out.
But Shippy gets last word, and nails it:
Shipnuck: This dovetails with what Mike said — I think there is one question that hangs over Tiger’s life and career, which I’m not sure he wants to answer and I don’t know if he even could: Was it worth it?
Though, to be fair, I'm not sure that Tiger had much say in the matter. It seems to have been mostly Earl's playbook.
The Auld Sod - In these depressing times, one grasps at just about anything to divert one's mind. This time of year your humble blogger would ordinarily be in ski mode, but that's about as screwed up as everything else right now.
When reality sucks, fantasy is high demand. Your humble blogger has his own rich fantasy world, much of which revolves around the great links of Great Britain and Ireland. I saw this a month or more ago, but Links Magazine had this item on oversees golf club memberships, that hit quite close to home:
Is an Overseas Membership for You?
Close to home because they cite that Irish club that the bride and I almost joined:
Ballylifin Golf Club: The International Life Membership here comes with a long list of benefits, including unlimited golf on its two championship links courses, its 9-hole par-3 course, and discounts on pro shop merchandise, food, and beverages for a one-time fee of €10,000.
Just a spectacularly beautiful place, though awfully remote. It's actually the northernmost golf club in Ireland, though counterintuitively not in Northern Ireland. But who knew they built a Par-3?
But also the Scottish club we did actually join (and just renewed):
Crail Golfing Society: The Overseas Membership at this historic club just 12 miles from St. Andrews provides access to its two 18-hole courses for up to 16 rounds per year (eight on each course), four reduced-price guest tickets, access to members’ priority times, and reciprocal privileges at numerous other clubs for a one-time joining fee of £250 and an annual subscription of £137. Some other small fees also apply.
I've previously shared one of my more embarrassing moments, pulling off the road to find these historic links, but unaware that they are contained within a race track. I need to get here and I need to do the hickory thing, so a combination of the two seems preordained.
We also have this one, though at 31 minutes I've not watched anything but the intro. It's all about East Lothian, although that intro seems focused on the Highlands, with images of Castle Stuart, Royal Dornoch and even Brora jumping out and calling my name.
To me, these images of the great links are the golf equivalent of comfort food. I feel better, at least until I publish this post and get back to the real world.
I'll leave you hear and, since we seem to have settled into a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule, you can probably guess when you'll see me next.
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