How Harris English ended seven-plus years of frustration and proved he belonged at the Sentry Tournament of Champions
Did he now Because the conventional route would be to, just spitballin' here, win a Tour event and thereby prove that one belongs. He just did that, which is fair enough, but the event he won had a 42-player field. Think Hero World Challenge... Or, better yet, a slightly stronger field than the Olympics will feature though, for the record, not a single Slovakian.
But please don't misunderstand, I love the comeback story, one that our game features more frequently:
Eighteen months ago, Harris English was cruising along in the final round of the Korn Ferry Tour Championship when he crashed and burned. Five bogeys over his last seven holes at VictoriaNational Golf Club in Indiana caused him to tumble down the leader board and play his way out of a tour card for the 2019-20 PGA Tour season. It marked the first time the two-time PGA Tour winner was without full playing privileges in seven years as he was relegated to the less desirable 126-150 category on tour.“I’ll say probably the most disappointed I was playing the Korn Ferry finals up at Victoria National, and I had it in my hands of getting my card back,” he said Sunday night at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “I don’t know what happened on the last three or four holes, I just, I didn’t do it, and that was very shocking to me. It hadn’t happened a whole lot in my career where I had opportunities like that and I just let them slip away. So that was tough.”Which had to make the final round at the Plantation Course all the more sweet.
Not all of the final round, but the ending for sure...
Here's a little bit more on his years in the wilderness (hey, I did enjoy the Churchill biography):
English, who lost his playing status on the PGA Tour after the 2018-19 season when he didn’t record a single top-10 and fell to No. 369 in the world, is now thinking about making the Ryder Cup team and winning a major championship.
Of course, this has been coming for a while now:
English also had been building toward Sunday’s win.In his last nine starts dating back to the start of last year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, he had five top-10 finishes, which included a runner-up at The Northern Trust and a fourth-place at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, a result that could have been even better if not for a ball inexplicably lost in the rough not far from the fairway on the opening hole.
We love it when the old guys teach the young punks a lesson... And by "we", I of course mean...well, your humble blogger loves it.
This week's Tour Confidential panel had bigger fish to fry, as you'll readily guess. But this is a fun way to leverage it:
2. Harris English snapped a seven-plus-year PGA Tour winning drought with his victory at the Sentry Tournament of Champions on Sunday. Which other win-starved player (let’s say no PGA Tour W’s in the past five years) is most likely to return to the winner’s circle in 2021?
I'm assuming five years is the benchmark to specifically head off the Spieth dead-enders.
Bamberger: Jimmy Walker. Sneaky Jimmy Walker.
Last time I saw Jimmy was on a milk carton....
But this guy should be banned from future panels, as his answer is clearly in conflict with the intent of the question:
Sens: Has it really been nearly five years since Tony Finau won in Puerto Rico? It has! Dang, time flies. As a runner-up, I’ll modify the terms and go with Abe Ancer. He got his card in 2016 and has yet to get his first win. That’s gotta change before long.
That's not how any of this works, this is supposed to be the grizzled veteran division.
As for this, Le Sigh!
LKD: Jordan Spieth. He’s off to Butch for a second set of eyes — with the blessing of his coach Cameron McCormick — and I gotta believe it’s going to turn around for him soon.
Math remains hard, but here's a tutorial, Luke. 2021-2017 equals four... And four remains stubbornly less than five, so that's two guys on the permanently ineligible list.
Need a laugh?
Bastable: Man, it’s fun to watch players who haven’t won in years getting a taste of victory again. You can see it in their eyes — and hear it in their voice — how much it means, or at least you could with English on Sunday. But to answer the question: Bernhard Langer, 2021 Masters champion.
Didn't see that one coming....
Dethier: Each of these is a bad answer for one reason or another, Luke’s math issues chief among them (Spieth’s 2017 Open wasn’t THAT long ago). The correct answer is Louis Oosthuizen, who owns just a single PGA Tour win: the 2010 Open Championship.
Bamberger: One would not normally say that there is a correct or incorrect answer in these matters, but Dylan is correct: must be King Louie. Or J. Walker.
Shipnuck: Phil Mickelson. The Senior Tour is giving him shots of confidence, he’s longer than he’s ever been, and one hot week with the putter is all it will take.
Et tu, Shippy? Phil won in 2019. I thought it was a good question, but the boys wouldn't stay on the reservation.
Shall we talk about JT? Mind you, I haven't actually watched the video, so I'm not even 100% sure of what he said, though I assume it to be the F-word. Because he's hardly the first among us, though it's of course not a good look:
A day after apologizing for the use of a homophobic slur during the third round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Justin Thomas admitted the incident still weighed heavily on him during Sunday’s final round.“Golf wasn’t the main thing on my mind,” he said. “Usually being four back going into Sunday I’m thinking about one thing and one thing only and that’s trying to win the golf tournament. But obviously had a lot of other things on my mind last night.”
I did find that post-round interview on Sunday awkward, in that the subject of golf never came up. I get the sense that JT is sufficiently well-liked that this will quickly go away, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I'd like to live in a world where we're not crucified based upon the silliest or stupidest thing that comes out of our mouths, it's just not the world in which I happen to reside.
Of course, I'm contractually-required to remind you that Ted Bishop was run out of our game for the thought crime of calling Ian Poulter a little girl. Obviously the circumstances were different, most notably because Suzy Whaley seized the opportunity to step on Ted's corpse and succeed him. How's that patriarchy working out for you, Ted?
The Big Scandal - I saw this as I was blogging on Friday, but it all went to Defcon-5 later that day. Shack has a big post up on the controversy, which I'm guessing most of you completely missed. I assume this was first used on Golf Channel, but see if you immediately discern the hate crimes involved:
This reeks of desperation and shilling for their corporate masters in Ponte Vedra Beach, it just leaves me cold as, you know, a hate crime.
As you know, every action of the PGA Tour should be filtered through the prism of the unique injustice under which they operate. They are the premiere golf tour on the planet, and have recently expanded their span of control to include the only significant competitor, but the ironically don't control any of the 4 1/2 events per year that the golfing public actually cares about. I picture Jay Monahan and, quite amusingly Nurse Ratched before him, shaking their fists at the heavens over this sate of affairs....
One needs to understand such a graphic as a cry for help. A vain attempt to elevate their flagship events to the level of the majors, to which the appropriate reaction is derisive laughter. But the single funniest bit is how they present the FedEx Cop playoffs as a one-day event. To which one can only respond, "If Only."
What is the nature of the outrage? Let's let Shack have his say:
Given the terrible times you’d think golf fans might be shrug off a silly, poorly-executed graphic.The current graphic of scorn comes under the banner, Golf’s Biggest Events. In the past it’s been something about Championship Season, Season of Championships, etc. and has been relentless mocked by the younger sophisticates the game theoretically hopes to embrace.The PGA Tour’s partners at CBS, NBC and Golf Channel all have used the graphic because of exposure to PVDS, currently untreatable by any drug or vaccine.Ponte Vedra’s Desperation Syndrome has been seen most in VP’s based around greater Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. It generally inflicts males with marketing backgrounds. Scientists looking into the syndrome have found PVDS to most impact those with almost no sense of the game’s history, no interest in anything but PGA Tour, and who have shown an almost irrational belief in The Players and FedExCup Playoffs rising to major championship levels.
PVDS has also been known to be highly contagious in certain sectors. Researchers find that senior level television network executives often labor under the syndrome’s most relentless, bonus-impacting elements. They will even sometimes take to Twitter, as NBC’s prime PGA Tour liaison Tom Knapp did, to defend the madness as viewers point out flaws in the graphic’s logic and execution. (See below.)
(The replies now sleep with the fishes after just one too many replies slamming Golf Channel for ignoring the women’s game, but that’s why we leave browser tabs open.)
OK, he milks it for too long, though the Tour's desperation has always amused your humble blogger. Of course, Geoff lets us in on the nature of the outrage, that the women's game was ignored. And they go on and on....
That didn't format great, so hope you can read it.
They have a point, it's just a bit of a tiresome point, though I'm always happy to have folks support the women's game. But I'm old enough to remember when truth was a defense, so see what you think about this James Corrigan tweet:
Cause and effect, James! You think the women's events draw a smaller audience because they get less exposure... Veddy interesting, but have you considered that, just perhaps, they get less exposure because there's less interest I know, just madness, I'm sorry I even suggested it...
But the funniest bit has to be the Jazzy Golfer and his Solheim Cup reference. I love the event, heck I'd watch meerkats play team match play. But their nomination for one of golf's biggest events is one that can't even make a plausible case for including the best women players in the world, given its exclusion of Asia. Laughable, that.
But the serious point I'd like to make is that I don't think this is helpful the the ladies. I think the delusions of equality are actually counter-productive, and that they're best served by understanding that they need to be scrappy underdog tour, and especially to understand that they have to earn their exposure. I know, it doesn't fit the narrative....
Speaking of Which... - Keely Levins' hagiography of departing LPGA Commish is worth your time, although the header falls into the typical trap:
Here's what made Mike Whan a transformational commissioner, and what the LPGA needs in his successor
OK, but it sounds more like good solid blocking and tackling:
In Kim’s message, you can see one of the keys that made Whan a great commissioner: He had thetrust and support of his players. During a tenure that was the longest of any of the eight commissioners in the tour’s history, Whan gained that by the genuine way he interacted with them. The line of communication between Whan and LPGA Tour members was always direct, which helped goals remain aligned. It allowed for the growth and success of the tour to be something they all took on together. His mantra of “Act Like a Founder” was not just a slogan, but an authentic pledge and mindset.
Perhaps even more important was his unrelenting focus on the needs of the sponsors, and it doesn't get more basic than that. Taking care of those that write checks would seem to eb anything but transformational, but perhaps that tells us why the LPGA was in the market for a savior.
Of course, you know how folks think:
As he looks at his own future, he’ll be helping the LPGA as it begins the search for his replacement. One of the critical questions will be how big a priority is it to hire a woman for the job. Diane Gulyas, who chairs the LPGA Board of Directors, said that all options will be considered, citing that the staff at the tour is already 80-percent female.“I think we have a very, very good representation today at all levels, but clearly it would be terrific if we had a female commissioner,” Gulyas said. “But we’re not going to rule anybody out. We want the very best commissioner we can get. Mike Whan has been positive proof that you pick the best guy, or the best person, and you’ll have amazing results.”
Irony alert, but the LPGA has already had a woman Commish, and that was quite the train wreck. But let me add that part of the success of Mike Whan was his genuine enthusiasm for his athletes and tour, and let me posit that that message was all the more powerful coming from a man. Are we still allowed to say things like this?
The TC panel gang takes their own shot at Mike's legacy:
3. LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, after 11 years at the helm, announced he is stepping down. (He did not say what, if anything, he’s planning next.) At the beginning of Whan’s tenure, the tour had only 24 tournaments and official prize money of $41.4 million; in 2021, the women will play for a record $76.5 million across 34 official events — in the midst of a pandemic. What has been Whan’s greatest impact on the LPGA?
Sens: Growing the tournament schedule globally to better reflect the global nature of the women’s game. But also developing programs through the Tour that reach into the junior ranks, getting more girls into the game.
LKD: Embracing the LPGA Tour’s identity as the most global, diverse tour in golf. Whan boosting its international presence wasn’t just good for the tour in the short term. It planted seeds that will last for generations, as golfers from all over the globe are inspired to take up the game themselves.
Bastable: I can’t think of a more beloved commish in any major sport over the past decade than Whan, with the possible exception of Roger Goodell (kidding). Whan connected on a human level with his players — they could talk to him, vent to him, and that went a long way in fostering a deep loyalty that worked both ways. Yes, he made the players wealthier via bigger purses and more exposure, but he’s also just a good guy who worked tirelessly for his players. Pretty strong formula.
Bamberger: His confidence and belief in the LPGA and how it filtered down through the players, while the players’ confidence and belief lifted him. I wish I knew him better, but from what I saw, a most impressive leader and person. Unpretentious, funny, smart, dedicated.
Dethier: His attitude. To build off Bamberger’s point, I liked the way he spoke to the world. He was proud of his players and their tour, and honest about its challenges, too. He says it’s time to hand off the baton to somebody ready to sprint the next leg of this race. I hope he’s right about that.
Shipnuck: Yes, Whan made the LPGA players feel valued and respected, and he brought that sensibility to the marketplace. When he took over, the tour was in shambles, reeling from the Great Recession and the controversial dealing of his predecessor. Plenty of the players think he saved the LPGA.
To me they kind of circle around it, missing the gist of it (except for their appreciation of his enthusiasm). The scorekeeping is fine, but Mike focused the players on the sponsors, and I can easily see that getting lost in the shuffle with his successor.
This will no doubt depress, but the TC panel takes a shot at naming Mike's successor:
4. If you were part of the team charged with recruiting his replacement, who is your first call to, and why?
Sens: Condoleezza Rice. Connected, respected and seriously keen on the game.
Or Sarah Hirshland, with a background at the USGA and now with the Olympics.
I really don't know anything about Sarah Hirshland, but they certainly need younger energy than I would think Condi would offer.
This one you knew would come up:
LKD: Suzy Whaley. She’s done great work at the PGA of America helping the game become more accessible, she’s been a groundbreaking figure both as a player and as an administrator, and best of all, she’s a GOLF Top 100 Teacher.
She's got that indoor plumbing for sure. But answer this, Luke, what has Suzy actually done for the PGA of America members? The answer is inevitably nothing, because it's an organization that has long demonstrated indifference to its foot soldiers. Compare that to Mike Whan's accolades above... If you want a climber, Suzy could be your gal...
Bastable: First call is to Whan, to make one last Hail Mary plea for him to stay. Barring that, how about Alex Baldwin, who runs the Korn Ferry Tour and as a former player-agent understands the players’ needs. Or if we really want to swing for the fences, might I suggest a former U.S. president with a nose for golf. What’s Obama up to?
Just shoot me now.
Bamberger: Amy Banse, former Golf Channel board member. Anyone who knows Amy Banse, I among them, will tell you the same things: it is impossible to say no to Amy Banse.Dethier: Impossibly strange that a few years ago, “Donald Trump” would have been a potential answer in this space. Instead, how about someone like Jenny Storms? She’s currently the CMO for NBC Sports, where she’s basically been solving a golf leader’s biggest question — how do we get people to watch? — for years. The LPGA needs more creative TV coverage and it needs more TV coverage, period. Getting a TV person in the big job might not be such a crazy idea.
Just don't know those two candidates.
Shipnuck: Suzy Whaley is a great choice. But how about a hugely respected former player who is still revered by the membership: Karrie Webb.
Yanno, I really don't know whether Karrie would be a good fit, but she's certainly a name brand and I'd take her over Suzy in a hearbeat.
Watch or Ignore? - Speaking of the HBO Tiger documentary, though can we agree that HBO picked quite the odd week to air it? If they waited a few weeks they'd avoid going up against the NFL playoffs, which even the PGA Tour has figured out (at least for the FedEx Cup).
Golf.com does a deep dive on the production, with this framing:
Tiger, HBO’s new documentary on the life of Tiger Woods, begins with a plea.
“Please forgive me, but sometimes I get very emotional when I talk about my son,” Woods’ late father, Earl, says in a heavy, cracking voice. “My heart fills with so much joy when I realize that this young man is going to help so … many … people.”
Earl, who is speaking at a college golf awards ceremony, is in a dark suit with a black tie. Large, wire-rimmed glasses bounce light off his face and back toward the camera. Tiger is seated to his left.
“He is going to bring to the world a humanitarianism which has never been known before,” Earl continues. “The world will be a better place to live in, by virtue of his existence and his presence.”
And then, the petition.
“This is my treasure, please accept it and use it wisely.”
For the remaining two hours and 58 minutes of the unflinching two-part documentary, viewers are left to ponder a question.
To whom was Earl speaking?
History. Of course, there's this catch:
Tiger, which will air on HBO over the next two Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, features no exclusive interviews with its subject. Co-directors Matt Hamachek and Matthew Heineman made two requests to speak with Woods — once before filming began, and another as the HBO team grew closer to production. He declined on both occasions, citing a contractual conflict.
Heineman and Hamachek (alongside executive producers Alex Gibney, Sam Pollard, Stacey Offman and Richard Perello) instead relied on several thousand hours of archival footage and 50-60 hours of interviews with more than two-dozen subjects. The directors also leaned on Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s 2018 Tiger Woods biography (Benedict and Keteyian receive executive producer credits for their contributions to the film).
“There was a constant drive on our part to make sure that even though we didn’t have Tiger, we gave him a voice, and we let the people who knew him well put us inside of his mind,” Hamachek told GOLF.com “What we really wanted to do was reach out almost exclusively to people who knew Tiger and his family intimately.”
Yeah, but that highly problematic journalistically. Why? Because we know how Tiger feels about those that betray his confidence. Therefore, perhaps you have found folks that know Tiger and his family intimately, do I really have to point out the uncomfortable fact that you'll only get those that are or will soon be on the outs with the man. Can you say selection bias?
Adam Schupak tells us it's worth our time:
It’s a safe bet that Tiger Woods won’t be gathering the family around the big-screen TV onSunday evening to watch the premiere of HBO’s documentary “Tiger,” at 9 p.m. ET.
If you’re seeking to relive Tiger’s greatest moments, they’re all there but this isn’t going to break new ground on revealing the secrets of his success. What it does – and quite well at times – is give new insight into Tiger’s psychological makeup and the many sacrifices he made to become a major champion 15 times over.
The first part of the two-part series showcases his rise from child prodigy to amateur sensation to world beater. There’s compelling video that I’d never seen before, especially of Tiger playing with his dad, Earl. It’s been detailed before how Earl used to play all sorts of mind games with Tiger to make him mentally sharp. To actually see his dad shake his pocket and hear jingling change as Tiger tries to putt was very cool. But it’s really the off-the-course videos that are most compelling. We see video of Tiger dressed as Santa, dancing at a party and getting ready for prom and it provided a window into a less familiar side of Tiger.
That first bit is amusing, as Steiny does his Steiny thing:
Tiger Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, issued a statement Sunday reacting to "Tiger," the new two-part HBO documentary that dives into the life of his star client.“Just like the book it is based off of, the upcoming HBO documentary is just another unauthorized and salacious outsider attempt to paint an incomplete portrait of one of the greatest athletes of all-time,” Steinberg said.Both the documentary and book spend extensive time examining Woods’ relationship with his father, Earl, and what impact that may have had on his development as a man. Woods’ team took issue with the book’s content upon its release as well.
Salacious, you say? Maybe I should give it a look-see, just for blogging purposes you see. I just don't find Tiger all that interesting an individual, but this is for sure the oddest take:
Opinion: New HBO documentary demonstrates Tiger Woods' boldness, hypocrisy on race
This is one of those pieces that essentially argues that Tiger has an obligation to talk about nothing but race, using the fact that that first Nike commercial alluded to the subject as requiring him to continue in that vein. We will likely be testing that theory in the coming years, but I just did a spit take on this bit:
HBO interviews Jim Riswold, who worked on the Nike commercial, and he says initially there was concern about creating an ad that dealt with Woods’ race.
“Golf was very lily white and there was some discussion, I brought it up, of do we play the race card?” he says in the doc.
(Note: there is no such thing as a race card. Race cards are not yet offered by Visa and race cards are not in a deck of cards. You don’t slam a winning poker hand on the table and say “race card! I win!”)
Ya got that? He actually fact checked a metaphor, which he shockingly found NOT TRUE. Who says they don't practice hard-hitting journalism any more?
One more funny bit, then I'll release you to begin your week. This from Schupak's item:
The closing scene of the first 90-minute segment of the documentary introduces us to Rachel Uchitel, Tiger’s former girlfriend, and signals that Part Two is going to dig into the salacious aspects of Tiger’s fall from glory. Check back next week for a review of the second half of the Tiger doc ahead of the January 17 premiere.
“What do you want me to talk about?” Uchitel says in Part I’s kicker.
So, what did they want you to talk about? One of life's great cliffhangers, no?
I'll see you again midweek, or thereabouts.
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