Your Friday Frisson

In which we gat back to our business of closing browser tabs. Seriously, they're like rabbits...

Bradenton Blues - We were supposed to be in Mexico this week, but I don't suppose we're going there any time soon.  I didn't see more than a few minutes of the action, so what did I miss?

Webb Simpson isn’t conceding anything this week at the WGC-Workday Championship.

The 35-year-old former U.S. Open champion carded seven birdies, including three in his final four holes, to shoot an opening-round 6-under 66 and share the lead with Matthew Fitzpatrick at

Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida.

The field of 72 at this week’s World Golf Championship event relocated from Mexico to Florida this year due to the global pandemic. The layout, co-designed by World Golf Hall of Famers Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin, is named in tribute to one of the game’s most famous sportsmanlike gestures. At the 1969 Ryder Cup, Nicklaus picked up Jacklin’s marker to concede an 18-inch putt at the last hole with their match on the line. The result meant the biennial competition between the U.S. and Great Britain and Ireland (at the time) ended in a tie with the U.S. retaining the Cup.

When Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was asked what current American player would be most likely to follow in the footsteps of Nicklaus and his magnanimous gesture, McIlroy didn’t have to think long before responding: “Most likely, Webb Simpson.”

As someone cleverer than I (I know that doesn't narrow it down much) once said, Webb leads the tour in Strokes Gained: Attitude.

On a larger issue, don't you think now would be an awfully good time to declare a moratorium on "concession" references, such as in that lead 'graph above?  It does get rather old....

Webber is tied with Matthew Fitzpatrick, and there's no shortage of firepower in the chase pack, so we'll be giving it a look as the week plays out.

All the Jordan hullabaloo aside, this guy's return to form would seem the more significant:

When Brooks Koepka is playing the sort of golf he played on Thursday, he makes the game look

easy. He makes it sound easy, too.

Before his opening round at the WGC-Workday, Koepka had played Concession’s front nine once — in Wednesday’s pro-am.

“I mean, Rick walked it, I get a yardage book, it’s not too difficult,” he said, referring to his caddie Ricky Elliott. “I don’t think anything of it. It is what it is. You’ve got to look up on the tee and you know on 10 that there’s water’s right, there’s bunkers on the left, so put it in the fairway.”

Koepka actually missed the fairway with his opening tee shot, finding a fairway bunker on the left. He also three-putted No. 16 from just 12 feet, resulting in a sloppy bogey. But nearly everything else about his game looked nearly flawless, and Koepka made six birdies against that lone bogey for a ho-hum five-under 67 to leap into contention, one shot back of the 18-hole lead.

Of course, if you paid attention to that accompanying photo, you'll know that the Mean Girls press only focused on this aspect:

The grouping with Johnson felt significant for several reasons. It was the first time the two had played together since Koepka’s comments at last summer’s PGA Championship, when Koepka seemed to throw shade at Johnson’s ability to close and later called their friendship “overplayed.” Since then, Johnson has won the FedEx Cup and the Masters, finished no worse than 11th place and ascended to world No. 1, a title he now owns by a wide margin.

Koepka has fallen outside the top 10 in the world in that same stretch and has split with his coach, added new equipment, worked through pain and tears and rehabbed extra-hard to get fully healthy. The process seems to be paying off; he won in Phoenix and showed glimmers at the Genesis. Still, there’s no question that Johnson has seized back top-dog status.

Yes, for sure... And I did pick up on the fact that the subtle costumed department put Koepka in black....  Coincidence?  We don't believe in coincidences here at Unplayable Lies.

 The event is at Concession Golf Club, raising an obvious question as to whether folks know the source of that unusual name.  Shane Ryan asked:

On Tuesday, just for fun, I posted a simple yes-or-no question in an online chat room populated by about 40 golf fans: Before this week, did you know what “the concession” was?

Keep in mind that these were not casual golf fans, but people who had purposely sought out a golf channel in an online forum, and—to varying degrees of zealotry—love the sport. The results surprised me: Of the 26 who responded, 12 knew about the concession, and 14 did not. If those numbers are at all representative, that means there’s a roughly 50 percent chance that you, anonymous reader of this article, have any clue what I’m talking about.

Don't know much about history...

Shane polls the players, with decidedly mixed results.  But that Webb Simpson bit above comes with an amusing add-on:

Patrick Reed knew about the concession, but wasn’t aware of the exact details, and didn’t profess a strong opinion on whether it was the right move. That became funny when Rory McIlroy later identified Webb Simpson as the player most likely to concede a putt in that situation, and Reed as the least. (Xander Schauffele would later designate Rory as the most likely.) McIlroy found it unlikely that anything similar could happen today—“feels like there’s a lot more on the line than there was back then,” he said, perhaps underestimating the mutual loathing at that moment—and even brought up the sheer number of gamblers who would be furious at that sort of late twist. Will Zalatoris had recently read about the concession before playing at the namesake course, and said that he “definitely” would have done the same thing, while Dustin Johnson allowed that he’d “probably give it to him.”

I'm thinking that Rory owed Patrick one after that Torrey Pines nonsense... 

But, like most history, there's far more to this than is commonly recognized.  While Jack's gesture has, appropriately I think, become the stuff of sportsmanship legend, not everyone was initially on board with it.  And by "not everyone" I mean, out guys:

True history buffs might know more, like the fact that while Nicklaus’ gesture is considered one of the highest examples of sportsmanship in golf history, some of Jack’s teammates were furious with him, U.S. captain Sam Snead being the angriest of all. And the real fanatics might know some of the arcana, like the fact that Jacklin’s putt was only about two feet, or that, far from a figure of pity, Jacklin was the reigning Open champion and posted a 4-0-2 record at that Ryder Cup, one of the best performances ever. Or that before Nicklaus’ famous act, it had been an incredibly tense Ryder Cup in which an actual fistfight nearly broke out on Saturday, and where 17 of the 32 matches went to the final hole. (It was, in fact, one of the few—perhaps the only—really great Ryder Cup match in the pre-European era of American dominance.)

Sam Snead was not amused... 

Players are, of course, funny creatures, and it's a mixed report card on historical knowledge.  But Jon Rahm shines in this department, and makes the cases for Jack's gesture most effectively:

Rahm then interestingly pinpointed an aspect of the concession that doesn’t have so much to do with the conceded putt itself—though that was undeniably stunning, even to Jacklin—but about the foresight, empathy and sheer sense of the moment, in the midst of incredible tension and playing in his first Ryder Cup, that Nicklaus had to possess to even think about making this move.

“I think Jack had the future vision,” Rahm said, “giving Great Britain, an island, a tie instead of a loss, which I think benefited the event itself, the future generations of the event, because if the U.S. kept winning every year, it’s not fun, right? It’s no fun to watch for both sides. So I think Jack had that vision. And nobody wants to see somebody miss a three-footer to lose a tournament, that’s just an awful feeling. … I wouldn’t argue with what he did at all. Again, it’s a stamp in history, one more of the reasons he is who he is.”

The funny thing about that is that Jack himself always considered the Ryder Cup just an exhibition.  But, not only was there this, but Jack is also the guy that pushed to add continental Europe to GB&I, leading to Seve and all that sturm und drang resulting therefrom.  

But there's a little nugget in that last excerpt that has always amused me.  Here's a listing of Jack's majors from that era:

1962 - U.S. Open

1963 - Masters

1963 - PGA Championship

1965 -  Masters

1966 - Masters

1966 - The Open Championship

1967 - U.S. Open

The man won seven majors, including the career Grand Slam, yet his first Ryder Cup appearance was in 1969?  Seriously:

Despite having won his seventh major title as a professional at the U.S. Open in June, 27-year-old Jack Nicklaus was not a member of the U.S. team. At the time, a five-year apprenticeship as a professional was required before Ryder Cup points could be earned. Nicklaus turned pro in November 1961 and was granted tournament status at the end of that year.[11] He expedited his status by passing PGA business classes in February 1966, and was granted full membership that June.[12] Only then was he eligible to accumulate Ryder Cup points, which ended with the Masters in April. Captain's selections did not exist in 1967 and Nicklaus was in a slump following his win at the Masters in 1966;[13] entering the Masters in 1967 as the two-time defending champion, he was in 13th place in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings. Also just off the team were Dave Marr and Bob Goalby.[14] Nicklaus and Goalby missed the cut at Augusta and Marr's T-16 finish was not enough to pass Johnny Pott for the tenth and final spot on the team.[9] Pott was 4–0–0 in the competition.

This was that 1967 U.S. roster:

It's easy to take, well, potshots at Mr. Pott, but most of those guys were pretty good, and they won handily.  But when we think of that era of Ryder Cup dominance, remember that the U.S. played with one hand tied behind its back.

But is there any wonder why Jack considered the event an exhibition?

Did you catch any of Matthew Wolff's day from hell?  It's kind of interesting when elite players lose it, but this one included a fun twist:

The former NCAA champion’s opening round in Bradenton, Fla., was doomed from the beginning, as he started par-bogey-bogey-double bogey on the back nine, which is one of the gettable stretches on the Jack Nicklaus-Tony Jacklin co-design. Two holes later he made a quadruple-bogey 8, then followed with his second double bogey of the day at the 16th. Back-to-back birdies at 17 and 18 helped keep him upright, but the damage was already done.

Woof (no pun intended).

Things only got worse on the front nine, where Wolff tripled No. 1, three-putting from 15 feet. After another bogey at No. 2, he settled down for a bit, playing the next three holes in one under. His round from hell was then perfectly summed up at the par-3 sixth, where Wolff hit his tee shot to 14 feet, setting up a good look at birdie. On his practice stroke, however, Wolff made contact with the ball:

These Guys Are Good!™ Except, yanno, when they're not... No penalty, but a good-sized portion of shame, which works for me.

That Woof, intended or not, was about these rather amusing ShotTracers:

that's a lot of yellow https://t.co/KdLHOhaXey pic.twitter.com/wMiqGKilNA

— Eric Patterson (@EPatGolf) February 25, 2021

 But we have a "beware the early call" moment:

To Wolff’s credit, he finished out the round, even making birdie on the par-4 eighth. He wound up shooting an 11-over 83 and learning exactly why The Concession has earned the nickname of “The Concussion.”

I'm happy to credit him for that.... But, fair is fair, we'll be debiting him for this:

UPDATE: Wolff withdrew on Thursday evening, per a release from the PGA Tour. No reason was cited.

I can come up with about 83 reasons, none of which is acceptable ( unless he's actually injured, but color me preemptively skeptical on that).

Before we move on, this Ran Morrissett feature on the club is well worth your time:

Inside Concession Golf Club, a Florida course that doesn’t always feel like one

Which to me is a very good thing...  Should be a fun week.

The Ladies Are Back -  I always have decidedly mixed feelings about these curtain calls:

More than 12 years removed from her last official tour start, Annika Sorenstam teed it up once

more in an LPGA event on Thursday, shooting a three-over 75 in the opening round of the Gainbridge LPGA.

Eyeing a possible start in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open this summer, the 50-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer was seeking tournament reps and picked this event in Orlando for a simple reason: she lives on Lake Nona, the host course. That allowed her to make her return with her parents and children proudly watching.

Though Sorenstam said her game lacks the automatic quality she had when she was dominating the tour—winning 72 times between 1995 and 2008—her scorecard had only one major blemish. It was a triple bogey on the par-4 fifth hole, which included a drop for an unplayable lie and a three-putt.

We turned on the evening rebroadcast for a few moments, and caught a disconcerting bit.  Are you familiar with the concept of doxxing?  From the invaluable Urban Dictionary:

doxxing

Doxxing, by way of "name-dropping," is document (doxx) dropping. It's publicly exposing someone's real name or address on the Internet who has taken pains to keep them secret. Also spelled "doxing."

"She calls herself 'Connie from Fat City' but someone outed her real identity and location as Karen last name from Palo Alto,' even giving street address, and put it all over the web."

"I hate that kind of doxxing. It's mean."

It's all the rage on the angry left (but I repeat myself) these days, but doesn't come up much in golf.  But we caught the Golf Channel announcers telling us more than once that Annika lives on the 16th hole with our family, and I just have to ask whether this is wise?  It was commonly know that this is a home game for Annika, but the level of specificity seems unnecessary.  You might be rolling your eyes, but as recently as yesterday our Geoff was still bringing the hate for Annika accepting that Presidential Medal of Freedom  from you-know who.  

Sanity, Delayed - Perhaps not the biggest issue in these troubled times, but what were they thinking?

What was the most controversial thing about golf in 2020?

Was it Bryson DeChambeau’s bulked-up approach to winning the U.S. Open? Was it the cancellation of events like the British Open and the Ryder Cup? Was it a Masters in November?

What about the Big Blue Wall?

You remember the Big Blue Wall. If you remember the 2020 ANA Inspiration was played in September after a postponement from April and played with no spectators under COVID-19 restrictions, then you remember the Big Blue Wall.

Built to replicate a wall at the front of a hospitality tent traditionally on the back and left of the island green on the par-5 18th hole of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club, the Big Blue Wall kind of took the concept of the traditional backstop and went over the top with it. It was big, it was blue and the critics of the wall were numerous and loud.

If you didn't watch the event, this will likely seem a particularly frivolous concern.  But it dramatically changed how the ladies played into the green, and made a joke of the finish of their premiere event.

But the Big Blue Wall inspired more talk and more criticism than other such backstops. For one, it was, well, blue. It was impossible to miss, maybe even from the International Space Station. Second, it was wider than the hospitality tent backstop. Third, it seemed to be much closer to the actual putting surface than the hospitality tent wall. Finally, even if a hospitality tent is artificial on a golf course, the Big Blue Wall was definitely artificial.

Yes it was very blue and visible from low-earth orbit, but the single funniest detail is that the advertising content was in such a small font that it wasn't visible to anyone.   But this to me belongs on the list of late-term Mike Whan missteps...

And, yes, the grandstand will be back once spectators are allowed, so perhaps we could have the larger discussion of the concept of grandstanding?  To me, having that grandstand there eliminates most of the strategy of the second shot and the decision to go for the green, but is it necessary that the player be allowed to drop almost on the green?  

Focusing on the Important Things - Really?  because you'd think there might higher priorities:

The PGA Tour is making a change to its sudden-death playoff format beginning this week,

according to a memo the organization sent to players on Monday.

No longer will the order of play in a playoff be determined by blind draw. Instead, it will be based on a “first-to-finish, first-to-play” method. For players tied in the same final round group, order of play within the final round groupings will be used.

According to the email, this will allow the tour to expedite the playoff process and allow its broadcast partners to know the order of play in advance. The decision was made following last week’s Player Advisory Council meeting during the Genesis Invitational.

This is mostly a TV issue, as we can all agree that it takes them too damn long to get the playoffs going.  It's a somewhat interesting issue, as the anachronism of players signing scorecards is I think a valuable part of our golf culture, but it certainly isn't helpful in this context.

That said, let me act the contrarian (I know, a real stretch) and suggest that this is short-sighted.  The issue is that sudden-death playoffs are already a rather silly means of settling events, virtually a coin-flip in the context of our game.  I rather like that awkward bit of choosing the order of play as a means of setting the table for the playoff, rather akin to the coin flip in football.  I just find it strange to have them rushing the process, though we know the imperative is for CBS and NBC to not run into their evening news program...  

I suppose what really irks me is that the Tour is doing the bidding of CBSNBC to finish on time, yet those networks don't feel compelled to prevent college basketball broadcasts to eat into the first half-hour of the golf coverage? 

Keeping The Kids On The Farm -  Amateur sports has faced an existential crisis for quite a long time, think of the Olympics and their rather comical adherence to amateurs ideals on a highly selective basis.  We have news on that front from our governing bodies:

As the definition of amateurism continues to evolve in the broader athletic landscape, the USGA and R&A appear ready to significantly change their Rules of Amateur Status.

The governing bodies announced several proposals to those amateur rules on Monday after lengthy discussions, which began in late 2017, with several areas of the golf community, including the NCAA, professional tours and organizations and elite-level amateurs. The aim of the new rules is to maintain a distinction between amateurs and professional while updating the old requirements for amateurism in order to reflect the modern game and ensure that the rules are easy to understand and apply.

Brentley Romine has a list of the changes , but the easier path is to excerpt this rather short list of those actions that can cause one' amateur status to be revoked:

• Prizes in excess of the prize limit (remains at $750).
• Payment for giving face-to-face or traditional instruction (one-way, digital or written instruction is allowed, as is instruction while working for an educational institution, camp or other program approved by a national governing body).
• Employment as a club professional or membership of a professional tour or association.

That second bullet would seem to be unnecessarily convoluted, but basically the governing bodies have removed all restrictions on sponsorships, not that the kids weren't already walking billboards.

Mostly this just makes me sad, because it eliminates the connective tissue to so much of golf history.  The world changes on us, but the decision to turn pro was an important mile-marker in a young player's career.  

Just a couple more thoughts, then we'll start winding down.  First, Geoff thinks that this is the USGA-R&A's effort to get ahead of this Supreme Court case, which may well be true.  The broader issue of compensation of college athletes is interesting, though the larger issue for the world is what happens to other collegiate sports when the cash cow of basketball and football is not available to fund lacrosse and field hockey?

In our little golf fishbowl, it's also a bit complicated.  One of the ongoing subjects of this blog is the extent to which the actions of the professional tours has motivated the kids to turn professional earlier, something that's long troubled me.  And here I refer to the elimination of big tour Q-school and the year of indentured servitude on the Corn Fairy Tour.  

But the other interesting dynamic is that, while the major U.S. and British Amateurs are substantially diminished events in recent years, much of that is due to, or at least contemporaneous with, the increasing appeal of the NCAA Championships.  That to me is a result of the dates (May versus August), as well as the NCAAs embrace of team match play.  Waiting until August basically costs a kid almost a full year, so I've long wondered whether the USGA should move that date.

Club Pro Guy - Ironically, this came from one of my ski buddies, but are you familiar with Club Pro Guy?

Over a 14 year career, the internationally renowned “CPG” made more than a dozen cuts on the

Mexican Mini Tour, including the famed Yucatan Masters, and holds the distinction of defending his 6,583rd position in the World Golf Rankings for 311 weeks. As one of the most prolific players in the game’s history, his astounding career culminated in 2003 when he was inducted into the Mexican Mini Tour Golf Hall of Fame with the lowest percentage of votes than any other inductee in history.

 So, basically he's bene making fun of guys like you and me for those fourteen years....

Not only am I an imperfect tour guide for social media, but I have an instinctive aversion to cart girl humor, because it obviously carries such a low degree of difficulty.  But, legitimate reservations notwithstanding, if you're going to engage in cart girl humor, this would be how it's done:

Just met with the media to discuss Anastasia's contract extension. pic.twitter.com/nOlYWIqqvd

— Club Pro Guy (@ClubProGuy) February 11, 2021

Hopefully we sent you into the weekend on a laugh.  I'll look for you on Monday. 

Wither Tiger - Jaws of Life Edition

I've been milking my Wither Tiger meme since this January 2014 post, though this one is quite different.  It's also a story to which I have little to add at least in a factual sense, so little effort will be made there.

I am, however, struck by several ironies, so let's see if those are interesting....

Irony No. 1 - The question top of everyone's mind is the, "Is he done?" question, one that's both silly (at the level of our knowledge), yet equally inevitable.  I find this ironic because I had pretty much settled on the thought that he was pretty well done before this accident.  The fifth back surgery was pretty much all I needed there, as well as those images from the Father-Son of him gingerly bending to pick his ball out of the hole.  I'll not belabor it, but I'm not the only one thinking along these lines:

Even before horrific accident, Tiger Woods' playing future was wildly uncertain

Irony No. 2 - Since that 2019 Masters, we've been treated to a series of arguments as to whether Tiger's comeback was the GOAT of comebacks, whether in sports or golf, specifically.  The obvious challenger for that coveted title was Ben Hogan's recovery from that devastating collision with a bus on the back

roads of Texas.  In fact, I heard the latest version of this argument on Golf Channel's daily show just this week, riffing on that Sunday Jim Nantz interview.

I'll have more on the Hogan accident below, but were Tiger the highly competitive sort ( a real stretch, I know), and were he covetous of the Hogan reputation, what would he have done differently?  Of course, as golf buddy Ed Pavelle noted in an e-mail, Hogan was a far younger man at the time of his accident, specifically 36 years old.  I'll have more on the Hogan accident below.

Irony No. 3 - Tiger was going to be featured prominently in this morning's post had the accident not occurred, as your humble blogger was planning to take him to the woodshed again for that Sunday non-interview.  

This isn't the time for it, but the continued refusal to share any details of his condition remains maddening.  Fir instance, Notah Begay had indicated right after his January surgery that he was already  hitting balls (not ripping drivers, which we can all understand), and similar reports have surfaced since the Nantz interview.  Again, when asked about golf activities, his only answer was that bit about the putter shaft length.  Why this remains a state secret eludes me, but I find that side of Tiger the least admirable.

So, how much do you know about that Hogan accident?  I'm going to guess not enough, but Geoff is here to help us with a timely e-mail.  To me, the most notable aspect of it was the instinctive actions of Hogan, which I've always assumed made a dramatic impression on the American public at the time:

In Martin Davis’ incredible Ben Hogan: The Man Behind The Mystique, I found much needed

distraction and even some comfort given the horror of Woods’ injuries.

Before there were airbags, anti-lock brakes and private jets, Ben and Valerie Hogan were driving home to Fort Worth and spent the night 75 miles outside of El Paso. The next morning, February 2nd, 1949, they continued to Fort Worth. Fog made visibility difficult and Ben thought they had a flat tire at one point. It was ice on the road.

When a Greyhound bus pulled out from behind an oncoming truck, Valerie screamed out, “Honey he’s going to hit us.” Ben lept across over Valerie, saving both of their lives. The impact left his body destroyed.

“Get out! Get out!” Valerie remembered Ben saying, fearing the car might start burning. He could not get out of the car but was eventually assisted by bystanders who oddly knew both his and Valerie’s name.

That must be some of that toxic masculinity we hear so much about these days...Good thing today's woke kids have banished that poison from our lives.

After two hours, an ambulance delivered Hogan to the nearest hospital in El Paso, 100 miles away. He had a fractured left ankle, double fracture of the pelvis, a fractured collar bone and a chipped rib. He later had chest pains from a blood clot that moved to his lungs. The outlook was bleak. The best surgeon was one state over. So Valerie asked a General friend of Hogan’s to commission a military plane that would fly in the special vascular surgeon from New Orleans. The doctor eventually arrived, had to take a nap from his all night journey, but successfully saved Ben Hogan from a fatal stroke.

That blood clot damn near killed him.  But compare that to this update on Tiger's injuries:

As part of a statement on Woods' official Twitter account, Dr. Anish Mahajan of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center updated the famed golfer's condition, saying in part that he had multiple "open fractures" to his lower right leg, had a rod placed in his tibia, and screws and pins inserted in his foot and ankle during an emergency surgery.

"Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia," said Mahajan, the chief medical officer and interim CEO at Harbor-UCLA. "Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins. Trauma to the muscle and soft-tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling."

Bones do heal, though there's quite a bit going on with the muscles and soft tissue as well.  I can't conceive of what the realistic time frame might be, but we can pencil in months of misdirection and evasion from Team Tiger, so we've got that going for us...

But Geoff has more on the Hogan story, including bits that I only remember in passing.  But with 2021 being a Ryder Cup year, Hogan's experience is worth recounting:

Seven months later Hogan kept his commitment to Captain the Ryder Cup team. By late summer 1949 Hogan was well-enough to travel to Massachusetts for a Ryder Cup practice match prior to an overseas journey to Ganton Golf Club. Two years prior in the first Ryder Cup played since 1937, Hogan served as a playing captain and was accused by Great Britain’s Henry Cotton of having illegal grooves. The clubs were deemed conforming.

Turns out certain players generated “speed” back then, too.

Memories of the controversy were apparently not lost in the car accident. When the U.S. team arrived for three days of practice and adjustment to the smaller British ball, controversy erupted. Maybe Hogan was a little spicy from the long journey and all the aches and pains, but he called out the legality of Team GB’s clubs. Cotton was no longer playing, but Hogan was right. Several players were found to have illegal grooves.

The R&A rules official who made the determination? Bernard Darwin.

The U.S. team beat a strong Great Britain squad 7-5.

What, you thought Ryder Cups only got contentious after Seve came on the scene?  Shack even comes up with the Pathe newsreel of that Ryder Cup:

Shack takes us through that Hogan comeback in some detail, for those seeking an upbeat perspective.  While Tiger has modern medicine on his side, it seems a stretch to think that that will compensate for the age difference, as well as the state of Tiger's body before the accident.

One under-reported coincidence related to Hogan's accident is that, passing by the accident scene going in the other direction was Jack Fleck, who would deny Hogan a fifth U.S. Open at Olympic  few years later.  Hogan's relationship with Fleck is its own interesting story, as there were only two players in the field of that 1955 U.S. Open playing Ben Hogan golf clubs, and Jack Fleck was the second (in fact, Hogan brought with and hand-delivered a wedge to Fleck that week).  But the most powerful part of this book recounting that upset was the description of the hours of preparation Hogan required for each round of golf.  We'll call that Irony No. 4, because it sounds much like what Tiger's needed to do the last few years to be ready for an early morning tee time.  And that's what was before yesterday's accident...

Of course, the astute reader will note that, in blogging Tiger's accident, we spoke mostly of Hogan....  Perfectly on-brand for this blog, but I'll just leave you thinking about how each of these accidents will ultimately affect how we feel about each public figure.  Mostly I see this as an opportunity for the softer, gentler Tiger to share a bit more openly with his fans as he recovers, an opportunity that I'm quite certain will be squandered.

There's other news in the golf world, but today is most certainly not the time for that.  We'll make sure to get to that later in the week.

Weekend Wrap

This week is always a meaningful mile marker for me, as the circus travels from the Left Bank to the Right.  Oh, there's quite the architectural and scenic downgrade, as a Riviera-PGA National cage match would be stopped by the ref in the first round.  But the deeper significance is that it puts us in that clear glide path to Augusta...

City of Champions - This might be the only one that doesn't come with an asterisk, but let's hear it for the home-town kid:

Dodgers, Lakers, Max Homa!

On the City of Champions spectrum, Max is a distant third. Heck, Collin Morikawa should be in there too after winning a major last August.

But who cares? Local boy makes good. Local boy saves writers from having to write a Sam Burns story. That alone is a World Golf Hall of Fame stuff. And then Homa goes and gives great quotes!

The cheery ending, coupled with Tony Finau posting 64 ahead of Homa and leading to a 10th hole playoff, almost help make up for the lack of fans. Naturally the rain dance this event normally provides for the region was played under spectacularly sunny skies and a (most days) playable golf course.

 Homa’s win is particularly sweet given the Genesis Invitational’s grand history, longevity and relatively small number of local winners. He joins southern Californians Corey Pavin (1994, 1995) and John Merrick (2013) as recent winners with ties to the region.

The winner has been coming to the event since he was two, was there for the bizarre 2005 playoff, cited this event as one of his inspirations to purse pro golf, and, best of all, Homa worshipped host Tiger Woods growing up. Woods subsequently handed him the Genesis trophy. Woods has never won the tournament he hosts.

Yup, he's one-up on his hero...Homa is best known for his amusing social media takes on amateurs' swings, and a very easy young man to root for.  The manner in which he prevailed will only enhance his reputation, but first more of his take on the accomplishment:

Homa explained where an LA Open win ranks on his tournament bucket list.

“1-A, 1-B, 1-C,” he said. “I don't know if I could ever do anything cooler in golf than this. Just for me, for my caddie Joe, we were raised 25miles north of here. I mean, Tiger Woods is handing us a trophy, that's a pretty crazy thought. We grew up idolizing him, idolizing Riviera Country Club, idolizing the golf tournament. To get it done, it's almost shocking, but it just feels--it feels like it just can't be topped just for me.”

 This all comes from Geoff's blog, so it's one home-town kid writing about another...

At my age it's easier to keep thinks chronological, so about that 72nd hole, where he stuffed his approach and seemingly locked up the win.  Errrr, not so fast:

Statistically Max Homa had a 99.57% chance of converting the 3-footer for birdie on the 72nd

hole of the Genesis Invitational, but then there is no room for statistics in the chambers of the human heart.

In 11 events this season on the PGA Tour Homa, who is as L.A. as palm trees and Dodger dogs, had been predictably automatic, like most Tour types, from that distance. But not all 3-footers are created equal and the slider for birdie and victory at the event that means more to him than any other might as well have been 30 feet.

Homa, who grew up 30 minutes north of Riviera, admitted he was “shaking like a leaf” over the game-winner on the iconic 18th hole and the only saving grace was that the empty pandemic gallery wasn’t there for a collective gasp.

The next point to interject is that in a normal year, they would have replayed No. 18 to start the playoff.  Of course, normal left town with no forwarding address, so they instead headed to No. 10, which our Friday blogging set up perfectly.  We had Jordan Spieth explaining then how one just sort of aims for the trees and closes one's eyes....  Here's Max:

The famous short par-4 was playing just 282 yards and was getting the first playoff hole nod over

the 18th hole due to the lack of fans on site.

Hitting second, the 30-year-old slightly pulled his tee shot and was up against one of the Bottlebrush let to defend the hole because the USGA and R&A chose to take the last decade off.

“Ten's a crazy hole. Talor Gooch and I were talking about it on 11 today during the regulation round. A lot of people don't like it, I love it. I think golf could use a little chaos at times.”

Chaos he got, at least upon finding his tee shot at the brush base.

“You kind of aim at these trees and kind of see what happens,” he continued. “I hit a good tee ball, I pulled it probably five yards left of where Tony was, which is kind of where you wanted to hit it. Yeah, what are you going to be mad about when you make a good swing when you're nervous. Obviously had a weird looking shot but I had a shot, which is cool.”

At which point one can only imagine that Tony Finau thought his nightmare was coming to an end....But I think we can all agree that golf could use a whole lot more chaos, though Sunday chaos, as opposed to the Saturday chaos we absorbed.

Here's the kid's take on the shot he pulled off:

“Obviously had a weird looking shot, but I had a shot, which is cool,” Homa said afterward. “Took a 50-degree out and just hooded it as much as I could to get it started as left as I could with some tumble spin, because going into that kikuyu uphill it all sticks, so I tried to land it as low into the hill as I could to get it rolling.”

Tumble spin?  Is that anything like topspin?

 As always, behind every successful man is....well, at least sometimes:

That was a cleansing moment for Homa, who needed to wash away the disappointment of

missing a four-foot putt on 18 that would have won him the tournament. He and Finau hit for a few minutes on the range before the playoff, giving Homa some time to check his text messages.

“This morning, my wife gave me a piece of advice,” he said. “There were a few bullet points, [but] one of them was `forgive quickly.’ She called me after, told me to do that, and it was kind of perfect because I had played a pretty perfect round of golf, very flawless. So what was there to be too mad about? I was about to be in a playoff at the place I first fell in love with golf.”

Forgiveness, eh?  Might be worth a try...

The weekly Tour Confidential panel did eventually get to this subject, though I won't be too critical of their priorities this time.  Here's their take on all things Riviera, including a Mikey Bams rebuttal:

3. What a finish at the Genesis Invitational, at storied Riviera. Tied for the lead on the 72nd hole, local boy Max Homa, seeking his second PGA Tour win, stuffed his approach to three feet to seemingly edge Tony Finau, who closed with a rousing 64 and was also in pursuit of his second Tour title. Alas, Homa lipped-out the shortie, setting up a playoff that he went on to win on the second hole. What’s the key takeaway from this Sunday at Riv?

Bamberger: That watching good golf on a good course in good weather featuring appealing players is a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon when your own course is buried in snow.

Zak: That — *shouting for the golf fans in the back* — the most exciting shots are almost never drives. There’s a weird little corner of golf viewing that is so hyped about distance that they think long drives are the most exciting shots in golf. Look at Homa’s approach into 18, his pitch from the base of a tree on 10, his approach into 14. All of that was as exciting as golf gets, and in the span of one hour.

Bamberger: Well said, Sean. I still think that the Presidents Cup at Melbourne was such an example of golf’s little shots being so much more interesting than its big ones.

The most exciting thing in our game is that which a golf ball does after contact with the turf...  And yes, Riviera and Royal Melbourne are soul mates, especially under the #firmandfast conditions we were treated to this year.

Bastable: Homa’s recovery shot from the base of that tree on 10 was a once-in-a-lifetimer. He probably couldn’t have done better if you gave him a small bucket of range balls. Staggeringly good, and it must have been so deflating to Finau, who had to be thinking about his victory speech when Homa’s ball came to rest where it did. The Homa Experience is something to behold. Dude is an absolute breath of fresh air (ironic, yes, in that he’s an L.A. native), and not just because of his Twittering. In his post-round interview, he was speaking of the power of positive affirmation and how he reminds himself 5-6 times a day — and especially when he gets in nervy situations — how good he has he has it (loving wife, loyal dog, the whole thing). It’s just golf, right? You blow a three-footer one hole, keep that chin up, because a hole later you might be making a miracle par you can tell your grandkids about.

A loving wife AND a loyal dog?  Should we be speaking of his white privilege?  Just kidding, this is most certainly not THAT kind of blog....

Kerr-Dineen: Homa has some serious mental toughness. To stuff a wedge shot seemingly for the win, only to throw it away, only to then get wildly unlucky on his ensuing tee shot, but come through anyway is hugely impressive. Lesser players would’ve buckled.

Dethier: Listening to Max Homa talk about his golf game makes me feel a little better. Not about his game or my own game or the professional game — just better, period. There’s a real irony to Homa’s fame, which has come through his Twitter swing roasts, when in reality he’s arguably the Tour’s most positive thinker. There’s a version of golf that’s cynical, defined by frustration and bad shots. Homa’s in pursuit of the other kind. The happier kind. What a satisfying hometown champ.

A good kid, a great venue and a satisfying result....  unless, of course, your name happens to be Tony Finau.

Now, about that Saturday:

4. A few hours into the start of Saturday’s third round in L.A., the Tour made a highly unusual decision when it suspended play for four hours due to high winds. (The moment that best exhibited the wild conditions was Keegan Bradley putting his ball off the 10th green.) Was halting play the right call?

Bamberger: Yes. Na’e wind, na’e gowf is great when the greens are 3s, but not when they are 13s.

Zak: In this instance, yes. With the sun shining in SoCal, unfortunately the optics weren’t great, but they cut the greens to run at 13 on the Stimp before thinking that winds would howl as early

as they did Saturday. The forecast lied or it was interpreted incorrectly. That’s what we get for playing outdoors! Sometimes it goes over the edge and this was clearly one of those moments.

Bastable: If Twitter was any indication, it was a largely unpopular decision. Let ’em suffer! was the general sentiment. Of course, unless you were on site at Riv, you really had no understanding of whether the course was or was not playable. J.B. Holmes had a stationary ball move on him. When that starts happening, it means it’s time to think hard about blowing the horn. One fair criticism was that the Tour shouldn’t have rolled the greens. That might have made enough of a difference that they could have played on. The R&A caught the same heat at the 2015 Open at St. Andrews when wind led to a nearly all-day suspension on Saturday. On shaggier greens, many felt, the field could have soldiered on.

Kerr-Dineen: No chance. The amount of terrible weather I was forced to play through during my junior golf career means I have exactly zero sympathy for weather-induced suspensions. If the greens are flooded, fine. Suspend it. If balls literally cannot stay still on the green, that’s okay, too. Anything outside of that is fair game.

Dethier: Once the conditions were what they were, I guess they had to take them off of Riviera’s slippery, slippery greens. But as caddie-turned-reporter John Wood said on Twitter, “Shouldn’t have cut the greens today. Roll them, but don’t cut them. Bad decision. Slow em down a touch and you could’ve played.”

 I'm shocked this doesn't happen more often.  The Tour got it very wrong, and here's why:

The forecast called for winds in the 10-15 mph range at 10 a.m. with the worst of the conditions not expected to arrive until 4 p.m., which would have been about an hour after play was scheduled to finish. Forecasts aren’t perfect, though, and as the field mulled around the iconic clubhouse searching for shelter, they weren’t looking for someone to blame so much as they just wanted to get back to work.

“It was just very extreme,” said Wyndham Clark, who was on the 16th hole when play was halted for the day for darkness. “We weren't to the really hard holes. I mean, seeing some of the pin placements and how they played after we went back out and how tough they were, it was definitely unfair I think earlier, for sure.”

Gee, a bad weather forecast, let me mark my calendar....  That 2015 stoppage was a wake-up call, especially given that play continued at all recreational courses in and around the Home of Golf.  However, the USGA and R&A hit the snooze button, so here we are.  It's an outdoor game, be we can only play outdoors under certain conditions...

Shack uses this meme with his paying customers early last week:

Riviera As A Masters Bellwether

Bay Hill too. The Honda Classic? Not so much.

Bay Hill?  It's paywalled, so we don't need to get into that, though Geoff does share this wonderful photo of the 1930 L.A. Open:

I can certainly see where a firm Riviera is a test of the skill set needed at Augusta, but there were some show ponies that took the weekend off:

 

Justin Thomas, +8

The world’s No. 3 player, whose grandfather, Paul, died February 6, just didn’t have it this week. During rounds of 77-73, he made six birdies but four doubles and six bogeys. One of the best ball-strikers in the game hit just 53 percent of his greens in regulation. Thomas had made 14 consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour.

Four doubles in 36 holes?  

Though as fast as the course played, this one is not surprising in the least:

Rory McIlroy, +7

After tying for fourth here in 2019 and tying for fifth last year, McIlroy was among the pre-tournament favorites but never got going. The world No. 7 made just three birdies in his two days and his string of 30 consecutive-made cuts worldwide came to an end. The four-time major winner is still in search of his first win since the 2019 WGC-HSBC Champions.

Bryson DeChambeau, +2

If spectators would have been allowed, they would have been in danger as the Mad Bomber sprayed tee shots all over the course and hit just six of 28 fairways in regulation. After opening with a 75 that sent him to the driving range deep into the night, the reigning U.S. Open champion rebounded with a 69 in the second round but came up short of the cut.

I was shocked on Thursday at how poorly Thomas and Bryson played...  JT in particular had no idea where the ball was going.

But for some reason the author of that items thinks this is a comparable

Padraig Harrington, +9

After spending 10 days in quarantine in a room overlooking the first tee at Pebble Beach after testing positive for COVID-19, Europe’s Ryder Cup captain drove overnight to get to Los Angeles Thursday morning – just six hours before his tee time. He hadn’t hit balls in 10 days – except for putts on the carpet in the hotel room – so it wasn’t a surprise he shot 75-76.

Here's a little pro tip on this journalism thing...   When the dog bites a man, that's not really much of a story...  So, next time, only call if Padraig bites the dog.

We'll exit on this e-mail from the great Bobby D. to which I awoke this morning:

Is it un-pc to note tomorrow that the last two tournaments have been won by Jews?

Yes.  Not that we toe the pc line here....

But more to the point, I'll concede you Daniel Berger, but Max Homa is Jewish?  I had no clue, but I googled that very question and got this:

That pretty much proves it.... Poor kid, now he'll be forced to renounce both his white and Jewish priviledge.  

Wither Tiger - Perhaps you reacted differently, but the continued refusal to share any detailed updates on his condition remains an annoyance for your humble blogger:

"I'm feeling fine, a little stiff," Woods said. "I've got one more MRI scheduled, and then I can

start doing more activities. I'm still in the gym doing rehab activities before gravitating towards more."

Woods would not commit to playing a tournament before the Masters, and when asked specifically about the year's first major championship, he said, "God, I hope so. But I've got to get there first. I don't have much wiggle room left. I've got only one back."

I've only got one back?  Thanks for clarifying...

It's not that I expect a commitment to the Masters (and Nantz was engaging in wishful thinking about a warm-up), but is it really too much to ask that he tell us whether he's hitting balls and what else he's able to do?  I mean, "rehab activities" is just a tad vague...

That Tc gang sounds a little fed up as well:

5. Tiger Woods, who hasn’t played on Tour since his latest microdiscectomy in late December, made an appearance in the CBS booth on Sunday afternoon. When asked whether he’d be healthy for the Masters in seven weeks, Woods said, “God I hope so. I’ve got to get there first. A lot of it is based on my surgeons and doctors and therapist and making sure I do it correctly. This is the only back I’ve got, I don’t have much more wiggle room left.” What did you read into Woods’ answer and overall demeanor?

Bamberger: That he has surgeons, plural. He looked and sounded exhausted. Low hat, all dark clothes. He looked like he was in hiding.

Zak: That he isn’t playing golf anytime soon. It sounds like a lot of his immediate future depends on this ominously-referenced MRI. Then there’s competitive golf, which is different. We are officially on Tiger Back Watch earlier than we expected. It’s not going to be fun.

Yeah, he was oddly passive about that MRI, as if it's all in the hands of those doctors... 

Bastable: The remark that most caught my ear had nothing to do with his back. Tiger revealed he’s using a new putter shaft that is the same length as his sand wedge. Why? Because he does putting drills with his wedge in which he tries to blade the ball in the equator. “I figured if I do a lot with that, I’ll lengthen my putter to the same length and it helped,” he said. Don’t look for this to be a trend that will take off in the weekend-hacker ranks.

That was a curious bit, for sure.  Lengthening the putter shaft would seem to be something one might do to lessen the pressure on one's back....

Dethier: My first instinct was to agree with you all; it doesn’t sound like he’ll be suddenly playing golf in a couple weeks. But I also think he’s just learned that it makes more sense to manage expectations rather than pretend he’s in perfect health all the time, even when he’s not, which was his team’s longtime M.O. He’s setting us up for a big-time comeback come April. Let’s hope he can deliver the goods.

Kerr-Dineen: I can’t get a read on Tiger whenever he talks about injury stuff. After so many years of him being evasive on questions like these, nowadays he seems to be more honest and forthcoming about it than those asking him the questions. My gut tells me there’s no way Tiger isn’t playing the Masters this year, but my head remains scrambled.

Yanno, Dylan, he could share some actual information while simultaneously managing our expectations.  I mean we know he can play golf and chew gum at the same time, so they're not mutually exclusive.

Wither Golf - Riffing on that TC panel is low impact blogging, so shall we see what else is on their plate in the present moment?  Sorry, that was a rhetorical question:

1. The USGA named outgoing LPGA commissioner Mike Whan as its new executive director and CEO, replacing Mike Davis. Whan, who will assume the role this summer, was largely regarded as a transformative figure in the women’s game as he helped increase the total purse money for the LPGA and oversaw the addition of 10 tournaments to the schedule. Whan takes over the job during a period in which the USGA and R&A are hatching plans to combat the distance boom. In what ways, if any, do you think Whan will most influence the governing bodies’ tactics on this matter?

Transformative?  Some late-term bobbles aside, he did a great job for the ladies, though I don't see the basis for that adjective...

Michael Bamberger: I think he will recognize that the USGA needs to be broadly WAY better liked by, and more popular with, golfers of all stripes, and that will empower the USGA to pursue its agenda.

This is the gist of that Frank Hannigan remark.  I think a ruling body that wants to be liked is pretty much how we got where we are... 

Sean Zak: He won’t seem like an opponent in the way Mike Davis was often viewed by many of the game’s best players. That’s step 1 and it’s probably already accomplished by him being on social media, being somewhat self-deprecating (see his TV work during the LPGA season last year) and amicable with media. Between hiring him and Jason Gore, I don’t anticipate any of the “Justin, we need to talk” moments we’ve had in the past.

Mike Davis as black-hatted villain seems a stretch, though we can all agree that mistakes were made.  My own reaction focused on Davis' repeated requests for mulligans, which struck me as more pitiful than villainous.

Alan Bastable: I wouldn’t expect Whan to shake things up too radically on the distance-capping front. The USGA will continue to inch toward some semblance of reform but never put too many shackles on the manufacturers. Remember, Whan worked for Wilson and TaylorMade before jumping to the LPGA so he has a soft spot for the equipment builders.

Luke Kerr-Dineen: It’s hard to know what Mike Whan will do at the USGA. The job ahead of him is a very different one, with an entirely different set of problems to address and powers to solve them. But while the specifics remain to be seen, the value of bringing in the previous commissioner of the women’s game shouldn’t be understated. Women’s golf at the professional, amateur and recreational levels, done right, are huge potential growth opportunities for the USGA. And now, in Whan, they have the perfect person to fuel it.

Dylan Dethier: Honestly, I have no idea. I’m still unclear on what direction the USGA is taking the distance dilemma, and while they’ve laid plenty of groundwork for some sort of rollback/bifurcation combination, I don’t know whether the wheels are fully in motion and Whan just has to keep the train on the tracks or whether he’ll dictate a vision of his own.

I'm trying to understand what the USGA saw in Whan, and what his mandate is.  Interesting that these writers don't seem to have any better sense of it than an outside like myself.

Like it or not, the moment is about the regulation of golf equipment, and it feels like a now or never moment.  That we have no clue where Mike Whan is on this issue is more than a little curious, and his background being the women's game and equipment industry allows for rampant speculation.  

The TC gang does milk it for another Q&A:

2. What other issue would you like to see Whan make a priority in his first 100 days?

Bamberger: Introduce and sell the idea that serious golf and recreational golf really are different forms of the same sport, so that recreational golf can be played far faster and much more simply.

Zak: Couldn’t agree more. Prove Rory and JT wrong with their initial distance comments. Show that the USGA isn’t just thinking about the .001% of players like many pros have insinuated. There are two hilariously different subsets of players on this planet and the USGA cares deeply about both, as well as courses, records, etc.

Bastable: Surely further promoting the women’s game will be near the top of his agenda, as it should be. Girls under 18 represent the fastest growing demo in the U.S. golf population — there’s a huge opportunity (and responsibility) there for the game to foster those young players and ensure they become a thriving and exciting part of the golf’s near-term future. The USGA should lead that charge.

Kerr-Dineen: To forget about the elite levels of the game, and focus instead on the rank-and-file. The new golfers. There are more of them flooding into the game than ever before, and the USGA needs to welcome them them with open arms.

Dethier: Continue to elevate the U.S. Women’s Open in every way possible. It’s such a fun event with so much potential for growth. While Luke is right about the golf industry being so much more than the professional game, I’d love to see the biggest event in the women’s game continue to draw more attention.

I'd like Mike to expand on his answer, because I'm unclear whether he's making the case for bifurcation or not.

Of course the USGA cares about recreational golfers, I just think the guys overstate the USGA's ability to change much on the ground.  Remember, golf is enjoying its moment because of the pandemic, not because of anything our governing organizations have done.  And that's really how it should be...Less is more.

Snow Daze - Everyone and their brother are sharing pics of golf courses under the white stuff.  We had some good ones, and now we have this Golf Digest gallery with more.  We've done the Scotland thing, but can anyone ID this course?

That's famed Newport Country Club, where snow is a rarity...

Good to know that Whistling Straits looks every bit as artificial under a blanket of snow as it does raw:

Friend of the blog Mark W, writes from sunny Naples, FL to share some of his images of the Auld Grey Toon in a decidedly un-grey palate:

Which is the prefect segue for this, having absolutely nothing to do with the game of golf:

"Lord Coldemort, reporting for duty." Imagine hearing that over a dispatch radio. Guess what? It's a real name, for a real snow plow in Scotland, because the Scots clearly know how to have more fun with things -- this is from the country that gave us Boaty McBoatface, after all.

You may recall last December, social media began picking up on the fact Scotland names its whole snow plow fleet and a map of the current active plows began pushing into viral status. On first glance, some of the names may not make sense to people in the US, but note the country calls these vehicles "gritters" -- that makes "Gritney Spears" make much more sense. This week, social media again took note when revamped names started appearing on the national map of snow plows. The pun game is still very strong.

My personal favorites? "Buzz Iceclear," and "Sweet Child O' Brine." Very good stuff, Scotland.

Who else do we have here? Ah, yes, "Megameltasaurus" was out for deployment, as was "Creedence Clear-Road Revival." Let's not forget about "License to Chill" or "On Her Majesty's Slippery Surface." The James Bond references are strong with the Scots. "Spreddie Van Halen" is another name worthy of our round of applause.

And here's that interactive map, so you'll be on a personal basis with your local gritter"

The gritter names this year are off the scale. pic.twitter.com/y12H2LWjBI

— Guffers (@gavmacn) February 7, 2021

What's scary is to think what names would be permissible here in the current moment....  Perhaps we should not go there, but nice to see that somewhere a sense of humor has remained intact.

See you guys later in the week...