Thursday Themes

OK, we've had our one good day of weather... Anyone know how to put the "warming" back into Global Warming?  Just an odd mélange of bits for you today, which will likely have to kepp you through the weekend.

Tugging At Those Heartstrings - An easy call for story of the week:

Twenty feet of turf stood between Michael Visacki and a lifelong dream. Sink the birdie putt and he’d secure a spot in his first PGA Tour event. A dream a decade in the making was within his grasp — all he needed to do was make that putt.

The countless hours of practice in the oppressive Florida heat trained him for this moment. After 170,000 miles of crisscrossing the country in his Honda Accord, Visacki finally had a chance to reach his goal. Visacki and his caddie — fellow aspiring pro Kaylor Steger — picked a line and went through the pre-shot routine. Visacki drew his putter back and stroked the ball, sending it rolling toward the cup.

When it jarred into the back of the hole, he lifted his arms in triumph. At last, Visacki would play on the PGA Tour.

“Shocking,” he said. “[This is a] dream come true.”

The buried lede might be that he can fit into said Honda Accord.... But it's that everyman appeal that makes this story so satisfying...that and the refusal to give up the dream.

The moment was equally emotional for Mike Visacki. Mike and his wife Donna had made plenty of sacrifices for their son as he chased this dream. Michael Visacki recounted times when his parents would go hungry at nights in order to make sure their son had what he needed to thrive. At other times, they would broker deals with junior events to accept their late entry fees when the family was between paychecks. It was all in hopes of a moment like this.

“I can’t thank them enough; I can’t repay them enough,” Visacki said. “Pops was emotional, never seen him cry so much. We’re not very much of a crying family, but this is the first time in a long time I think that we all cried because we knew how much work and effort, blood, sweat, tears, has gone into me trying to make it and to finally be able to do it.”

That struggle and never-say-die attitude has resonated with fans this week — and not just golf fans. The moment of Visacki’s phone call to his father has gone viral since Monday. The video has been viewed 1.4 million times on Twitter and outlets such as ESPN and TMZ have even shared the clip.

More like this, please.

Tour Notes -  The boys are in Tampa this week, at Innisbrook's Copperhead course, which I've long considered the best track they play in Florida.  Of course, the Tour does what the Tour wants, most recently removing the Valspar from the pre-Masters Florida swing, thereby consigning it to oblivion.  Though the field seems stronger than the Honda, so maybe reports of their demise were exaggerated...

With no logical order, we'll start with this Shane Ryan piece:

7 players having sneaky good PGA Tour seasons in 2021

I'm relieved to inform you that, my concerns notwithstanding, Shane is not trying to convince us that Rory is hitting it out of the park this year....  Though there's one that almost as curious.

 At least here Shane acknowledges the elasticity in his definition of "sneaky";

2. Corey Conners

Truthfully, I’m not even sure how sneaky this is anymore, for the mere fact that the guy is ALWAYS in contention. You won’t hear the 29-year-old’s name very often on SportsCenter and he’s not exactly threatening to plant his flag in the American cultural consciousness (though he did get a sweet Tim Horton’s donutmade to seal his bona fides back home in Canada), but if you’re a golf fan, you’ve almost been forced to learn his name by now. With seven top-10s (a number eclipsed only by Rahm) and just a single missed cut, Conners is a name you can’t escape. Still, he can’t really blow up until he wins … for now, he just sneaks into being sneaky. Quite sneaky of him.

 Next, he'll be offering up DJ as his longshot pick at Kiawah...

But this guy?  OK, I know he pured that tee ball on No. 16...

1. Xander Schauffele

Here we have the second-sexiest name on the list, and the No. 4 ranked player in the world. How can someone like that be “sneaky” good? Well, a few reasons.

First, and most obviously, he hasn’t won in more than two years (even though he had the lowest 72-hole score at the Tour Championship last summer). Second, it feels like there have been approximately three million twists and turns in golf since that last win, from Bryson’s beefening to Spieth’s rejuvenation to DJ’s Masters to an entire global pandemic. Third, recency bias dictates that if you think about Xander Schauffele at all in April 2021, you’re thinking about the triple bogey at the 16th on Sunday at Augusta that cost him a chance to win the Masters.

All of these factors disguise the fact that this dude is playing out of his mind. He has six top-10s, three of which are runner-up finishes. He missed only one cut. And beyond that his worst finish is a T-18 at the WGC-Dell Match Play. He’s consistently great, but with all the competing narratives in a sport drowning in storylines, it’s a simple fact that you’re probably not talking about Xander Schauffele … even though he’s always, always there.

So close.  I'll concede that his explanation of that triple bogey had your humble blogger lose his mind, but that's as close as he comes.  

Next up is a bit of an odd story with multiple moving parts, which involves both Geoff Shackelford and Paul Casey.  There's a chicken or egg thing going on, so bear with me.  Geoff files this post on the four new Covid positive tests, and he's back in rending garment mode:

Tyrrell Hatton became the four player to WD from the Valspar Championship after testing positive for COVID-19. He joins previous WD’s by Sepp Straka, Will Gordon and Brice Garnett as players who were at TPC Louisiana playing last week’s Zurich Classic.

This is the most PGA Tour players in one week to test positive since the circuit introduced testing.

 This is the first time all of the players were coming from another PGA Tour event.

Best wishes to all for no symptoms or a quick recovery. And I’m sure robust contact tracing is underway to ensure there was no spreader situation at TPC Louisiana or in the travel from New Orleans to Tampa for the Valspar.

While virus news is never good, this week’s wave comes as huge numbers of Americans are getting vaccinated and the EU and UK appear close to clarifying how required vaccination passports might work for summer travel. Besides the obvious safety issues that are raised by four positives in one week, there should be concern from the golf industry if pro golfers continue to test positive, resist vaccination and still attempt travel the world.

The sport has benefited from the cruelty of the virus by becoming seen as a safe haven with positive attributes.

Maybe pro golfers can do their part to put aside the infertility and microchip concerns to keep the world safer and golf’s image intact.

Now, as we've discussed previously, Shack has been a virus crybaby since March 2020, and still seems a tad disappointed at times that Nick Watney continues to fog up mirrors. Most famously, after a spate of positive tests in Hartford last summer, he immediately called for the Tour to shut down (along with Alan Shipnuck... must be something in the SoCal water supply).

And while this is far from his most overwrought writing on the subject, do note how those four test results magically became a "wave" as he works up a head of steam.  Then Geoff does a very strange thing, he lists all 26 players that have tested positive:

Nick Watney

Cameron Champ

Denny McCarthy

Dylan Frittelli

Harris English

Chad Campbell

Branden Grace

Tony Finau

Dustin Johnson

Adam Scott

Harry Higgs

Bill Haas

Kramer Hickok

Henrik Norlander

Jhonattan Vegas

DJ Trahan

Mark Wilson

Kamalu Johnson

Padraig Harrington

Danny Willett

Gary Woodland

Scott Piercy

Doc Redman

Seamus Power

Will Gordon

Brice Garnett

Sepp Straka

Tyrrell Hatton

To what end?  Is that an overwhelming display of positive tests?  In a young, healthy population that's been out and about because of their work?  

Hold that thought as we segue to Paul Casey, the double-defending champion, who shared some of his first-world problems:

PALM HARBOR, Fla. – Paul Casey didn’t want to speak for his fellow PGA Tour pros, but the Englishman said he can relate to the urgency to return to our former way of life.

“All I know is that I think like a lot of people out there, like the general public, we’re kind of getting to the point, we just want to crack on with things and get back to normal,” Casey said.

OK, which makes you no different from the other 300 million people living in the U.S.

“I’m still worried about international travel coming up,” Casey said. “I’ve got to go play the Porsche [European Open in Germany] in a few weeks and then the Open Championship [in England in July], and I want to go on holiday with my mates. I usually go to Italy, and that’s not going to happen for another year. So, I’m sick of it, and I’m willing to do the things necessary to get through it.”

On the one hand, this is pretty much word perfect for how I feel, as well as everyone else to whom I speak.  On the other hand, how much more tone deaf can a fellow be?  If this is remarkable in any way, it's only because Casey is one of the more likeable guys out there, and should logically know that there's little appetite for bellyaching from such pampered prima donnas.

But there was also this from Casey's presser:

Q. We just had four players this week test positive, all who were in New Orleans last week. It's still a thing, obviously. But if they had been fully vaccinated, obviously there's been timing issues with this, the schedule, getting eligible, but in theory they wouldn't have to be tested. There's this evidence to suggest they won't even transmit it. Isn't that the way forward not only for you guys but for everybody?

PAUL CASEY: I think so. I mean, how else are you going to get out of a pandemic? Either you need everybody to have had it -- which again, my understanding, what I read at the beginning, and you don't know what's right or wrong, but my reading at the beginning was we can't -- we're not going to get rid of this thing straight away. It was, let's mask up, let's distance so that they won't overwhelm our health services. But we have no way of killing this thing.

You know, when like Shackelford is writing this morning and almost calling out those guys who have had COVID, I think that's out of order. You know, a lot of guys still don't know -- guys who have had it and I've had friends who have had it, I've not had it but guys who have had it who are my friends, they don't know how they got it, genuinely don't know how they got it and have been adhering to protocols, so I'm disappointed that Geoff would do that.

Touch wood they didn't pass it on to anybody else and didn't affect anybody else, and it seems like we've not had anybody on TOUR who's been seriously adversity affected. I know there's a couple of media personnel, people in the media who have dealt with it badly or have had adverse effect, but yeah, look, I would try to preach as much as I can. I don't want to get up on a soapbox and kind of scream it, but we all want to get through this, and how else are we going to get through it unless everybody has got antibodies or we get vaccinated.

Look on the bright side, Geoff, apparently Paul Casey reads your blog.... But answer the more profound issue, has he popped for your subscription Quadrilateral feature?  Yeah, now I see the source of this bitterness...

 Geoff had this quasi-rebuttal in introducing Casey's comments:

I should have made more clear that it was not meant to humiliate them but instead to document the number since the “Return to Golf”. As someone who has dealt with the impact of the virus on a daily basis since November 30th, I certainly understand many layers of the pandemic and empathize with those who have had the virus or have lost a loved one.

I do think Paul Casey's comments were a bit off-base, as there's no sense that Geoff was victim blaming...That said, Geoff has very much embraced the pandemic porn, so Casey's confusion is understandable.   Of course, what Casey should really be angry about were those calls from Geoff to shut down last summer, though you'll notice that Geoff fails to remind us of that.

In other Tour news, Justin Thomas remains an extremely polite young man:

Professional golfers don’t always like getting asked questions about other professional golfers. A

person’s golf game is, after all, rather personal.

But sometimes pros are very simply the people best-equipped to explain what’s going on with someone. Such was the case a month ago, when Jordan Spieth shed light on Rickie Fowler’s game. For a player of Fowler’s stature, Spieth explained, “it’s impossible to struggle in silence.”

So when Justin Thomas was asked on Wednesday what he thought about Rory McIlroy, my ears perked up. Was Thomas surprised, one reporter asked, by McIlroy’s recent struggles?

Sometimes a player in this circumstance will downplay, or deflect, or defer. Thomas did not.

“Yeah, I’m very surprised,” he said. “I think we all are.”

Are you really?  Then perhaps you've not been paying close attention...

Check that, this pretty much confirms the above speculation:

“Rory is one of the most talented golfers I’ve ever played with, but I think something that is very underrated and people don’t realize is how hard he works,” Thomas said of his south Florida neighbor. “I mean, he’s out there a lot, puts in a lot, a lot, a lot of hours, and he’s very similar to me to where he always wants to get better, probably to the point where it hurts him at times, like it does myself.”

Then perhaps he's working on the wrong things, as per his "Chasing Bryson" comments.

We're going to close on a relentlessly optimistic note:

Let’s finish with some optimism. McIlroy will make his start at Quail Hollow next week, where he won his first PGA Tour event in 2010 (by shooting 66-62 on the weekend). Two weeks after that he’ll play the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, where he won his second of four majors in 2012 (by a whopping eight shots). He’ll have plenty of fond memories to draw on.

Rory is pretty much all about the fond memories at this juncture...

“The thing about Rory is I know he’s going to work through it and he’s going to win a lot more tournaments and a lot more majors,” he said. “I still and always will have maybe more respect for him than anybody, because he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met for how much success he’s had.”

He hasn't won a major since 2014, and I couldn't even cite one in which he's contended since then.  But JT thinks he'll win a "lot more"?  As noted above, he's unfailingly polite...

In this Tour olio, one last foreboding item from the aforementioned Shackelford, recounting a Rob Manfred-Adam Silver conversation:

Manfred reminded everyone of this Monday speaking at a webinar hosted by Sportico. He recalled the story of a conversation he had a few years ago with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who told Manfred that MLB’s slower pace gives it an advantage when it comes to placing wagers:

“I’ll tell you a funny story; I don’t think he would mind. One night, I was coming back from an event and the phone rang; it was Adam Silver. He said: Rob, you gotta stop talking about the pace of game because your pace of game is going to be absolutely perfect for sports betting. And he’s right; he usually is. And he was right about that. So we see it as an opportunity to make everything we do… better for our fans. It’s an opportunity that our fans clearly want.”

Thud!  Sure, let's slow down our already dreadfully slow games to satisfy that small percentage of our fans that want to get a bet down... What's not to like?

Haters Gonna Hate - The PGA Professional Championship has been on Golf Channel this week, filling the final twenty slots in the Kiawah field.  Including this familiar name:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Omar Uresti started Wednesday’s final round of the 53rd PGA Professional Championship with a seven-shot lead, and he needed most of it.

After playing flawless golf for the first 54 holes, Uresti struggled throughout the final round. The Austin, Texas, resident was 4-over after four holes and saw his once-invincible lead shrink to two shots on the back nine of the Wanamaker Course at PGA Golf Club.

But he got back to what he does best, grinding away for pars, and held on for a three-shot victory over Frank Bensel Jr. of Jupiter, Florida. Uresti etched his name on the Walter Hagen Trophy for the second time in four years, having also won in 2017.

 This, it so happens, is somewhat controversial, as this 2017 article explains:

Omar Uresti is a lightning rod for controversy, despite not breaking any rules.

The 49-year-old from Austin, Texas, competed in his third straight PGA Championship this week as a “club pro,” using a back-nine 32 on Friday to make the cut on his way to a T-73 finish.

He earned his spot into the field by winning the PGA Professional Championship, making him one of 20 club pros at Quail Hollow. But that’s the rub.

Uresti may be many things, but a club pro he's not:

Regardless, Uresti’s entry into the club pro category has caused a stir in the community. Uresti has taught junior golfers and helped out with First Tee fundraisers, but he is not a club professional anywhere.

No, but he was apparently sufficiently astute to meet the PGA of America's most primal need:

Uresti became an A-3 life member with the PGA of America after 20-plus years on the PGA Tour and paying annual PGA of America dues along the way. As an active life member, Uresti is eligible for the PGA Professional Championship. Keeping that active label involves paying dues and fulfilling credits by going to teaching seminars and section meetings, which Uresti has done.

It’s a payoff a long time coming.

“I didn’t really get any benefits from (paying dues) until I started playing in these events,” Uresti said.

On the one hand, I can't blame the club pros for being a little miffed at Omar horning in on their sweet gig.  But there's a big caveat, and the guys might be smart to temper their criticism.  Because it only reinforces the wide chasm between club pros and touring professionals, and highlights how profoundly silly it is to muck up the PGA Championship field with club professionals, none of whom are likely to so much as sniff the cut line.

In related news, the PGA of America seems sufficiently committed to degrading the PGA Championship field, that no assistance from the club pros is required:

Rickie Fowler might've missed the year's first major, but he won't be sitting out the second one.

The PGA of America confirmed to NBC Sports' Will Gray on Tuesday that Fowler and John Catlin have each received special invites to play the PGA Championship on May 20-23 at Kiawah's Ocean Course.

Fowler was initially believed to be on the outside looking in for the PGA, as his 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup team exemption only applied if he stayed inside the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking by the May 10 cutoff date (Fowler is currently No. 111). Though there is still time for Fowler to qualify that way, some people noticed that Fowler was already listed in the official field for Kiawah.

The PGA said that Fowler and Catlin, who is No. 82 in the world, had been invited to play "based on their performances, playing records and OWGR position."

Caitlin I understand, as he's won three times in his last fourteen starts.  Our Rickie, on the other hand, hasn't a top ten to his name this year.   But I'm note sure he even needs to pack an orange shirt, as I think I know where he'll be on Sunday.

Don't Trust Chine.  China Is A*****e - The header is a 2019 quote from a protestor in Hong Kong, but isn't exactly late-breaking news.  There was that little virus they shared with us, but we've seen any number of similar stories over the years:

If a deal on a new set of clubs sold online sounds too good to be true, it very well could be. A recent bust of Chinese counterfeiters proved that point and should serve as notice to buy golf gear only from trusted retailers or from equipment manufacturers directly.

Fifteen people in China were convicted this week for their roles in a major counterfeit golf club ring, an industry watchdog association named U.S. Golf Manufacturers Anti-Counterfeiting Working Group reported.

Following what the U.S.-based business group called the largest raid of counterfeit golf gear ever, conducted in 2020, a court in the Chinese district of Pudong convicted all 15 people on trial after the raid. The total case value of the faked equipment was more than $1.8 million and involved 120,000 pieces of equipment falsely carrying the branding of Titleist, TaylorMade, PXG, Ping, Callaway and Cleveland/Srixon.

A drop in the ocean, no doubt... 

I know it wasn't much, but it will have to do for this week.  See you on Monday.

 

 

Tuesday's Trifles

This will be an experiment in low-impact blogging.  I happen to have a couple of bits tat got left on the cutting room floor, and didn't want to make you nice folks wait until the end of the week (the Wednesday Game rendering our typical Midweek Musings impractical).

Democracy Dies in Darkness - How do you feel about golf journalism?  Most folks would agree that those last two words shouldn't be used in the same sentence, though at this juncture we could probably say the same thing about political journalism....Hence the header.

At Morning Read, Mike Purkey takes on the state of our golf press, and is less than impressed:

David Feherty’s immense talents are being ignored and wasted. His interview show on Golf Channel was canceled, and he appears to be lying low and trying to stay out of trouble until he

retires.

It makes you wonder whether someone told Johnny Miller what was coming so he could get out of television just in time.

If you’ve noticed, it should concern you. If you haven’t noticed, you should. No one ever accused television commentators of being journalists. But there was a time when they at least made an effort to appear objective. No players are critically analyzed. Anything negative is on the penalty side of the white stakes.

What’s wrong with being positive? Nothing, unless that’s all you get.

This is slightly difficult to blog, if only because expectations are so low.  Though Purkey also has examples that cast a more favorable light on the industry:

Dottie Pepper of CBS had to practically bite her tongue during the final round of the RBC Heritage and speak in code to say (or not say) that Stewart Cink’s extensive discussions with caddie/son Reagan – or maybe it was the other way around – were taking way too much time and gumming up the works where pace of play was concerned. Cink was put on the clock at least once over the weekend. Instead, all we heard from the announcers was how beautiful these father-son moments were while in contention to win a big championship.

No one can deny it was, in fact, heartwarming and a great narrative. But any veteran PGA Tour caddie would tell you – in private – that the performance was over the top, and if Reagan were a regular looper, Cink would insist that he hold the conversation to a minimum. That’s not being negative; it’s telling the whole story.

Isn't that pretty much the best we can expect?  I read that to say that Dottie did her job, and did it in a reasonably effective manner.  You say you want a revolution, but do we really?

Which, apparently, the PGA Tour doesn’t want you to know. In late 2019, the Tour renewed its rights for live programming with CBS, NBC/Golf Channel and ESPN for about $700 million, according to Variety. It was a 70 percent increase from the previous TV deal. Golf Channel was forced to take a big chunk to be the Tour’s cable partner because it had no choice.

But it meant two important things: About half of Golf Channel’s 800 employees were let go, according to The Athletic. And, more importantly, the PGA Tour now controls the content.

Chatter is always bubbling near the surface about the possibility of a PGA Tour Network, in the same vein as Major League Baseball and the NFL. Such a venture would cost a fortune, which the Tour has, and there’s already a template in place.

But to keep CBS, NBC and Golf Channel at arm’s length, the Tour has taken over production of the telecasts, which is to say, the pictures. In that sense, the Tour controls what you see and, more importantly, what you don’t see. And now the Tour overwhelmingly appears to be in control of what the announcers say and, more importantly, what they don’t say. See no evil, etc.

It's their event that being broadcast, so it seems a bit unrealistic to expect that they'll not control it pretty closely.... That said, the Tour continues to flex its muscles in the content control arena, and the double-secret slush fund PIP program is a bookend to this instinct.

This policy of omertà dates back to the reign of Nurse Ratched, and also involves the non-disclosure of injuries and disciplinary actions and the aggressive policing of social media.  It's all quite the bad look and, I think, counter-productive over the long run. I'm actually naïve enough to think most of the players are good guys, but when you show zero deviation from the norm, I'm forced to conclude that the issues run far deeper than we thought.

The Refuseniks - Geoff seems personally offended by players refusing to make the trip to Tokyo, though he's trying to frame it amusingly:

The best men’s 2021 Olympic competition this year may be found in the build-up to the Tokyo Games.

Best excuse by a player definitely eligible? And worst.

Best pretzel logic to justify passing?

Best use of family over country?

Best use of a virus or disease to not go?

You get the idea.

What has him so despondent?

Adam Scott has become the second golfer to opt out of this summer’s Olympic Games.

According to the Australian’s manager, Johan Elliot with Sportyard International, the timing of the Games doesn’t fit into Scott’s schedule. Scott also opted out of the 2016 Games in Brazil citing the busy PGA Tour schedule and the Zika virus outbreak.

“With the world being the way it is, Adam is gone 4-5 weeks at a time this year during his playing blocks,” Elliot said in a statement to GolfChannel.com. “With three young children at home, this time in the schedule will be devoted to family. It is pretty much the only time up until October when he has a chance to see them for a stretch of time and not only a few days/a week.”

Boo-friggin'-hoo.  The Zika references are pretty amusing, an obvious case of deflection masking the fundamental weakness of the Olympic event.   The Tour Confidential panel did have some thoughts on this:

5. A month after world No. 1 Dustin Johnson said he is passing on the 2021 Olympics, Australian star Adam Scott said he, too, will sit out the Games. Scott’s manager told Golf Channel that “it is pretty much the only time up until October when he has a chance to see [his family] for a stretch of time.” Do you think we’ll see more top players step back as the Olympics near, as we did in 2016? Or will DJ and Scott be outliers?

Zak: Yes we will. Whereas Zika seemed like a family-man play back in 2016, staying home during the Olympics might seem like even more of a family-man play. Adam Scott sees no other holes in his schedule? He’ll take a break and be in full dad mode. It’ll be healthy for him, I’m sure. And his family, too. Even if I hate the field weakening.

Well, cause and effect can be a tricky thing.  Sean seems not to have considered that the field was already so absurdly weak, that it doesn't make sense for a guy like Adam to upend his schedule over it. 

Sens: No doubt. Though the number of WD’s is going to depend on a certain other number on the ground in Japan. A lot could change pandemic-wise between now and late July in Tokyo.

Bamberger: It’s the year, and the place. Tokyo in the summer of 2021 does not sound like something most people would go out of their way to do. We’ll see more withdrawals and most guys will be too polite to say why in a truthful way. Just bad luck.

No.  A thousand times no.  It's not bad luck, it's bad leadership. 

Dethier: I love the Olympics, so I wish more top pros were going to play. But I’m also not interested in pressuring them to do so if they don’t love the Olympics. These guys can play a 72-hole stroke play golf tournament nearly 50 weeks out of the year if they want to, so it’s hardly surprising they’ll skip the one that doesn’t have a prize pool. (Winning a gold medal might help with their PIP, though …)

Yanno, Dylan, the money thing is a pretty cheap shot.  If I loved the Olympics, I'd be pretty unhappy that they've degraded it with an inane mini-golf event.

I do like the PIP slam, though the degree of difficulty is so low as to make it impossible to post a decent score.  Shack had his own version thereof:

Short version: he’s wants to be with his kids.

Much more fun would have been: he needs to rest after The Open before he makes a 2021 Playoff and Meltwater Mentions push.

Hold that thought, as there will likely be more.

Proof of Life -  Of course you've seen the picture by now:

Yeah, he's really embracing that Meltwater Mentions thing...

Dylan Dethier, in his Monday Finish feature, goes full Zapruder on this photo, drawing all sorts of conclusions most of us missed:

1. He’s upright.

Remember the dramatic photos from Woods’ crash? Remember just how dire things felt in that moment? The 24/7 cable news coverage? The red-and-black tribute on Tour that weekend? Let’s not take for granted the simple fact that Woods is alive and well, because it hardly felt like a guarantee.

2. His left leg looks good.

It looks skinny, but Woods has always taken grief for his skinny legs, even when he wasn’t confined to a hospital bed. But one of those original rumors was the fear that Woods had broken both of his legs. That’s clearly not the case.

3. There’s no PR agency involved here.

At least, not a particularly uptight one. I think it’s a good sign that this photo looks like it was taken with a potato phone. It suggests that whoever took it wasn’t overly concerned with how Woods looked, which suggests they were comfortable with how Woods actually did look, which suggests Woods is in fact doing fairly well! Lots of suggesting, but it’s encouraging.

Dylan, you might want to see someone about this obsession...It's just a photo.

But who says the golfing press doesn't dig deep:

4. Bugs is keeping him company.

That’s Woods’ dog Bugs, a Border Collie-Springer Spaniel mix, who has been around since at least Christmas Eve of 2015, when he was introduced to the world:

We would like to welcome a new member to our family/pack:), Bugs!!!! pic.twitter.com/MjtiZudTL2

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) December 24, 2015

Bugs is, apparently, a well-trained dog by now. And Tiger’s rehab partner. (Sidenote: The Woods fam has a thing for dogs with cartoon names. He and now ex-wife Elin Nordegren initially got dogs named Taz and Yogi. More recently Woods got Bugs and Lola. Anyway, back to the list.)

Take that, Mike Purkey!  Digging deep on story and reporting it without fear or favor...

Actually, the funniest part of this is imaging the mole hunt being conducted by Steiny within the Tiger camp.  "How could they have known about Yogi?

Scenes From the Golf World - I've blogged a little on the profoundly silly Covid protocols in Scotland, where they used the pandemic to keep people from driving in their own cars to golf courses.  Now comes word of further craziness from The Great White North:

A surge of COVID-19 cases in Canada has left Ontario golfers in the cold. And some are fighting back.

In mid-April a new pandemic lockdown by the provincial government was announced, giving police temporary power to stop individuals to ask where they’re going and where they live. “The Stay-at-Home order currently in effect requires everyone to remain at home except for specified purposes, such as going to the grocery store or pharmacy, accessing health care services [including getting vaccinated], for outdoor exercise, or for work that cannot be done remotely,” a government statement says.

The Ontario government proceeded to close all outdoor recreational amenities including basketball courts, soccer fields, playgrounds and, yes, golf courses. The closing is schedule to be in place through at least May 20.

So, outdoor exercise is an exclusion from house arrest, but just to be safe we'll shutter all outdoor exercise facilities...

 Note this bit from a letter protesting the over-reaction:

“Across North America, at this moment, Ontario is the only province, state or territory not allowing the sport to be played,” Young wrote. “This despite more than 26 million recorded rounds by approximately 1.8 million of your constituents with next to zero reports of COVID-19 transmission last season or this season.”

It's actually far crazier than that, because the lockdowns themselves have proven completely ineffective in reducing infection or death rates.  But doubling down on stupid is what we do these days... Plus, Vitamin D.

Problem is, once they get a taste for the whip.... It's like Chinese food, though that analogy has to be racist, of course.

In other parts of the Anglosphere, Ireland is reopening golf ever so slowly:

Club members in Ireland were able to play golf again Monday as the Republic began to ease

COVID-19 restrictions that have shuttered courses for more than 200 days in the past year.

This follows in the wake of Ireland’s neighbors reopening golf in recent weeks. England reopened the sport March 29, and Northern Ireland resumed golf April 1. The sport is also open in Scotland and Wales.

But the game isn’t open to everyone in Ireland, home to many of the best links golf courses in the world. In this first phase of reopening, players must be registered members of the club at which they are playing. General daily-fee tee times are not yet available, and golf tourism is still shut down.

 But still with the nonsense:

For players who are members of clubs, they would need to live fairly close. Golfers are allowed to travel only within their home county or 20 kilometers from home to play, as travel restrictions will remain in place for an undetermined time.

Why?  What is the risk of a private automobile?  In many parts of these countries folks travel 20K just for a quart of milk, so this is needlessly restrictive.  But, as experience has long shown, dictators gonna dictate....

Wither Thunderbear - Is it too early to talk him up for the Ryder Cup?  An actual sighting:

Danish golfer Thorbjorn Olesen, who still has a sexual assault charge pending, shot a course-record 61 on Friday during the second round of the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open and leads the Euro Tour event.

Olesen had yet to make a start in 2021 after a positive COVID test and a wrist injury, but he followed Thursday’s 65 with a scintillating 61 that included an eagle on the fourth hole.

Do you remember the story?

Olesen was charged with sexual assault, common assault and being drunk on an aircraft during a flight from Nashville to London following his participation in the 2019 WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

According to multiple reports, Olesen allegedly assaulted a woman and urinated in the aisle of a plane while drunk on the flight. The Sun reported that Ian Poulter had to calm Olesen down after he was allegedly abusive toward passengers and crew in first class. Olesen allegedly assaulted the woman while Poulter slept.

“He started abusing some of the passengers and crew and then made a pass at one of the female passengers before taking a leak in the aisle,” one passenger on the flight told The Sun. “It was shocking behavior.”

The Meltwater Mentions on this will be epic.... At the very least, though, Golfweek doesn't seem to be pulling any punches.

Leaving Out The Good Stuff -  Kinda frustrating when I have a killer riposte set up, and then space out and completely forget it.  OK, killer is very much in the mind of the beholder...

You'll remember yesterday's item on the struggles of Matthew Wolff.  You did read it, right?  In any event, I had intended to end the bit by suggesting that Matt give this podcast a listen:

What exactly happens when golfers lose their game? Our latest podcast explores the mystery of the slump

That piece leads with the perfect photo:

 Reminds of your humble blogger on Saturday... or, yanno, tomorrow.

That'll be a wrap for today's experiment in Low Carbon Footprint Blogging.  Look for me later in the week, though definitely not tomorrow.  

Weekend Wrap

I'm getting to this earlier than expected, though the reader likely won't know to look for it until Tuesday morning.  But, Dear Reader, you are always foremost on my mind....

Zurich Zaniness - An odd week for sure.  Still better than another week of mindless 72 holes of stroke play, but there are certainly issues.  First, let's deal with the action, then we'll get to the format.

This header, you'll agree, covers a lot of ground:

Leishman & Smith hang on, Oosthuizen's brutal block and Finau avoids the asterisk victory

I think we can all agree that Finau's win-avoidance strategy has been comprehensive.  Not so much that he was avoiding the asterisk yesterday, just a normal Sunday for the young man.  That might be harsh, but they'll be no mandatory point deductions for inaccuracy.

See if you've heard this one before:

It went in the water, but it was a good shot is usually a phrase reserved for 15-handicappers who finally make great contact, only for their ball to get wet anyway. On Sunday at the Zurich Classic of

New Orleans, though, it was a thought that crossed Marc Leishman’s mind after his partner, Cameron Smith, rinsed one from the tee at the drivable par-4 16th at TPC Louisiana.

“I mean, he hit a really good shot,” said Leishman, who wound up hitting the most momentous shot of the entire week soon after Smith found the water. “It sounds silly, but it was the right shot, it just drifted a little in the wind. I wasn’t walking up there thinking I wanted to give him a jab in the ribs or something, I was just concentrating on the next shot.”

Just a couple of weeks back we heard Xander Schauffele saying much the same thing on a different 16th hole.  But it was a good shot, and because it was they were able to drop almost on the green.

Some other conclusions from the week:

That was a brutal block cut from Louis Oosthuizen

The man with (arguably) the sweetest swing on the planet, one that often produces a right to left ball flight that makes peons like us salivate, hitting a block cut in sudden death was legitimately shocking to see. That would have been painful enough for Oosthuizen in a regular tournament, but to do it in alternate shot with your fellow South African and buddy Charl Schwartzel is crushing. We’ve all played team golf in some capacity, be it for $5 at your club on Saturday or for millions of dollars on tour, and we all know that incredible sinking feeling of letting down your teammate. Luckily, Oosty is well-accustomed to the runner-up life and won’t lose too much sleep tonight, as long as he has his trusty mattress with him.

OK, but the one he hit in regulation was every bit as bad, setting aside where the water happened to be.  

My biggest gripe, though, is about the quality of play, which seemed really substandard.  That said, alternate shot takes one out of his comfort zone and the newly-grassed greens were rock hard, but still... It had me quoting Casey's iconic, "Can't anybody here play this game".

One more takeaway:

That was the best crowd yet

Yes, we know fans have been back for a decent while now, and events like the Players and the WGC-Dell Match Play look and sounded somewhat normal. But give the Zurich Classic crowd credit, they were very loud and very into it on Sunday, making an otherwise forgettable tournament feel big down the stretch. Guess that’s just the New Orleans difference. Between Sunday at Zurich, Saturday night’s full capacity UFC event in Florida, and baseball stadiums starting to fill up as the weather gets warmer, it’s starting to feel like sports truly on their way back, which not a single soul is complaining about.

Kind of a split verdict on this subject, with Shack weighing in on the "anti" side:

2021 Zurich Classic Offers A Grim Window Into A Baba Booey Future

With decent-sized galleries and apparently no mask mandate enforcement, the Zurich Classic’s compelling final round duel was occasionally interrupted by various drunken dopes and other dough brains screaming something to get attention.

Sigh.

One of the few upsides to the otherwise grim pandemic now appears destined to return or worse, become more prevalent due to pent-up obnoxiousness.

I guess it all comes down to on whom the lout spills his beer.... Of course I'm still struggling with the concept that folks think golf tournaments are fun to attend.  

But the bigger point that needs to made can be found in this tweet:

Should this event just be four rounds of alt shot?

— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) April 25, 2021

I'll let Geoff make the case against fourballs:

Four adults playing their ball and picking up when they’re out of the hole? That should (theoretically) go faster than four grown men playing pure stroke play.

Four-ball is a complete slog of a format with the best male golfers and needs to be eliminated where possible. But since the world’s best rarely are out of a hole and they’re slow as it is, the format produces a death march.

The Ryder Cup will not abandon four-ball matches even though they were not added until 1963. But the Zurich Classic is supposed to be entertaining. Its two best ball rounds drag on forever and produce so little tension.

But foursomes? Straight alternate shot certainly brings a different tension level. Maybe an excess of intensity given that foursomes is a match play format and was never envisioned as a form of stroke play.

As No Laying Up tweeted, four rounds of alternate shot might make the Zurich better. But four days of pure alternate shot would prove too fan-unfriendly over four days. I’d prefer to see the event go to Scotch foursomes (both players hit drives). Maybe play that version for three days and move to straight alternate shot for the final day?

Ah, who doesn't like a hybrid solution?

In any event, the Tour Confidential panel got into this issue in their weekly confab, which features more back-and-forth than is typical:

1. Australians Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith won the Zurich Classic, edging out South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel in a playoff. The Zurich is the only official PGA Tour event in which players compete as two-man teams, with the winning team evenly splitting both first- and second-place money and FedExCup points. Is one team event on the Tour schedule one event too many, too few or just right?

Sean Zak: It’s about one too few, which is close to just right! Anything less than one is just boring. Watch that playoff (and the few holes before it) Sunday and imagine what an exclusively alternate-shot event would play out like. Teams ripping around the course, nervous about every single shot. That’s super engaging golf for everyone at home.

Josh Sens: It’s the right number but the wrong format. One team event during the regular Tour schedule is plenty (we get our fill of two-on-two’s in the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup), but it should be alternate shot, which is the undisputed GOATF: greatest of all team formats.

Michael Bamberger: You can’t have Thursday-Sunday, 72-hole stroke-play competitions week after week after week. The Zurich Classic is a welcome change of pace. You could have a team match-play event, too. You could have a mixed-team stroke-play event. You could break things up by age (have 20-somethings played with 50-somethings, playing against teams with one 30-something and one 40-something). Maybe that’s too much for variety is life’s spice.

Dylan Dethier: You’ll get no argument from me on alternate shot as the GOATF. I think there’s clearly room for one more team event that pairs PGA and LPGA players and features stroke-play qualifying and match play on the weekend to conquer two big-money winners.

Compare and contrast those opinions with the work actually being done by Jay Monahan, none of which seems remotely focused on the actual golf competitions run by the Tour.

How else to exit this topic than a last tribute to Team Mullet:

Wilshire Wonderment - I'm not going to blog a game story on Brooke Henderson's win Saturday night, but there are a couple of issues that I find interesting enough to bore you with.  First, Geoff pens an ode to Wilshire Country Club in his weekly newsletter:

If you caught any of the LPGA’s Hugel-Air Premia L.A. Open on Golf Channel, you know there was an easy drinking game built around Hollywood sign mentions. But for good reason in this case.

From several parts of Wilshire Country Club you can see the former real estate billboard-turned-iconic symbol. And putts may even break away from it. Certainly beats hearing about everything breaking toward Indio.

Other notable landmarks in your face from Wilshire: downtown Los Angeles, the Griffith Observatory, the old El Royale sign and several well-preserved historic structures, including Howard Hughes’ old home off the 8th green. The entire setting feels like an L.A. Confidential set piece.

Put this with Norman MacBeth’s 1919 character-rich design and the whole thing makes for a magical tournament setting. Wilshire gives the LPGA Tour a necessary “sense of place” jolt even when it can’t welcome fans.

The transformative role of “place” is always my lasting impression when Wilshire hosts since people all over the country ask if the course and setting is as good as it looks on TV. It is.

Take away the vintage LA backdrop and Wilshire’s superb on its own thanks to a bunch of original and offbeat design features. But couple the architecture with the surrounding sights? Even random city sounds like police helicopters, busy streets and the occasional siren add to the charm.

 That's one of Geoff's own photos of Wilshire with iconic El Royale looming above.

I do think Geoff makes an important point, a reminder of one of the many charms of the Old Course as well.  I'm not sure there's a huge number of potential venues that can tick this box, so how about we just agree to default to timeless architecture... Yanno, like TPC Louisiana.... Kidding!

The other point to be made is about the scheduling, a Wednesday-Saturday event, starting with that TC panel:

4. The LPGA Tour winner’s circle this season is an all-star team: Jessica Korda, Nelly Korda, Austin Ernst, Inbee Park, Patty Tavatanakit, Lydia Ko and now Brooke Henderson, who won the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open. For the second week in a row, the LPGA finished on a Saturday. Do you prefer a Saturday finish for LPGA events, given it provides separation from the final round of PGA Tour events?

Zak: It’s less about the Saturday finish for me and more about the Wednesday start. An entire day of the week devoted to women’s golf, the courses that host women’s golf, the sponsors that enrich women’s golf, the caddies who loop for LPGA players, etc. I know it’s lame for women to alter their schedule to be opposite what the men’s game has standardized, but it might not be a bad business decision.

Sens: Personally, the Saturday finish doesn’t make a big difference; I find it easy enough to toggle back and forth between two events and I’d rather devote just one day of the weekend to being a couch potato anyway. But if it gets more eyeballs on women’s golf, I’m all for it. In that respect, it seems like a smart move.

 Bamberger: So sensible, both the Wednesday start and the Saturday finish.

OK, Mike, I guess this is our "Math is Hard moment", but they're one and the same decision.  If you start on Wednesday, you're gonna finish on Saturday... 

Dethier: It’s not just the Saturday bit that’s fun — it’s the primetime bit. When the LPGA plays on the west coast and the PGA is on the east coast, we golf fans get a proper balance of consumption. Personally I’d love to see more staggered events so that tournaments wrapped up on Saturday nights or even Mondays — but I don’t think the numbers have yet backed that up as a strong business decision. Not everyone can watch golf on the first workday of the week, after all.

It took the young punk Dylan to finish the thought...  this is incredibly appealing, especially the Wed.-Fri. bits airing after folks get home from the office golf course. 

I've been arguing for this for years in these pages, and it's quite nice to have some company.  That said, it's a little silly to advocate for it without at least acknowledging the profound issues it raises.  To understand those, all you have to do is ask yourself why tournaments concluded on a Sunday.  The obvious answer is that the vast hordes needed, spectators, volunteers and TV eyeballs, are more readily available on Saturday and Sunday.  Not coincidentally, those are the only two days traditionally on network television, and you forego those at your own peril.

That said, the absence of spectators mitigates the need for volunteers, and people working from home are just another way of saying TV golf viewers, so now presents a unique opportunity to try this, and the LPGA seems to have jumped on it.  But compare this actual schedule to Alan Shipnuck's strategery:

Been saying forever the LPGA events should be Sat-Tues. that way they’d own the two slowest days of the week. https://t.co/uCD5D4FIKu

— Alan Shipnuck (@AlanShipnuck) April 25, 2021

You want them to finish on a Tuesday?  With no one in the stands and broadcast during the day (except when on the Left Bank)?  Isn't that what you'd do if your objective was to have no one know they're even playing? 

Of course, the ladies are heading to Singapore this week, so it doesn't matter what days they play on, at least here in the U.S.

PIP My Ride - Everyone and their Uncle has opined on this slush fund, with predictable results.  The ten guys that figure to cash a check are all in....  As for the rest of humanity, well, why do you think the Tour kept this a big, dark secret?

John Feinstein had a piece up last week in which he ruminates on something I gave a little thought to, the reaction of Fred Smith:

And so the first question: Where is the tour getting the $40 million? At the moment, there’s no corporate sponsor and there’s not likely to be one, if only because Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the tour dating to 2007, would probably lose his mind if PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan stood up and proudly announced a new multi-million-dollar corporate partnership in order to pay 10 players millions of dollars.

As it is, one wonders how FedEx, whose contract with the tour runs through 2027, is going to react to a new program that rewards players for being popular. Flawed as the FedEx Cup playoff system is, the hundreds of millions the company has invested has gotten the top players to keep playing through the end of the summer after the major championships are over. That was the whole point when then-commissioner Tim Finchem convinced FedEx to sign on in the first place. FedEx and the PGA Tour are now so closely entwined that the FedEx logo is imbedded in the floor of the lobby inside the tour’s new multi-million-dollar headquarters.

Awkward!  But couldn't happen to a more deserving group of fellows....

It seems obvious the PIP is a reaction to the threat of the proposed Premier Golf League, which was first publicly discussed a year ago. The PGL model calls for 18 events in a season for huge money (reportedly $240 million) each year. But despite the financial enticements, a handful of top-ranked players, notable Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka among them, said they weren’t interested, stymieing the tour’s launch.

The very idea of the PGL clearly scared the tour, and the PIP appears to be a direct response to that concept: If we give top players millions for doing nothing on top of the millions they are already making, they won’t be tempted by the PGL. It’s an overreaction to something that doesn’t even exist at the moment.

Most businesses facing an existential threat would look to  improve their product or service.  Not Kubla Jay, he's gonna solve the PGL problem by paying off Rickie Fowler.... 

Feinstein pulls off a clever trick.  See if you're amused by it, which starts in predictable fashion:

That said, it’s worth considering who might be among the 10 players in line this year to receive

the $40 million in bonuses the tour is going to hand out.

Presumably Tiger Woods is No. 1 on the list (presumably because the tour hasn’t made any ranking public) even though he is recovering from his horrific car accident. Woods is regularly mentioned on social-media platforms that the tour proposes to use to measure “impact” and he still receives more attention than anyone who is actually playing golf right now.

Years ago, when Woods was the No. 1 player in the world by leaps and bounds, Tommy Roy, NBC’s longtime golf executive producer, told me that a survey the network had done asked viewers this question: “Would you rather watch any other player hitting a shot or watch Tiger Woods leaning on his bag waiting for his turn to play?” According to Roy, 45 percent of viewers said they’d rather watch Woods talk club selection with then-caddie Steve Williams.

Fair enough, but who else is on that list?

Now, guess who probably should be No. 2 on the list, if popularity is the measure? How about Charlie Woods. OK, he’s not eligible (yet) but think about the interest his presence at the PNC Challenge last December created among the media, TV, print, digital, social and otherwise. Of course, I’m kidding that Charlie should be paid for the engagement he helped bring the tour, but I bring him up to make the point that paying competitive athletes (or their children) based on popularity is ludicrous.

Heh, I see what you did there...

 Here's John's rousing coda:

The larger point isn’t so much who will or will not be on the list. It’s the question again of why spend $40 million to make a bunch of very rich guys richer? To get them to sign more autographs or go on social media more often? Seriously? It’s flailing at an opponent who doesn’t even exist at the moment. It is just about the worst idea since New Coke. With luck, it will go away just about as quickly.

Oh, I don't think this is going anywhere... Once you get used to suckling on that teat...

John Hawkins and Mike Purkey do a point-counterpoint on the subject, and there's this one issue I think could bear some scrutiny:

Hawk’s take: This isn’t about the rich getting richer (they are) or the threat of a rival golf league (PGL = Pretty Gigantic Longshot). It’s about recognizing who butters the bread, and in professional golf, one man owns a majority share of the margarine. Hundreds of tour pros have gotten wealthy while riding the coattails of Tiger Woods over the years, although no one has prospered more from Eldrick’s greatness than the PGA Tour itself.

It’s long past time for Camp Ponte Vedra to acknowledge the primary source of its good fortune. This should have happened before the hydrant or the pills or the shattered right leg. Cutting the $40 million pie into 10 pieces is mere window dressing. Woods will receive the largest slice for many years to come, regardless of how often he plays. As for those of you who bemoan the likely inclusion of underachiever Rickie Fowler on this list, his mainstream appeal is more valuable to the Tour than some guy who wins two or three tournaments a year and acts like a brat doing it.

Hawk, why are you so certain that Tiger has been underpaid all these years?

The basic format of our game has been that the Tour runs the events and redistributes the increasing sums into tourney purses.  In case you were away, Tiger bagged a pretty nice share of said purses over the years, as per this current schedule of career earnings:

Is that being underpaid?  If you think so, make the case, but a case needs to be made.  I'm not about to diminish Tiger's role in this game, but it's hardly a one-man show.  There was a Tour before Tiger and there will be one long after he leaves the game, so I find this "All our riches are due to Tiger" a bit much.

But the second part of the status quo ante is that the players are free to reap their fortunes from other sources, which are likely to be motivated by the same kinds of parameters the Tour is now invoking.  How much do we figure Tiger has reaped from endorsements, appearances, books and the like?  Do we still think he's tragically underpaid?

The TC panel also gets in on the act:

2. The PGA Tour has instituted a bonus system that will reward its most popular players. According to Golfweek, the Player Impact Program will spread $40 million to the 10 players who have the highest “impact score,” an amalgam of data based largely on social-media metrics. The system has been in place since Jan. 1, and the highest-ranking player at the end of the season will pocket $8 million. (The program was quickly viewed as a response to the would-be Premier Golf League, which was promising to pay the game’s superstars huge sums to play in its events.) What do you make of the popularity payouts?

Zak: They are 100% validated and also a horrible look. I’m not here to tell the best male players in the world that they shouldn’t be able to derive fair market value for their abilities (both on course and off), so go for it. But I’m also very aware of the lower rungs of professional golf. We all are. If that much money can be awarded for a popularity prize, during the later stages of a budget-tightening pandemic, then why isn’t there more money to go around in other parts of pro golf? Why didn’t the Canadian Tour host a respectable number of events in 2020? Why is their 2021 schedule still unannounced? A lot of whys go unanswered when the rich get richer.

I think Sean did a good job with his qualms, but what in heck does "100% validated" mean?  The Tour runs golf tournaments and disburses purses based on, get this, scores.  If they're flush with an extra $40 million large, increase those purses (or, yanno, their charitable giving).  This is actually a dangerous idea, splitting up a slush fund based on obscure metrics.  The absolute paragon of meritocracies will now compensate the cool kids... Problem is, how do those found lacking in cool take it?

Sens: What do I make of them? They are the inevitable result of a media culture that has turned everything in life into a high school cool-kid contest. It’s depressing, but I get it. I’m not a boomer, after all. Almost, but not quite. And I suppose it could be interesting to see what crazy lengths some players go to get a higher “impact score.”

Bamberger: That’s perfect, Josh. But that doesn’t mean we have to sit here and take it. I think it demeans the PGA Tour.

Dethier: Players were already being rewarded for their popularity and “impact” through ad deals, sponsorships, appearance fees and more. I’ve always seen the PGA Tour’s job as putting on tournaments and paying the winners. It seems off to me, then, for the Tour to pay its most popular players — but I guess the simplest way to think about it is that they’re advertising for themselves and they’re investing where they’ll get the highest return. It can make sense but I don’t have to particularly like it.

Bamberger: I agree with that, too. But do we really need ‘particularly’ in that last sentence? I don’t have to like it and I don’t.

Obviously there are a gazillion folks who don't care, but I'm yet to find the first person that likes it in the wild.

I'm not sure this question pays off:

3. There were mixed opinions among players over the program. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay said it wouldn’t push them to be more active on social media, while Marc Leishman said he is trying to bolster his social media presence. Do you suspect the program will get players paying closer attention to their Twitter and Instagram accounts, or will most players carry on as they have been?

Zak: I think more players will look to partner with brands that can help show off their personality. We won’t see the Xanders of the world tweeting a bunch more, but we might see Xander appear on a bunch of podcasts. Brooks Koepka is clearly aligning himself with Barstool Sports already, and much like Kevin Kisner that’s going to pay off incredibly for him. (Good idea, too, when you’re injured.)

Sens: Sean’s right. The key factors in the equation will be personality and pursestrings. We aren’t likely to see sudden tweet-storms from successful players who weren’t already inclined to post a lot on social media. But for those who dig the digital life, for sure. They’ll be on their phone even more.

Dethier: We’re going to see some fun #content come out of this. And we’re going to see some truly hellacious posting, too.

Bamberger: Marc Leishman was being polite. He’s not changing anything. He’s too smart, and comfortable with himself, to get into this numbers chase. Most players will carry on as they have been. If a guy is No. 3 on the list late in the season, he might try to get a late-inning rally started. You know, fan contests to see what club he should hit on the first par-3, etc. #Sad.

It's just so crazy weird.  The guys they're talking about above mostly don't touch their own social media accounts.  The youngs guys that do, the Max Homas and Wesley Bryants, are not likely to find that their loyalty warrants a big price tag from Kubla Jay.  And for a nonexistent threat....

Acorn, Tree -  I'm supposed to like Gary Player, right?  Golf's global ambassador and all...  Yet, there's this dark side I can't quite accommodate myself to, and I'm not referring to the color palette of his outfits.  

What most troubles me are the cheating allegations...  There's that member at Royal Lytham that swears he found Gary's ball the Monday after an Open Championship, not to mention Tom Watson's famous, "Gary, we're all tired of this s**t" from that original Skins Game when Gary was doing a pitch-perfect Patrick Reed impression.  

From Geoff's newsletter we have a report on an interview Player gave in which he was asked about his spawn's stealing Lee Elder's moment of appreciation:

On the latest Talkin Golf with Ann Liguori, Gary Player was asked about son Wayne’s shilling at the ceremonial first tee shot. You may recall he placed a sleeve of balls in hand while behind Lee

Elder as the Masters honored the first Black golfer to play in the tournament.

Kooky papa Gary Player called the move “wrong” and claimed Wayne was sending a message to friends who’d be shocked dad was playing the little-known ball for the Honorary Starter’s Ceremony.

I guess that’s a better answer than displaying the box because the Darrell Survey was no where in sight.  Jay Busbee at Yahoo transcribed the key remarks and word of Wayne phoning Elder to apologize. He also noted this curious rationalization from dad:

“Let me tell you, Augusta has done a lot of things that a lot of people don’t like, as well, throughout history,” Player said. But he also noted that Augusta National has final jurisdiction on the matter.

Yes they do. We’ll know 51 weeks from now how they ruled on the matter.

OK, I'm gonna need a moment to clean up my spit take from the thought that anyone might care what ball Gary played to hit the one shot as honorary starter.   

But that's some world class whataboutism there, especially as the principle allegations against Augusta National over the years related to their slow pace in adapting to social change.  That's certainly fair game and, irony alert, is pretty much why Elder was given this honor that your son had no compunction against imposing himself on.  But, and an irony alert is insufficient for these circumstances, how are we to react to such nonsense from a man that hails from and played for the Republic of South Africa?  

But, just to be safe, how about we ban Wayne and Gary as well from Augusta?  Just for a trial period, say twenty years.

These Guys Are Were Good - Well, one guy in particular, can't miss kid Matthew Wolff:

In eight starts this year, the 22-year-old one-time PGA Tour winner and former NCAA champ

from Oklahoma State has two WDs, a missed cut and a DQ that came at the Masters, where he signed an incorrect scorecard, but he would have missed the cut by a mile anyway after what ended up being rounds of 76-79. His 71.58 scoring average is among the worst on the tour, ranking 132nd out of 209 players. At the WGC-Workday Championship in February, he opened with an 83 and a couple of hours later withdrew, despite the tournament not having a cut. In January, he opened with a 78 at the Farmers Insurance Open then withdrew with a hand injury. Only twice this year has he finished a week under par—his best result a T-36 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Perhaps riding the tail of Morikawa, the fourth-ranked player in the world and already with a victory this year, would help stop the bleeding. It didn’t.

There’s nowhere to hide in the alternate shot play and Wolff’s performance was largely responsible for the team’s five bogeys and a double. Among the examples: a wide-right tee shot and poor pitch on the 12th, a missed six-footer for par at 15, a lousy wedge from the middle of the fairway on 16, after which Wolff looked like he wanted to snap the club over his head.

Bad golf, worse sulking.

Shall we hand the proceedings over to the armchair psychiatrists?

There’s also the element adjusting to a lonely life in the lonely world of professional golf. In college, there are myriad support systems for a player. On tour, it’s ultimately every man for

himself, no matter the friendships. Some struggle with that transition more than others.

“It’s a different world to travel on your own,” Morikawa said. “Yeah, you have an agent, but you’re out there by yourself in a hotel room. You can’t prep for that. There’s a certain age where some people are more mature than others. I wouldn’t blame it on young age—he’s won and proven he can do it—but he just has to find that little thing in his swing and get over that hurdle.”

The only good news in this is that you'll come out of the piece liking the man even more than you already did.  No, not Wolff, but could anyone ask for a better partner?

Matthew Wolff walked off the tee at the par-3 17th at TPC Louisiana on Friday, his head down and expression joyless. He and teammate Collin Morikawa had just made double bogey the hole before, the result of a badly pulled tee shot from Wolff into a hazard. Morikawa came up from behind and put his hands on Wolff’s shoulders, trying to shake the pouty mood of his partner.

“I told him let’s keep your head up for the next 10, 11 holes,” Morikawa said. “I said, I don’t care what we shoot. Let’s just go have fun. If you hit the ball wherever, I don’t care, no one cares. Let’s just find the next shot, hit it and keep trying to make birdies.

A class act.  There's this as well, though it does strain credulity:

“Everyone goes through these ups and downs,” Morikawa said. “I’m sure he’s going to figure it out. I don’t know when. But it was fun playing with him.”

It just couldn't have been fun watching your friend struggle like that...

I'll be back later in the week, though I'm not exactly sure when.