Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Midweek Musings

It's an unusually busy week for your humble blogger, but we'll make sure to cover the gamut today, as the next couple of days feature early obligations.

An Ode to Old Tom - Even Geoff admits he was too distracted to pay proper homage:

2021 was supposed to celebrate Old Tom Morris’s 200th birthday and then get followed by an Open in St Andrews. Well, it didn’t work out that way but he did turn 200 and there were some enjoyable efforts to commemorate the great man. Then he had the audacity to be born the week of the U.S. Open!

So belatedly because some of us were distracted by a major, some of the Old Tom coverage that caught my eye.

Geoff helpfully links to this R&A tribute, which has contributions from all the right folks:

With input from leading golf historian and celebrated author, Roger McStravick, words from Learning & Access Curator at the British Golf Museum, Hannah Fleming, and passages taken from The Colossus of Golf by David Malcolm and Peter E. Crabtree, enjoy this account of Old Tom Morris’ life, and the legacy he has left today in golf’s original major, and the very game itself.

I strongly recommend that you read the whole thing, which seems a wiser strategy than venturing out into today's 100 degree sauna.  There's many surprises to be found within, including the fact that the fortunes of St. Andrews were waning, due to the declining fortunes of the weaving industry, as he arrived on the scene:

“St Andrews went through a revolution,” Roger McStravick said. “The town went through a revolution and the links went through an evolution. The town was through Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, he came back from West India in 1830, and he had a vision of St Andrews being the metropolis of golf. And people thought it was absurd, because this is a fallen city, the grandeur of the medieval city that was the centre of ecclesiastical Scotland had gone since the summer of 1559, and the town had fallen into decay.

“So by the time we get to the 1800s this place is a ruin. North Street was a dirt path, people were putting their dung on the streets, cows and sheep were meandering across the streets. Playfair called it decrepit, and it was that.

“It was a ghost of itself. So that’s where Playfair came back and said this could be the metropolis of golf with beautiful housing, beautiful golf courses, beautiful places for people to stay, and they did think he was crackers, you know, and he was promptly laughed at. But he was a very determined man and he put his own money into things to get things done.

That will surprise most, as the Old Grey Toon evinces not a hint of the hard times or abject poverty of the mid-1800's.  As always when I consider Old Tom, the figure that seizes my attention is Alan Robertson:

Allan Robertson is considered widely to be the first true golf professional. The son of a ball-maker, the Robertson family business was involved in making golf balls for over 200 years, and Allan himself continued this trade throughout his life.

But it was Allan’s golfing ability that drew him true repute. On more than one occasion, punters and spectators declared him the best golfer in all of the world, let alone the land. His death later in 1859 would indeed spark the formation of The Open, as it was determined that a new Champion Golfer ought to be found.

Robertson was just five years the senior of Morris, and they worked together closely in the 1840s. It is widely accepted that Allan taught Tom a huge amount in regards to being a golf professional, and it is doubtless Tom improved his own golf from playing with Allan too.

 

Alan Robertson is in front, Old Tom is third on the right behind him.

It was Robertson's unexpected death in 1859 at age 44 that triggered the creation of the Open Championship.  With the death of the "Champion Golfer", a competition to select his replacement seemed to be the ticket, and hence was born the felicitous moniker, "Champion Golfer of the Year".

The wisest course of action for my dear readers would be to read Tommy's Honour to soak up this inflection point in golf history.  Failing that, reading this tribute will fill in the broad brushes.  Don't miss Tom's falling out with Alan Robertson over the gutta percha ball, his banishment to Prestwick and his rivalry with the Parks of Musselburgh.

Geoff also had news of this lovely tribute at Prestwick:

Tom famously built the 12-hole Prestwick links on which the early Opens were contested.  The first hole of that links was 575 yards, a length that seems inconceivable for the times.   It played as a Par- ... well, I'm just effing with you, because the term "Par" wasn't memorialized until 1911 as a golf term.  Before that, it's meaning was inconsistent:

The word "par," officially entered the golf lexicon in 1911 when the USGA put it in play. But the word itself was around long before that.

Generally, "par" was used when talking about stocks, as in, "a stock may be above or below its normal or par figure," according to the USGA.

For golf purposes, the USGA defined "par" as, "the score that an expert player would be expected to make for a given hole. Par means expert play under ordinary weather conditions, allowing two strokes on the putting green."

Prior to the 1900s, "par" was actually a term used interchangeably with "bogey," but "bogey" was the term more universally used.

Eventually, it was decided that "par" should be used to identify the "ideal score" on a given hole, while "bogey" would be the term used to describe a score that recreational golfers would be happy with.

I'll just leave you with this last photo, the field of the world's first major championship:

Yeah, it was a rough crowd.  

A Day Late... - Monday's typical Weekend Wrap post was missing one typical ingredient, Golf.com's Tour Confidential feature, which posted later that morning, perhaps because the Hartford playoff went deep into the night.  Before I get to it, those CBS ratings were boffo:

The telecast, which peaked with 6.66 million viewers from 8 PM ET to the conclusion, delivered the sixth-largest golf audience of the year and the third-largest with majors excluded. Only the final rounds of the Players (4.59M) and at Pebble Beach (4.19M) rank higher outside of the majors.

So, what did the TC gang have to say?  Well, they seem to have been impressed by Nelly? 

Nelly Korda won her first major Sunday at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, cruising to a four-shot victory at Atlanta Athletic Club. With the title — her third of 2021 — Korda will supplant Jin Young Ko as world No. 1. In your mind, is Korda the world’s best player?

Josh Sens: She is playing like it right now. And that combination of power and touch makes it no fluke. Scary thing for the competition is, she might not have peaked yet.

Dylan Dethier: Yes. Power, touch, and what she calls “blacking out” which I take to mean whatever allows her to reel off eight birdies in a row. That’s a special X-factor that the rest of the world is jealous of. I also can only imagine the relief she feels to actually win a major rather than descend any further into best-player-without-one land. That pressure seems like no fun.

Alan Bastable: Meh, she’s only 22! How do you think Phil Mickelson felt carrying that mantle for a decade-plus?! What a magical run for Korda, though — in her last two starts alone she’s a cumulative 44 under par. I remain in awe that two sisters could be so exceptional at a single discipline. This week did nothing to temper that awe.

Well, if you mean for the last two weeks, for sure.  If you want to go back a couple of years, probably not, although it's been a strange two years and those top Asian players haven't played all that much...But if you're asking about, say, the next two years, I can't see anyone whose prospects look better.

How much impact do you suppose Korda — who is the first U.S. major winner in the women’s game since Angela Stanford at the 2018 Evian Championship — can have in terms of driving more American fans to the game?

Sens: It can’t hurt. But the women’s game is always going to fall short in that kind of comparison with the men’s game, which is a shame because, as has been noted many times, their games are more relatable and the players are so much more approachable. Go to an LPGA event just once and it’s hard not to get hooked.

Dethier: She’s a terrific American superstar for the LPGA. What’s unbelievable is that Korda is just 22 years old, which means she has her entire career ahead of her — but she’s already a seasoned vet, too. She also seems remarkably well-adjusted to the competitive spotlight, perhaps because she stayed (relatively) low-profile when compared to someone like Michelle Wie or Lexi Thompson. We’ll get to know her better as she sticks around the top of the game for years to come.

Bastable: Nelly’s fan impact to a large degree will be up to Nelly. As Dylan notes, she has a chill demeanor — which no doubt is a huge plus on the course — and doesn’t appear hungry for attention. Her game, in particular her length, is wildly appealing but she’ll never be the LPGA’s version of Bryson. It’s not in her DNA.

I have two thoughts here, which are unfortunately in conflict with each other.  The first is that a break-out American star is exactly what the LPGA needs.  The second is, along the lines of Josh Sens' take above, is that you're asking way too much of the girl.  It's still women's golf.

Now, I've a tad duplicitous with you all, because I had an ulterior motive in posting that Q&A.  Outgoing LPGA Commish/Incoming USGA Majordomo Mike Whan sat for an interview with Al Lunsford of Links Magazine, and doubled down on his entitlement nonsense:

What has been the biggest obstacle to the popularity of the LPGA?

It’s hard to identify one. I’ve always struggled with, “You just don’t deliver the viewership of the others.” Well, they’re paid to be on network TV 35 weeks a year; we write a check six times a year to be on network TV. If you asked me to run a 100-yard dash but I have to start 170 yards back, I don’t expect to win many races. We’ve closed the gap—virtually 12 years of viewership increases in the U.S. and around the world—but we’ve still never been given an equal playing field. It’s hard to engage with athletes you don’t see very much.

Given?  The essence of the game of golf is that nothing is given, everything must be earned.  yet this is the man now in charge of our governing organization....Shack had a couple of reactions, first this trite belief in equity:

His comment about the LPGA having to pay to get on networks has been made before, but it’s still fascinating to hear given the recent gender equity talk.

Except for the niggling detail that there is no equity... TV contracts are awarded based upon viewership and other economic factors...  You can tell us that they're equal, but you can't actually force people to watch the women's game.  I expect Whan will equalize the purses of the two U.S. Opens, but then wait for the cries of outrage from the seniors.... why shouldn't they get the same purses.

 But Geoff also caught this slight to one of Mike's new partners:

Also noteworthy: Whan essentially says being on the Golf Channel means the tour is not seen very much. Psst…Mike, they host all of your new job’s events. Be nice!

Well, I hear that FS1 needs content....

Olympic Fever, Distaff Edition - When last we met, we were discussing the women's realtively greater embrace of the Olympics which, while largely true, is not universally true.  The headline is that last weekend brought down the curtain on qualification for the ladies:

Team USA will match South Korea for the first time by sending four players to the 2021 Olympics, with Jessica Korda taking the fourth and final spot, joining newly-minted No. 1 Nelly
Korda, Lexi Thompson and Danielle Kang.

Inbee Park, the 2016 gold medal winner, will return for South Korea along with Jin Young Ko, Sei Young Kim and Hyo-Joo Kim.

The stars will be out in force in Aug. 4-7 for the Summer Games at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
“I’ve achieved a lot in golf,” said Park, “won a lot of majors, won a lot of tournaments, but winning the gold medal was something really different. I wish a lot of the players think the same and treat Olympics the same. I think it’s definitely something that you should experience.”

And, yes, they do seem to take it seriously:

Some players, like Shanshan Feng and Hannah Green, won’t play again until the Olympics, heading back to their native countries, China and Australia, respectively, to quarantine and prepare.

“It’s interesting to see how the men and women have changed their schedule for it,” said Green who, like Feng, will miss the LPGA’s next major. “It’s a tournament that I am prioritizing.”

Well, they're skipping the Evian.... maybe we can agree to disagree, and call that a small-m major?  because their season-ending nonsense comes later on the calendar, they don't have near the schedule congestion of the men.  Notwithstanding that, they're not all excited about the trip to Tokyo:

One name missing from the field list is Charley Hull, who announced on Instagram on Tuesday that she had chosen to sit out of the Games.

“I’ve been thinking long and hard over the past few months about this year’s Olympics and whether or not I’d be able to give my best performance given all the scheduling and travel challenges involved,” Hull wrote.

Hull is No. 41 in the Rolex Ranking. Georgia Hall would have been the next player in for Great Britain but she made a similar decision not to compete. Jodi Shadoff will join Reid instead.

It's almost like they don't think it's a serious competition....

Since we're all about equity here at Unplayable Lies, it seems that we should treat the women's field in the same manner that we dealt with the men's field.  Accordingly, here is the bottom half of their field:

30. Emily Kristine Pedersen, DEN
31. Madelene Sagstrom, SWE
32. Matilda Castren, FIN
33. Ashleigh Buhai, RSA
34. Wei-Ling Hsu, TPE
35. Azahara Munoz, ESP
36. Giulia Molinaro, ITA
37. Perrine Delacour, FRA
38. Stephanie Meadow, IRL
39. Min Lee, TPE
40. Anne van Dam, NED
41. Alena Sharp, CAN
42. Kelly Tan, MAS
43. Albane Valenzuela, SUI
44. Bianca Pagdanganan, PHI
45. Aditi Ashok, IND
46. Maria Fassi, MEX
47. Maria Fernanda Torres, PUR
48. Tiffany Chan, HKG
49. Sanna Nuutinen, FIN
50. Marianne Skarpnord, NOR
51. Klara Spilkova, CZE
52. Manon De Roey, BEL
53. Christine Wolf, AUT
54. Pia Babnik, SLO
55. Mariajo Uribe, COL
56. Daniela Darquea, ECU
57. Morgane Metraux, SUI
58. Magdalena Simmermacher, ARG
59. Lucrezia Colombotto Rosso, ITA
60. Maha Haddioui, MAR

OK, a few familiar names, including the formerly good (Munoz and Sagstrom), as well as some notable big boppers (van Dam and Bianca Pagdanganam, notably) but not exactly appointment TV.  The problem is that you could field a roster of Korean non-qualifiers that would trounce the best of this list.  But we're growing the game, right? 

The Irony, She Burns - No doubt you've absorbed that the word of the day is equity.  If there was a world capital of equity, it would have to be Portland, OR, no?  They believe so strongly in equity that they're even willing to destroy their city over it, which one can only admire, right?  

So, the obvious conclusion is that Portland and the LPGA are made for each other:

The Cambia Portland Classic debuted in 1972. Kathy Whitworth won the first two editions,
followed by JoAnne Carner and a who’s who of legends over the past five decades.

Columbia Edgewater Country Club has been the event’s home for the majority of that time. This year, the LPGA’s longest-running non-major event is set to celebrate 50 years in mid-September. Only it won’t be at Columbia Edgewater.

A large homeless encampment now surrounds the parking lot that nearly everyone who comes to the event utilizes, and tournament organizers felt it necessary to move the event for health and safety reasons.

A story in The Oregonian described the area near the club down Northeast 33rd Drive as “dotted with run-down RVs, trailers, tents, makeshift housing structures and mounds of rubble and garbage.” For a time, gunshots were heard almost nightly, Lisa Larson, who serves as vice chair at nearby Dignity Village, told The Oregonian.

Maletis said he worked with the Port of Portland and the City of Portland for months, hoping to get word that conditions would improve in time for the event.

“We couldn’t get any guarantees that the situation would be cleaned up,” he said.

The kind of story to which one can only shrug one's shoulders.... and, of course, quote Mencken:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

H. L. Mencken

The people of Portland are getting it good and hard these days, though it seems to be what they want. 

Shot of the Year - No doubt you've long believed that we're remiss in not covering disc golf more extensively.... I'll cop to that plea, but this might rival that Sarazen 4-wood:

He quite obviously likes to play the fade....

 I shall leave you there.  The next two days include early obligations, so we'll have to play it by ear.

at No comments:

Monday, June 28, 2021

Weekend Wrap

 A wild weekend that featured two majors and just a little bonus golf in Hartford.  Where to begin?

Taking The Sudden out of Death - When I got to the TV in late afternoon, I opted to start with the taped women's major, an interesting mano a mano (you'd prefer perhaps, birthing person a birthing person?)battle of contrasting golf games.  However, I overheard Employee No. 2 watching the men live at time that indicated something special must be happening:

Little did anyone know that the tournament itself would wind up being the amuse-bouche. The main dish was an eight-hole playoff culminating with fans doing the wave around the 18th green and par after agonizing par being made on a course that yielded 263 birdies in the final round.

When it was over, English outlasted Hickok after eight playoff holes to earn his fourth PGA Tour win. This was the first time a PGA Tour playoff went to eight holes since 2012 when John Huh defeated Robert Allenby at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

“This was awesome. The fans were keeping us in this it, getting the juice from them,” English said. “That’s been really all afternoon. Hats off to Kramer. What a competitor. We were both grinding. That’s what it was all about. We were grinding and trying our hardest.”

After seven holes of back and forth golf, with each player having his chances to win but not capitalizing, Hickok’s approach to the 18th green on the eighth playoff hole went 27 feet past the hole. The crowd roared and chanted his name (“Kramer! Kramer! Kramer!), then quieted before English hit a gap wedge from 138 yards out that stopped just over five feet.

I missed this sequence but, ironically, on a course noted for its birdies and crooked numbers, the playoff featured a seemingly endless stream of pars, though some were awfully well-earned:

Hickok thought he had the tournament won twice. With English plugged in a greenside bunker on the second playoff hole, Hickok thought his 43 birdie putt was going in, but it curled around the cup and lipped out. His par was virtually guaranteed, putting all the pressure on English, but the former University of Georgia All-American drained the seven-footer to save par and extend the playoff.

Take a gander at this lie English drew:

Good stuff.  Perhaps the most amazing part of all is that CBS stayed with the playoff until the end, pushing 60 Minutes deep into the gloaming.

Daniel Rappaport covers the day here, including this one the "loser":

As for Hickok, the temptation is to portray this as a heartbreaking defeat. Truth is, this was the
best day of his professional life. Coming into this week, the 29-year-old had two PGA Tour top-10s to his name, and both came in opposite-field events. This was his first time anywhere near contention on tour, playing in the final group alongside honorary Hartford resident Bubba Watson—who squandered a chance for a fourth Travelers title by playing his last five holes in six over par. All Hickok did was birdie the 18th hole to get into a playoff.

“I learned that I belong,” Hickok said. “I just looked at it like it was a privilege. I just wanted to enjoy it and just take it like it is. I was just so happy to be in this situation, and I'm just going to draw on this going forward in my career and just hopefully learn a lot from it.”

There's still some heartbreak involved, but that's a first class attitude.  It's just so hard to cement status out there, and this was tantalizingly close to solving that issue for the young man.  Although the second place finish certainly helps:

Hickok should’ve been shaking in his boots and nervous as hell when he arrived at the 18th tee for the first extra hole. Only he could not stop smiling. The hard part was already done—Hickok had locked up a solo second at worst, which meant 300 FedEx Cup points, which meant he’d essentially locked up his spot on the Big Tour for at least another season after starting the day 139th on the FedEx Cup points list. The playoff? Gravy.

So, so, sooooo much gravy.

Joel Beall covers a couple of side notes to the event, including this unexpected collapse:

With five holes left Bubba Watson held a one-shot lead. Five holes later, Watson was left to wonder what the heck just happened.

Watson, who has won the Travelers Championship three times in his career, was denied a record-tying fourth title after playing the final five holes in six over.

“Gosh, I mean, the close to the round, I thought I hit good shots,” Watson said afterwards.

The leakage started at the 13th, when Watson hit a poor lay-up at the par 5. His third trickled up to the edge of the green and his birdie did not fall, taking 5 on the third-easiest hole on the course. At the 14th, Watson’s approach missed the green to the left and his putt from the fringe barely reached the green, giving Bubba a bogey. He found a pond on the drivable par-4 15th, leading to his second straight bogey. Then a third at the par-3 16th thanks to a three-jack.

Watson’s tournament run officially ended at the 17th when he dumped his approach in the same pond that swallowed his drive on the 15th, leading to a double. The final damage was a three-over 73, dropping from first to T-19 in 90 minutes.

It's a shock ant a collapse by Bubba has the power to shock, but who could see it coming with his history at this venue and play up until that moment.  Part of it is the nature of the course, at least that finishing stretch, with the remainder probably accounted for by the nature of Bubba...

 And this cry for help:

Brooks Koepka has called the major championships “easy,” and as audacious as that claim is, his
résumé backs it up. What often goes unsaid is Koepka’s outlook on the tournaments outside those four weeks. On Sunday, Koepka gave us a glimpse into that mindset.

Koepka, who contended for last week’s U.S. Open but fell just short, turned in an admirable performance at TPC River Highlands with a final-round 65 translating into a T-5 finish. But when asked if he was battling mental or physical fatigue following Torrey Pines, the four-time major winner was blunt in his assessment.

“It's all mental. It's tough to focus like that for …I'm going to be flat out honest,” Koepka said. “A major I get excited and I feel stuff on the first tee. I just struggle to do that in regular events.

“The focus and discipline is there in a major where it's not here. I kind of go for everything.”

This argument/excuse has changed with the times.  Back when Brooksie as bagging majors, it almost felt like a quaint throwback.  Now that Brooksie is drop-kicking majors away like everyone else, it just seems a little whiny....

Whoa, Nellie! - It had the feel of Tiger v. Chris DiMarco, no?  Those seeming mismatches were always surprisingly competitive, as was this for quite a while:

As screams and hollers rained from the crowd around the 18th green at Atlanta Athletic Club, American golf fans greeted their next superstar.

Nelly Korda — whose talent and resume had gotten good enough to take over unenviable ownership of “Best Player Without a Major” — finally added the most important line to her CV: major champion.

“I just can’t believe it,” she said. “I’m still in shock.”

Her three-shot victory at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship represents the 22-year-old’s sixth win on the LPGA Tour, and she becomes the first American to win a women’s major since 2018. Korda also becomes the No. 1-ranked player in the world with the win, overtaking Jin Young Ko.

To get her hands on the trophy, Korda had to go head-to-head on the weekend with the dogged Lizette Salas. The short-hitting (yet deadly accurate) veteran proved a formidable opponent.

And Salas hung tough for the longest time, but she was playing her second shots from 35-50 yards behind Nellie all week.   This was the early kill shot, though apparently it barely grazed Salas:

Though this was ultimately the critical exchange:

In the end, though, the cream rose, and the killing blow came on another par-5, the 12th, where a massive drive set up a 6-iron from 173 yards that crawled mere feet over the water guarding the green, landed softly and set up another short eagle putt that she converted. (Later, Korda admitted she chunked the shot, and it was fortunate that after some debate with her caddie Jason McDede she’d opted for the longer club.) Salas blundered her third shot, finding the back bunker on a short approach, and by the time she made bogey, the one-shot margin had become four. Korda, at 20 under, followed up that eagle with a textbook par at 13, a birdie at 14, and it was like the wind came out of Salas’ sails at last. She continued to fight, but how do you maintain faith when your opponent simply has no flaws? You could say that Korda was too good, or you could say that the tournament was about eight holes too long for Salas, who simply couldn’t play that far above her head on a scorching Sunday outside Atlanta. In both cases, you’d be right.

As in our discussion of TPC River Highlands above, it's the kind of golf course that forces the player to challenge the water repeatedly, but that shot of Nelly's on No. 12 was really close.... As for Salas, her short game had been impeccable all week, but that wedge was seemingly 25 yards too long.   

The more interesting question as relates to Nelly is what comes next.  The talent is irrefutable, though perhaps she's just a little more high strung than is recognized:

Korda, for her part, embodied the ethos of her superlative family in the aftermath. She was happy, but controlled—living in the moment. As Jessica Korda noted earlier in the week, they have been

trained to limit their focus to a very narrow scope. Along with genetics, it accounts for the success of both daughters and their brother Sebastian, a rising star in American tennis, in professional sports. It may be that Nelly diverges the most from that ethos, as she had to be reminded by McDede to stop thinking too far ahead on Sunday and has had her battles with nerves. It may also be that she is the most talented of one of the world’s great athletic families. She was effusive, as she stood next to her trophy, about the role that family plays.

Nelly was asked if she ever felt like destiny was on her side on Sunday, that she meant to win, and that even her errors would pale in comparison to the triumphs that awaited her. In true fashion, she backed down from the more dramatic implications, and spoke of the luck on No. 12.

“When I chunked it and it flew the water,” she joked, recognizing her moment of destiny. “Yeah, in golf you’re going to get bad bounces with good shots and you’re going to hit it close with really bad shots. You’re going to chunk it. That’s just golf. I keep reminding myself that I’ve hit amazing shots in the past, and I’ve been completely screwed in a sense. In a way, no, I didn’t really think about it too much. I just honestly right then and there, I was like, Oh, my God, thank God that flew the water.”

She was virtually flawless, which made the God-awful swing on No. 15 that much more of a shock.  But she reeled it back in and the cushion was sufficient to allow her to play to conservative lines.

We always fall into the trap that a breakthrough win will open the floodgates, and that assumption seems even more appropriate than usual for Nelly...  or, who knows, maybe it's time for her big sister to grab one.  Or, yanno, Wimbledon...

What Women Want - Jeff Babineau has a blindingly obvious piece on the Olympics, but I just enjoy the whiplash induced by his lede two paragraphs:

Fair or not, there is a general sense that male professional golfers give off a vibe of disturbing disinterest in the Olympic Games. Some of those who are choosing to show up seem to be doing so as if it were a chore to be ticked off between cleaning the gutters and wheeling the garbage to the end of the drive. Or attending Sunday brunch at Grandma’s house.

That sounds very troubling...  I mean, no ordinary, run of the mill disinterest, but rather the disturbing kind...Of course, the last tour pro to actually clean his own gutters was.... well, have any?

But, see if you can suss out the cognitive dissonance?

Truthfully, five of world’s top six male players plan to be in Tokyo in a few weeks, with Americans Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau joining world No. 1 Jon Rahm of Spain. The seventh-ranked player in the world, Patrick Cantlay, would love to be there, but he can’t, as the four-man U.S. roster declared “last call” after DeChambeau’s name at No. 6. That goes for Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed, too, who are top-10 players on the outside looking in.

Jeff, have you perhaps considered the possibility that the exclusion of Cantlay and others might have caused that "disturbing disinterest"? 

To the extent that Jeff has a point, it's that the ladies are all-in on the Olympics:

“I just think men golfers, they just have so many big events,” 2016 women’s gold medalist Inbee Park of South Korea said at this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. “They definitely play a different level of golf with a lot of different perspective. They have so many opportunities
and so many different weeks with so many big tournaments. For us, I think it's a little different. We're not as big as men's golf. I think girls just treat it a little differently.

“I’m sure not everyone's goal is the Olympics. It really depends on the player, but I think most of the players think that it's a very special opportunity, and I think I know a lot of Korean girls, I think it's one of their most wanted goals to be on the team. For me as well. I've achieved a lot in golf, won a lot of majors, won a lot of tournaments, but winning the gold medal was something really different. I wish a lot of the players think the same and treat Olympics the same. I think it's definitely something that you should experience.”

How good do you have to be to make the South Korean Olympic team? Well, the women’s standings won’t be finalized until Monday, but right now, Hyo-Jo Kim holds down the fourth spot (a team can have four players if all are ranked top 15), and she’s No. 8 in the Rolex Rankings. In truth, what we have on the LPGA Tour — take this week’s event in Atlanta, for instance — is an Olympics on wheels that travels from town to town.

Yes, and that exclusion of South Korean women golfers is every bit as troubling as the exclusion of Patrick Cantlay.  But the simple fact is that the women need it more, so of course they embrace it, as well as the absence of comparable scheduling gluts.  Dof bites man, though Inbee seems to understand reality far better than the allegedly dispassionate journalist.

Today in Dead White Men - A few weeks back I was at Pelham Country Club with the Met. Golf Writers Association, an event that normally wouldn't merit notice, the more so since we got rained out after eight holes.  Pelham is a once-proud golf club that modern life has treated harshly, specifically Route 95 now bisects their golf course.  But its one claim to fame is that it hosted the 1923 PGA Championship, which produced the best final round match of that event's match-play era.  Here's today's history lesson:


It's also instructive in the context of the Brooksie-Bryson cage match.  There have, of course, always been rivalries and resentments in our game, so bad blood is nothing new.  

Today in Cart Drivers - Padraig has added a couple of Euro stalwarts to his management team:

The European Ryder Cup team is starting to take shape, from the top down at least, as Padraig
Harrington added two new names to his list of vice captains Wednesday.

Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell are the new men for the job, and both will make their first stints as vice captains in their respective careers. Kaymer, 36, has played on four Ryder Cup teams, memorably draining the winning putt for the Euros at the Miracle at Medinah in 2012. McDowell, 41, also competed in four Cups, and it was his match victory in 2010 that sealed the win at Celtic Manor. They’ll both join Luke Donald as Harrington’s right hand men at Whistling Straits in September.

“I feel honored and humbled to be part of Captain Harrington’s Team of Vice Captains at Whistling Straits later this year,” Kaymer said in a post on Instagram. “Still have huge aspirations on making the Team, however I am more than happy to support the Team in any way possible and keep the trophy in Europe.”

Amusing, at least to your humble blogger.  The U.S. adds a vice-captain and the world yawns.   Padraig adds a couple of guys, and every American golf fan is forced to relive Ryder Cup trauma from the past.  Of course our guys will win this home game.... right?

Today in Reversible Golf Courses - Have you ever heard of https://golf.com/travel/forest-dunes-the-loop-golf-course/The Loop?  Just an amusing exercise in architecture:

Its reversible course, The Loop, is magnificent

In this line of work, I’m lucky enough to play a fair number of rounds at excellent golf courses. And perhaps once a year I’ll finish playing a course and think, “Wow, that’s unlike anything I’ve seen before.” The Loop is one of those tracks. There is basically nothing like it.

Our sherpa for the week was Tyler Tabor, a modest 6-handicap who has worked at Forest Dunes for four years. He put it plainly when he said, “We believe it’s the first and only truly reversible course in America.” Need any more encouragement?

While it’s not the only reversible course in the country, The Loop might be the best. It switches direction based on the calendar, with the Black Course on odd numbered days and the Red Course on even numbered days. (For those wondering, on the few 31st days of summer months, they’ll host an event called The Dual, a two-man best ball that has players play the course in one direction during the morning and the opposite direction in the afternoon.)

And so any trip to Forest Dunes requires at least two days, one to play The Loop in each direction, the second of which will really get your head spinning. Wait, what hole was this yesterday? This was a par-4 green from that direction? Oh, that’s the big bunker you played from 16 hours ago…” No golf course invokes the word “yesterday” more than The Loop.

Just a crazy concept, until you realize that for centuries they played The Old Course in the opposite direction its played today...

I shall leave you there and we'll catch up later in the week.

 

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Friday, June 25, 2021

Late-Week Lamentations

 A little bit of this, a little of that....This post was started Thursday morning but not finished until Friday, so please excuse any loss of continuity.

Ladies Week - It's hard to keep track of their 63 majors, but I'm told this week is a big one.  Beth Ann Nichols is the acknowledged authority on the women's game, and she has exciting news:

The question from KPMG was simple: What’s the LPGA’s No. 1 pain point?

Answer: The lack of statistics and analytics.

Gee, silly me.  I would have guessed the lack of fans, television viewers and sponsors, but what do I know?

But KPMG, a Hall of Fame kind of LPGA partner, wanted to do more. Closing the outrageously wide analytics chasm between the men’s and women’s game seemed a natural fit for the goal of continuing to elevate the women’s game.
Don't need a weatherman to know Lexi can't putt.

“We do data and analytics for a living,” said Paul Knopp, KPMG U.S. Chair and CEO.

The KPMG Performance Insights technology platform launches this week at Atlanta Athletic Club, though players and caddies took part in a soft launch, gathering data in the weeks leading up to the event.

The official release for the program described the LPGA’s current stats program as “similar to what some weekend golfers calculate after their rounds.” That’s precisely accurate.

Wasn't this, yanno, Mike Whan's job?

The PGA Tour model depends upon an infinite supply of unpaid volunteers, so here's how it will work this week:

The KPMG program will be similar to what’s on the European Tour, with caddies recording
shots, club selections and the lie of every shot. They’ll turn in a special scorecard after every round and get paid a stipend for the efforts. KPMG is covering that, too.

Overall strokes gained and strokes gained by game area (off the tee, approach, around the green, putting) will be available as well as deeper insights into individual strokes gained by 25-yard increments and individual shots taken. Players, fans and media will know how close players hit it on average from certain distances. There will be shot dispersion charts, average birdie putt length and performance indexing over time against the field.

Again, they couldn't do this for themselves why?

Shack had this amusing bit in his take on the announcement:

So it’s nice to read the first step with KPMG continuing their pretty relentless push at bettering the Women’s PGA this week at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Ummmm, Geoff, if your objective was to better the KPMG Women's PGA, wouldn't it be more helpful to not go to Atlanta Athletic Club?

Also not helping is Zephyr Melton, with his five storylines to watch at the aforementioned KPMG:

4. Lexi Thompson looks to bounce back

When talking about major championship droughts, it’s impossible for Lexi Thompson’s name not to come up. She came agonizingly close at the U.S. Women’s Open before a Sunday back-nine
collapse, and so her major total remains at one.

The good news for Thompson is that before her meltdown at Olympic, she exuded a newfound perspective on the course. Scowling glares were replaced with smiles and laughs, giving fans a different look at the 26-year-old veteran. Whether or not the new mentality will be enough to offset the scar tissue from Olympic’s back nine will be one of the biggest questions of the week.

Admittedly, the ladies' party line that they're just as good as the men is far more plausible after watching Bryson, Rory, Morikawa and Russell Henley play the back nine at Torrey....  Still, See How She Blows It This Time™ seems a tough sell.

Of course there is one storyline that can make us eager to watch Lexi, and Zephyr is all over it:

5. Michelle Wie West continues comeback tour

Michelle Wie West is back playing at the highest ranks of pro golf. However, after her long layoff, the comeback tour has been stuck in neutral. Wie West has made just one cut in five starts this season and was never really in contention, finishing T40.

Wie West returns to competition this week in Atlanta where she looks to survive the cut at a major for the first time in three years. At the ANA Inspiration earlier this spring, she was in contention after Round 1, so the talent remains with the 31-year-old, but the consistency to put it together for four rounds has eluded her. The chase continues at the Women’s PGA.

You're trying to sell the women's tour based upon Lexi and Wiesy?  If you were trying to convince people not to watch, what would you do differently? 


I Saw It On TV - Shack does a deep dive on U.S. Open ratings, and it's not a pretty picture that he paints of our governing body.  First, the he4adline numbers:

NBC Sports announced U.S. Open ratings on Tuesday and in a nutshell: the USGA’s crown jewel continues to struggle since its 2015 move to Fox:
  • Jon Rahm’s win averaged 5.7 million final round viewers on NBC and peaked at 8.93 million.
  • By contrast the 2021 Masters averaged 9.4 million viewers on CBS and peaked at 12.89 million.
  • The 2021 PGA Championship averaged 6.58 million viewers on CBS and peaked at 13.05 million.

Geoff with the deep background:

Back in 2013 when the USGA decided not to renew their NBC Sports/ESPN deal in favor of Fox, the brains behind that move believed the USGA and U.S. Open were underserved by the existing partners.

Then-USGA President Glen Nager saw that the U.S. Open garnered a 9.0 to the Masters’ 8.4 one year and hinted the declines since that time were, in part, an NBC/ESPN problem. He and a committee of cohorts steered the rights to Fox in what felt like a mix of shortsightedness, greed, horrible advice and even a whiff of politics. (That would be right (Fox) vs. left (NBC) politics.)

“I told them that if you went back to the '70s and looked at TV ratings and other indicia of what makes a championship great, the U.S. Open was considered the premier major championship in golf," Nager told Golf Digest’s Ron Sirak at the time. “And that if we looked at indicia today, the Masters is considered the No. 1 major in golf. I said I wanted to work with a media partner that had a proposal to elevate the U.S. Open and the other USGA championships and the USGA as a governance organization.”

Maybe Nager should have consumed some indica instead of touting indicia?

While he was not totally wrong, the indicia suggests the organization has been playing catch-up ever since the fateful Fox decision.

Props to Shack for the oh-so-trendy pot pun, though there's a body of thought that indica might have been a necessary precondition to giving Fox the contract. 

That linked Ron Sirak piece is the definitive take on the USGA's  folly.  Their fatal conceit was to covet the Masters' ratings, compelling them to take steps to ensure that their flagship event, the U.S. Open, would earn Masters-like ratings...  Mission accomplished, although it's the Qatar Masters whose ratings they've equaled...

Fox’s intent with the deal was to prop up Fox Sports 1 with more sports properties. They promised all sorts of shoulder programming devoted to the USGA that never happened (like a golf show with Holly Sonders).

While the Fox years did eventually deliver some great telecasts and forced other networks to innovate, the damage to the U.S. Open was done. The combination of awful ratings, weird U.S. Open antics and the lost synergies of NBC and ESPN quickly put the USGA off the golf radar. Golf Channel executives openly ignored USGA events on their airwaves—I can attest when wanting to talk some USGA events on Morning Drive and being told no—and few could ever find Fox Sports 1. Hell, I still can’t.

Not helping the USGA’s cause? The demise of amateurism, Tiger Woods becoming a non-U.S. Open factor since his 2008 win, and too many other big tournaments to watch from January to July.

I agree with Geoff on the actually quality of the Fox broadcast, though Geoff ignores the extent to which the USGA shot itself in the foot with bizarre venue decisions, not to mention screwing up the set-up at Shinnecock a record twice consecutively... 

More details, as if needed:

So what happened at the 2021 U.S. Open to highlight the poor “engagement” for this year’s championship?

In a short press release (posted below), the details were minimal but some intriguing claims were made:

  • ‘21 was called the second most-watched U.S. Open in five years, but these were all Fox broadcasts we’re talking about and those always drew underwhelming ratings.
  • In citing 2019 as the only Open out-rating this year’s edition, Tiger’s name was invoked as the reason Fox did better. He finished T21 at Pebble that year and was never in it.
  • No Saturday third round ratings were shared despite the golf finishing at 9 pm ET. Could the numbers really be that bad?
  • The 2020 U.S. Open was the lowest-rated of all time and should be ignored. Yet it was used for all comparison purposes. The 2021 final round was up 76%! But last year’s Open was played in the fall against college and NFL football. It drew a 2.0 final round rating.
  • Friday’s second-round coverage (12:30-6 p.m. ET) averaged nearly 1.4 million TV-only viewers to rank as the Golf Channel’s most-watched weekday telecast on record dating to 2006. By contrast, ESPN’s Friday Masters (2.68 million) and PGA Championship telecasts (1.43 million) beat an all-time record show for Golf Channel. This suggests ESPN’s distribution reach and more functional ESPN+ would have helped U.S. Open viewership.
  • The final Nielsen rating number has not been released for either weekend day. Only the Total Audience Delivery estimates. But based on the numbers shared, it’s probably around a 3.4. Not exactly the indicia Nager had in mind.

That Sirak article is telling in the absence of any sense within the USGA for why the Masters would draw so many more eyeballs, and the reflexive need to blame it on their media partner.  Obviously the only thing they've accomplished is to diminish their birthright, and have done a pretty efficient job of taking the U.S. Amateur down with it.

Don't Much About History -  Alistair Tait performs a vital service in making us aware of the passage of an important date, but makes quite the curious choice in terms of accompanying photo.  Here's his lede:

You have to wonder what Old Tom Morris would make of golf as it is today if he could be magically reincarnated and transported from his resting place in the cemetery at St Andrews Cathedral and placed gently on the 18th hole of the Old Course, the hole named after him?

Today’s is Old Tom Morris Day, the 200th anniversary of his birth on North Street in the auld grey toon on the 16th June 1821.

Old Tom might not be able to stand on the 18th green too long staring at the flag that bears his name as St Andrews celebrates the bicentenary of his birth. Low handicap golfers on the 18th tee might be launching tee shots into him from the tee 354 yards away!

Wonder how close Old Tom ever got to the 18th green in his heyday?

Old Tom was the Champion Golfer of his era until son Young Tom took over. Old Tom won The Open four times – 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867 – only to be upstaged by his son, who won it four years in a row.

The elder Morris certainly knew his way around the Old Course. Old Tom not only learned to play on the links of his hometown, he was appointed greenkeeper to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 1865, a position he officially held until his retirement in 1904, and then continued in an advisory role until his death in 1908.

What would Old Tom make of the R&A going out with the boundaries of the course for modern Open Championships to provide a sterner test for today’s players? What would he have made of the Rory McIlroy’s and Dustin Johnson’s hitting 360 yard bombs, driving the greens at the ninth, 10th, 12th and 18th holes in ideal conditions? Turning the 17th into a drive and pitch par-4 when there’s no wind?

Not a terribly interesting argument, i suspect you'll agree.  In fact, is there a field of human endeavor about which the same couldn't be asked?  

What I do find interesting is the accompanying photo Tait uses.  That was the preserved Old Tom Morris shop as it existed until about 2018:

The British Open’s official Twitter account posted news Monday that The Open Store, the
flagship shop that will sell official merchandise for the 147th Open at Carnoustie, had opened in a building adjacent to the 18th green of St. Andrews’ Old Course.

One problem: That building’s address is 15 The Links in St. Andrews, which is also the site of the historic Tom Morris Golf Shop.

The historic shop has been around since 1866 and was originally where Old Tom Morris, a four-time Open champion, spent much of his time as the Old Course’s greenskeeper, manufacturing golf clubs, balls and more. The Links Trust, which maintains and protects St. Andrews’ seven courses, has owned the shop since 2010. A few years later the shop was renovated and during that time Morris’ old locker was discovered along with his wood-working bench and marks on the floor from club-making.

In recent years the shop had been restored by The Links Trust and become a must-see historical site for visitors and locals, who were treated to a display of many of Morris’ collections and original furniture from the shop.

Judging by pictures posted be The Open’s Twitter account, the old signs that displayed the name of the shop, “Tom Morris Shop,” and the years of Morris’ Open victories are gone, replaced by two blue Open-logoed signs.

Just to be clear, that shop sits along the 18th fairway, a hole that just happens to bear the name, Tom Morris.  Tait is interested in what Old Tom might make of the R&A and modern game, whereas I'm far more concerned about what the R&A thinks of Old Tom, specifically why they're so anxious to cut ties with his legacy.

Lest you think it unseemly to carp on the R&A over shop signage, it's not like they're doing a bang-up job with their core obligations.  For instance, they run the oldest amateur competition on the planet, but run it like a member-guest:

For the second time in its 136-year history, the (British) Amateur Championship is being played over the links at Nairn, on the shores of the Moray Firth in the endlessly picturesque Scottish Highlands.

As has become the norm in these interminable Covid-19 times, the championship – one won by the likes of Bobby Jones, Frank Stranahan, Doug Bachli, Michael Bonallack, Jose Maria Olazabal, Jay Sigel, Sergio Garcia, Vinny Giles, Joe Carr and Matteo Manassero – isn’t following its usual trajectory this year. For one thing, the usual 288-man starting line-up was cut in half. And for another, a ‘card count-back’ rather than the traditional preliminary round was used to break what turned out to be a 16-way tie for 58th place and determine the last seven of the 64 qualifiers for match-play.

Got that?  They're qualifying folks into match play based upon a friggin' match of cards....  Nothing says integrity and fidelity to tradition quite like a match of cards.  Who knows, maybe they did us a favor in not holding and Open last year.

As noted in the intro, the above was written Thursday, but I awoke to this further news from R&A land:

A series of strict COVID protocols has drawn the ire of some PGA Tour players leading into next month’s Open Championship, with some considering a boycott of the prestigious event and others simply miffed by the regulations.

“I’m going to go because it’s the British Open. But I certainly thought about not going. I just can’t believe with the numerous examples of successfully run safely held tournaments and majors here that they can’t figure out a better situation,” the player said.

“If someone on your plane tests positive on way to the British and is sitting anywhere close to you, you’re out no questions asked, no matter if you’re vaccinated. It’s aggravating that they deem the tournament safe enough for 32,000 fans a day to attend, but won’t let a player’s wife, children travel and watch the tournament, nor will they even let players visit a restaurant without threat of disqualification.”

According to the note Golfweek obtained that was sent to players, caddies and coaches by the R&A, those on different player teams will not be allowed to stay together, which makes things difficult for many who travel in support of players.

“The up-to-four persons [regulation] within private rental accommodation must be included within the players’ own support group … For example, multiple players or multiple caddies are not permitted to share private self accommodation,” the R&A email read. “We recognise this is difficult for many that used to share during the championship but the Government’s strict contact tracing requirements mean that this will not be possible in 2021.

All of which you'd take with a nod of head, until you remember that they're allowing 32,000 fans on site each day, leading to this rather obvious conclusion:

“They care more about the revenue of the fans buying beers than they do about the actual people participating in the tournament,” said the player who spoke with Golfweek. “Any fan can go to a grocery store or a restaurant and we can’t. Does that make sense? And I’m vaccinated. How does that make sense?”

And like so many of our public health officials, they don't seem to have a lot of faith in the efficacy of the vaccines. 

Alan, Asked - Manna from heaven for the over-worked blogger class, so don't be bitter.  Unsurprisingly, an Open-themed Ask Alan:

#AskAlan, The collective pants-wetting and trouser-soiling that occurred (on holes 11 to 13 alone) is a stark reminder of why Tiger is still so revered. Golf yearns for anyone who can forge a lead and keep their underpants clean until the end of a major tournament.
@VsTgolf

Indeed, and that’s what made Rahm’s finish so thrilling – his tighty-whities are surely pristine! (Sorry.) Tournament golf is such exquisite theater precisely because so many players suffer ignominious collapses. Collin Morikawa’s 7 was almost as ghastly as Rory McIlroy’s bunker-bunker-hosel double bogey, each of which proved fatal. And how about Bryson? He was one inch from an instantly iconic ace on the 8th hole; even so, that pure iron shot propelled him into the lead…and then he self-immolated in utterly spectacular fashion. There is nowhere to hide on major championship Sundays and the vast majority of players shrink from the moment. Tiger set an impossible standard. Rahm will not be as efficient capitalizing on all of his opportunities—how could he be?—but that birdie-birdie finish betrayed a ruthlessness that offers hope that golf has finally found its next great closer.

But I had been reliably informed that Brooksie was the next great closer...  They're great closers, at least until they're not...

Does the USGA return to Torrey? Architecture snobs aside, it’s given us two good U.S. Opens. @ShoshEAK

Good?! I would say epic. And I think the excitement of this one, along with pretty much universal praise from the players about the setup, guarantees the USGA will come back. Every dozen or so years is fine for Torrey Pines; it doesn’t have to be a core venue. It is obviously not the most architecturally interesting championship course but it provides a pleasing old-school Open test which brings out blockbuster leaderboards. You have to try really hard not to have enjoyed the two U.S. Opens at Torrey. Alas, there are a few chirpy try-hards in the golf media.

It was a fun Sunday for those with a passion for demolition derbies, but epic?  I don't think we'll be talking about this one in ten years, so will call BS on that.  It was fine, though Thursday-Saturday was certainly a snoozefest.  Like Alan, I think they'll be back, but for reasons more related to it being a public venue and prime time TV broadcasts.

Golf has a full cast of fun-to-root-against Bond villains: Bryson, Brooks, Patrick Reed. Is Jon Rahm on the list? @PeteViles

Nah, he’s too thoughtful and sincere to be a villain. The guy has the most precious of commodities among pro golfers: soul, which was quite obvious Sunday evening in Rahm’s moving remarks about everything from his young son to his friendship with Phil Mickelson to the to the late journalist José Manuel Cortizas, who mentored Rahm as a young pro. (Cortizas died in February of COVID-19.) Rahm may blow his top every now and then but that’s not villainous; I like to see how hot he burns.

Yeah, Rahm's gonna get his clock punched one of these days, but it'll be because of his non-stop positivity... That crap is really triggering...

Rahm, Brooks or Bryson in a bar fight- who you got? @BobRoge321

Oh, Rahm for sure. He’s the guy who tries to play peacemaker, catches a wayward punch and then wipes out the whole bar. Brooks would be the lippy bitch who instigates the whole thing then winds up hiding behind his friends, still talking trash. Meanwhile, Bryson, whilst attempting the crane kick from Karate Kid, would fall down, hit his head, knock himself unconscious and miss the whole thing.

Good stuff, though there's more precedent for this kind of thing than you might imagine.  For instance, there was this 2017 poll that posed this query:

The Question: If you were to be in a bar fight, who would you want to have your back?

The results were fragmented, though Brooksie was among those garnering support.  But the winner might surprise you:

1. Ernie Els 15%

Sports Illustrated reported players saying things like, “we’ve heard stories about Ernie.”

The Big Easy is known for his drinking ability, so there’s a good chance people have seen him in action. It was claimed that he once got so drunk he thought he was invisible, which is slightly worrying if you need him to have your back. I wonder if you could rely on him before this level of insobriety was reached? He strikes me as a loyal bloke who wouldn’t be afraid to meet aggression with even more aggression, the ultimate wingman in a time of crisis.

I'll resist the temptation to excerpt it, but Keegan Bradley received support based upon his cage match with Miguel Angel Jimenez, including the video of that epic battle that ended with Keegan sitting in his courtesy car with his girlfriend's dog consoling him.

Did Rahm win it or did Louis lose it? @luke_peacock

Yes.

Fair enough.

#Ask Alan, What does Rory need to get it done? @HighFades

An exorcism.

I'd have gone with a lobotomy, but reasonable folks can disagree.

#AskAlan, Is Louie a questionable Hall of Fame candidate? @JStew68129215

Well, as I’ve typed many times before, the Hall of Fame induction is now a made-for-TV spectacle that desperately needs warm bodies to keep the show going, so every borderline candidate is eventually going to get in. Winning an Open at St. Andrews gets any player halfway to the Hall but King Louis simply hasn’t done enough to warrant serious consideration: 9 Euro tour wins but not a single one in the U.S. If he ever manages to snag a second major championship we can revisit this debate.

On the one hand, I completely agree that Louis' career doesn't include enough to merit canonization.  That said, given the evolving (read, lower) standards implied by the selection of Couples and Montgomery, isn't he already in?

#AskAlan, Two-parter, probably not important to anyone else, but why do men insist on yelling, ‘Get in the hole!’? And why can’t that be stopped? Thanks, I feel better now. @JLFleming20

I think this is the domain of an anthropologist or perhaps Dr. Ruth, not a sportswriter. I would like to think it is pure, unfettered joy at potentially witnessing history that loosens the vocal cords of so many bros but I fear it may be baser instincts at play.

That's a shockingly compelling rationalization of the inexplicable.  But before I accept it as the spoken gospel, now do "Mashed potatoes".

#AskAlan: 1. ) Is Rahm the best player with one major win? 2.) Why don’t they jump in the water on #18 at Torrey? 3.) Why do we expect a universe full of chaos to be fair? @Ryanlovesgolf93

  1. ) Yes, though Justin Thomas stans may disagree
  2. ) Dysentery
  3.  ) We don’t need the universe to be fair. It’s not fair that such a pleasant fellow like King Louis can no longer win the big one. But we do want the universe to offer satisfaction, and in Rahm’s artful finish we got that.

Veddy interesting, at least that first bit.  He doesn't specify, but it seems the category under consideration is limited to active players, because the first name that came to mind on a lifetime basis was Tom Weiskopf (with David Duval a close second).  But even limiting ourselves to current players, on what basis would you rate Louis above JT, Webb Simpson or Jason Day, not to mention Bryson?  Those guys have all won elsewhere, including the Players Championship for all but the latter.

Does the PGA Tour need to do something about players like Bryson who don’t yell fore? Basic etiquette. @brando_chris

It’s more than that, it’s a safety issue – just ask the poor woman who lost an eye at the Ryder Cup when Brooks Koepka pegged her with a drive. It is quite revealing which narcissists don’t even bother to signal or shout a warning, as if their misfortune at hitting a bad shot is all that matters, not the well-being of the paying customers who make it possible for them to exist in such a bubble.

I don't think that they can hear him where Bryson lands the ball, though that doesn't excuse at least pointing to your miss.  I didn't know this was an issue for Bryson, but it's a curious thing for sure.

 And today in recency bias:

Is Jon Rahm going to win the most majors of any European? @BCRafferty

That’s a tall mountain to climb: it will take six more to eclipse Nick Faldo and would make Rahm one of the dozen or so most accomplished players in history. I think he has the game and the heart to do it but so many things have to go his way over the next two decades. For sure, it will be fascinating to watch his pursuit of the all-time greats.

Isn't the more interesting question whether Rory will finish his career still stuck on four?

#AskAlan Should Koepka go back to letting his clubs do the talking? Absurd consistency in majors for sure, but he’s let a few get away after giving DJ a verbal slap and then all this DeChambeau nonsense. Kinda preferred him as the-man-with no-name-gunslinger-who-just-killed. @TheSecretDuffer

Yes, the Koepka brand has taken quite a hit over the last couple of years with his repeated failings in the majors. If you’re gonna be that mouthy it’s a bad look to keep retreating in crunch time. I appreciate that Koepka is a truth-teller but he would be wise to tone down the hubris just a little.

A truth-teller?  He's a frat boy with an inferiority complex, but is that what passes for truth these days?

As another aside, Brooks has done some additional "truth-telling". explaining the origins of his feud with Bryson:

On Wednesday, speaking ahead of the Travelers Championship, Koepka shed some light on when he feels the disdain began.

“I thought it was just interesting when he walked up to my caddie and told Ricky (Elliott) that if I had something to say, to say it to his face,” Koepka said. “I thought that was kind of odd, when you don’t walk up to my face, and say it to my caddie.”

He would seem to be referring to a conversation the two had during the 2019 Northern Trust at Liberty National. That came after Koepka had publicly called out slow players in an appearance on the Golf Monthly podcast. “I just don’t understand how it takes a minute and 20 seconds to hit a golf ball,” Koepka said. “It’s not that hard.” He didn’t call out DeChambeau by name, but it was widely seen as a reference to a European Tour video that showed DeChambeau taking an exorbitant amount of time to play a wedge shot. At Liberty, DeChambeau and Koepka spoke before their final rounds, and DeChambeau told reporters that he “just wanted to clear the air.”

On Wednesday at the Travelers, Koepka also suggested he and DeChambeau had come to some sort of agreement during that conversation two years ago.

“And when we had that conversation, we agreed on something and he went back on it,” Koepka said Wednesday. “So, if you’re gonna go back on your word, I don’t have much respect for that.”

Thanks for sharing.... Maybe it's truth, but it's certainly not the whole truth.

And this question that will follow Alan in perpetuity:

Who do you think will win the Ryder Cup and the score? @robertjstroud

Oh, man, here we go. I still believe the U.S. is going to go on a run and take control of the Cup but it’s gonna be stressful as always, so let’s say 14.5-13.5. Which, of course, means that Europe is likely to win 17-11.

Alan's 2017 prediction of the forthcoming era of U.S. Ryder Cup dominance is the funniest thing I've heard since I was reliably informed that Dewey defeated Truman.

That'll have to sate you for now.  Have a good weekend and I'll see you again on Monday.

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