Thanks for abiding my mini-break from the keyboard. Blogger burnout is a real thing, but I'm back, tanned, rested and ready. Maybe not so tanned...after all, that long weekend weather has Vamin D counts flatlining.
So, what did we miss?
Being Jordan Spieth - The one man in America praying for Sunday rain... pretty much every Sunday.
I'll not spend much time on the Colonial, but did want to excerpt this bit, which picks up after a brief recitation of the man's struggles:
He’s turned things around since — eight top 10s in his past 11 starts, including a win — but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to bad days. Like, on Sunday, for example, when he held a one-strokelead through 54 holes at the Charles Schwab Challenge but shot a three-over 73 and lost to Jason Kokrak by two.
“I was taking the club back and had no freaking clue where it was going to go,” Spieth said. “It’s very rare that you’re in the lead or close to the lead on a Sunday when that’s the case, and it’s not the most enjoyable feeling, but I’ve never been shy on grit, and really belief, in knowing that anything can happen. It was with me till the end, until the shot came off left on 18. So just really just didn’t play well. That’s all it was. I played a bad round of golf.”
On the one hand, it's rare to find a member of this genus-species that would admit they have no clue where it's going. But on the flip side, this seems to be about what Jordan says every Sunday. And come to think of it, Jordan's reputation for gritty Ryder Cup play obscures the fact that he's never won a single Ryder or Prez Cup singles match. Which are, wait for it, played on Sundays...
And one little bit about the winner, who has always been a premiere ball-striker, but struggled on the greens:
How this pro went from 218th in strokes gained: putting to a top-10 player
To further refine his putting, Kokrak says he worked directly with his manufacturer.
“I worked with Bettinardi a little bit,” he said. “Went to their studio and learned what my tendencies were. I went up in loft a few year ago, four or five years ago, more than I was comfortable with. But then about two years ago, my caddie gave me — he saw that I was holding the putter kind of in the base of my palm here, both hands weren’t completely on the putter. He said, ‘Don’t change anything, just go to a 36-inch putter,’ and that’s made all the difference. I’m able to stand up a little bit taller and more comfortable and it’s working.”
Such a little thing....
But a question suggests itself. With the groundswell of support for Jordan and Phil to be chosen for the Ryder Cup team, will Kokrak get the same respect? That's two wins this season, the same as Phil and Jordan have, combined.
Joel Beall gives the subject a quick mention:
Now, the unfortunate truth is a Ryder Cup bid is political, especially this year with half the picks coming via captain’s selections. But while he doesn’t have the name power as other candidates, Kokrak is not a man short on gusto. Mentioned above, he took Spieth down in Spieth’s backyard. That is one heck of a resume builder.
These it seems more akin to high school than politics (not that high school is free of politics). Phil's 2014 hostile takeover of the process ensures that only the cool kids will be chosen. Of course, those cool kids have lost seven of the last nine, but who's counting?
Match Play Madness - One of the huge successes of the LPGA in the Covid era was standing up a new match play event sponsored by Bank of Hope and MGM to be held at Shadow Creek. In our six degrees of separation moment for the day, the aforementioned Jason Kokrak won his first PGA Tour event, the relocated from Korea CJ Cup, at Shadow Creek last Fall.
Big-time sponsors and venues are rare for the ladies, and they copied the format now in use for the Dell WGC event on the men's tour. Those that actually pay attention to my random musings might recall that I find the Dell Match Play awkwardly positioned on the schedule two weeks before the Masters, because of the unpredictable toll the week can take on players, requiring the four that survive until Sunday to play seven matches, an awful lot of golf.
While I was happy for the LPGA to land this event, I was a bit shocked when I realized it was scheduled for the week prior to the U.S. Women's Open at Olympic. Let me just acknowledge that the ladies have profound scheduling issues, struggling to fit their premiere events against the soft spots on the men's calendar. So I do understand why the sponsors might have liked this week, but there allegedly adults in the room.
I did enjoy some of the early coverage of the matches, most notably a Danielle Kang-Ally Ewing match in which the level of play was especially strong. But this was inevitable, no?
PGA pro Shanshan Feng conceded her consolation match in the inaugural Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play on Sunday at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, citing a need to rest for next week’s U.S. Women’s Open and giving up more than $23,000 in the process.
Feng was one of four who made it to Sunday’s final day, but when she lost her morning semifinals match to Sophia Popov (1 up) she elected not to stick around for her consolation match against Ariya Jutanugarn.
“I think I made the right decision for myself because I’m really, really tired after finishing six rounds in five days, let’s say four and a half days,” she said. “If I play 18 more I don’t know how I will do. I might fall over on the course. I don’t think I should push myself that bad. You know, if I got in the top two, of course, yes, I would play until I fall down on the course. But I lost the match in the morning, and I think it’s a better idea just to get rested after this.”
Shack has a post on the incident in which he makes many good points, though there aren't enough debating points to justify his header:
Defending Shanshan Feng's Concession
Sorry, Geoff, but there is no defending her concession. You do the crime, then you'd best be prepared to do the time, and a consolation match is a strikingly apt metaphor for a term in the hoosegow. You sign up for a tournament, you play until it ends.
As for Geoff's debating points, he does highlight how the ladies one-upped the men:
The Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play is a new event at Shadow Creek and it’s not off to a super start. The event was added in February and poorly scheduled by the LPGA. Going from match play in near 100-degree weather to San Francisco for the U.S. Women’s Open was not a great call, particularly with an LPGA event at nearby Lake Merced Golf Club the week after the Open (a great pre-U.S. Women’s Open test).
Not just the seven matches, but those seven in near-100 degree temps. And obviously Lake Merced would have been a logical place to play the week before a major, but nothing is that logical in LPGA-land.
The other mitigating factor is this from Golf Digest:
Feng played a total of 112 holes over five days, more than anyone in the tournament. On Saturday alone she played 41 holes, outlasting her opponents in extra holes in both the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals.
Afterward, Feng confessed that she was so tired she thought about potentially dropping out of the event mid-match.
She found herself in a hot (literally) mess and I feel for her, but she had made a commitment to the tour and sponsor.
Shack hits home here as well:
Also noteworthy for those who would argue this was unfair to the sponsor or television: Golf Channel opted to show two Playing Lessons reruns and a rebroadcast of the European Tour’s final round instead of the semi-final matches (either live or tape-delayed).
Fair as far as criticism goes, but utterly off-topic. No one likes consolation matches, but match play events don't really work without them as a time-filler. OK, that's mostly right, as the final match is typically a dreary experience with them as well. I always call match play events upside down tournaments, because the best of it comes early, when there are thirty-two matches to follow.
More importantly, Mike Whan wants us to treat the LPGA as an equal to the PGA Tour, demanding network time and asserting that his members are world-class athletes. Here's a pro tip for you Mike... if you want us to stop treating the LPGA like a Mickey Mouse tour, consider having your players not treat it like a Mickey Mouse tour.
This possibly related story is interesting given the pending move of the aforementioned Mike Whan to the USGA:
As befits an organization whose officers give the impression of having stepped off the Mayflower in golf spikes, the USGA has always maintained a puritanical aversion to commingling its championships and commercialism. And since there are few remaining holdouts in the world of sport, where most everything of meaning has been bartered to the highest bid, there’s an endearing noblesse oblige in its long-held stance that America’s national titles are not for sale.
One of those, the U.S. Women’s Open, will be staged for the 76th time this week at Olympic Club in San Francisco. It’s the premier event in women’s golf, unrivaled in longevity or stature. But the Women’s Open also loses $9 million each year. That might partly account for the yawning chasm in prize money. The purse at Torrey Pines will be $12.5 million, with $2.25 million going to the winner. Whoever is crowned on Sunday at Olympic Club gets $1 million from $5.5 million. The U.S. Opens offer the highest purses in men’s and women’s majors.
Might? You know where we're going with this, and it's increasingly tiresome.
In what would be a seismic shift for the USGA, sources tell Golfweek the organization is close to signing a sponsor for the U.S. Women’s Open, which could make it the first national championship with corporate branding. While no major in the men’s game carries a title sponsor, the U.S. Women’s Open stands alone among the five women’s majors in not having one. The presence of commercial entities like KPMG, AIG, Evian and ANA in the titles of major championships lays bare the economic reality of women’s golf.
But I get a strong vibe that we're going to be told to ignore those economic realities in the interest of equity.... This bit of legalese befits the subject, methinks:
I asked the USGA’s chief brand officer, Craig Annis, if a title sponsor was likely.
“We are not in the market for a title sponsor for the U.S. Women’s Open,” he replied emphatically.
How about a “presenting” sponsor, in which the corporate branding comes after the event title?“I would not rule that out,” Annis said. “We are always considering more ways to bring in corporate support for our championships and our programs and services.”
Annis declined to speculate on the potential price tag of any sponsorship — one source familiar with the pitch pegs it at $7-$10 million — and wouldn’t confirm whether a deal is close. “We would never disclose any conversations until they are ready to be made public,” he said.
Best word in the above excerpt: "emphatically". But you know where they're heading with this:
Equal prize money, perhaps?
In tennis, the U.S. Open instituted equal prize money in 1973. The other Slams caught up in the 2000s. (The economics for golf are obviously different as men’s and women’s events are not staged concurrently at the same venue). Equal prize money has never been a feature of professional golf, and the day when it might be still seems awfully far away. I asked Annis if having equal prize money for the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open is a USGA aspiration.
“We’ve previously said that our long-term vision is to work to achieve purse parity,” he responded. “In the short term, we’re going to continue to be leaders in the purses amongst majors.”
If you asked Lexi Thompson or one of the Korda's what business they're in, they would answer incorrectly that they're golfers. In fact, they're in business of selling tickets, sponsors' products and drawing eyeballs to TVs, a job at which they are demonstrably inferior to their male non-birthing counterparts.
As an amusing coda, we had one of Employee No. 2's girlfriends as a houseguest and turned on some French Open tennis yesterday. One of the ladies was shocked to be informed that women play best of three set matches, as compared to the men's' best of five, yet earn exactly the same purse. I left her to sort through the implications on her own.
A Nip and a Tuck - I have no clue what's involved, but golf Twitter has been abuzz with images of Augusta National under the knife:
Eureka Earth posted photos of a new pro shop under construction but that won’t mean much unless you’re a member or guest.
But this latest post of work on the 15th and 17th is noteworthy because (A) they are not taking some of the Hootie-era anti-Jones/MacKenzie tree plantings out, and (B) some large areas of turf were removed. Most interesting may be what appears to be pretty significant shaping equipment in the 15th hole landing area and the 17th green looking like it’s set for re-grassing.
My guess? Instead of taking out the Hootie-era trees down the right, the landing area is getting softened to not send a good drive behind the left pines. Or it may be a less sexy thing like sand-capping the landing area and installing SubAir under the spectator walkway.
Why on God's Earth you'd need SubAir under a walkway escapes your humble blogger. I'm just relieved that it's not a new tee on No. 13.
That's Not Been My Own Experience - Alistair Tait with this hard-to-believe premise:
Golf can soothe the soul
Of course I kid, but see what you think of some of these numbers:
If the nightmare of Covid-19 proved anything to aficionadas of this stick and ball game, it’s that we should never again take the game we love for granted. We probably did before the first lockdown back in March 2020. Now? No way. Not when it has such benefits for mental health as confirmed by the R&A. No wonder 2.3 million more people in the British Isles took to the game last year.
As the research reveals:
“The impact of Covid-19 restrictions on mental and physical health and loneliness has been considerable, with the research showing how golf has helped in these areas.”
Key findings include:
- Among avid/regular golfers, 31% had experienced some negative impact on their feelings of loneliness/isolation as a result of the pandemic. Of these, 79% believe playing golf had a positive impact.
- Among lapsed/returning golfers, 44% had experienced some negative impact on their mental health as a result of the pandemic. Of these, 92% felt that playing golf had a positive impact.
- Among occasional/infrequent golfers, 34% had experienced some negative impact on their physical health as a result of the pandemic. Of these, 70% agreed that playing golf had a positive impact.
Only 31% had some feelings of isolation? I'm sorry, but that's an absurdly low number, considering that I don't know a soul that didn't.
The second percentage in each bullet is far more believable, and quite dramatic when one considers how understated the first is.
The biggest takeaway of the pandemic is that, deprived of every other human endeavor, people will play golf in staggering numbers. What will intrigue is to see how many develop a taste for it as life returns to normal.
Good For Golf? - I'm not completely sold on this, but there's definitely a point to be made:
Brooks Koepka's obvious dislike of Bryson DeChambeau is so great for golf
Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau have been in a goofy golf feud for quite some time. The two obviously aren’t big fans of each other and haven’t been all that concerned about hidingthat fact.
And you know what? This feud and that hatred is so great for golf.
Koepka and DeChambeau or two of the best golfers in the world and a personal rivalry like this can only make things more interesting when they find themselves battling down the stretch of a tournament, which could happen any week the two are in the field.
The PGA Tour can be a very vanilla place where lots of guys are happy for a top 20 finish and the six- to seven-figure payout that comes with that. There are lots of smiles, waves to the crowd after a nice shot or a big putt, and aw shucks reactions to big moments.
What the Tour lacks is any real disdain felt between some players that leads to some epic Sunday showdowns and cause casual fans to sit down and tune in.
Until now.
I'm completely on board with the vanilla comment, one of my biggest gripes about Ponte Vedra Beach. I just think there are more important issues therein, such as the failure to disclose disciplinary actions and the like.
I have no problem with the rivalry, even the kind where they obviously hate each other, especially in the present case where each can be a bit of a dick. I could easily cite the Kissinger line about the Iran-Iraq war, since neither is anyone's favorite guy out there. But if the hate is directed at the merely annoying, it's almost not worth the bother. Wake me when a tour pro calls out PReed, then you'll have my full attention.
A Dissent On DMDs - I didn't watch a lick of the Senior PGA (sorry, KitchenAid), but Geoff has an eccentric reaction to their use of rangefinders:
The Senior PGA from Southern Hills has been such a joy this week. It’s amazing to see beautiful ground features, creeks and grass instead of shade. The course overhaul is also allowing players are more opportunities for recovery from trouble. And seeing play on a golf course with adjacent fairways reinforced what a mistake it is to allow distance measuring devices into a major championship.
Last week’s PGA at Kiawah did not provide many examples of stuff like this, starting with Retief Goosen who, in round two wedged out from the 13th hole’s trees into the nearby 17th fairway.
Far off line, his caddie is seen here shooting a yardages:
Despite a bad tee shot, Goosen was spared a penalty for his effort. He also gained access to a perfect (rangefinder) yardage to the flag when he played down the next fairway. That made his pitch-out from the trees even easier knowing he could get a number and clean look. His playing partners and the field who drove accurately off the 13th tee lost some of their reward from playing more accurately.
All because rangefinders are allowed at PGA of America championships.
This is noteworthy given that “skill” will be a hot topic when the USGA and R&A make their case for distance regulation. (At least they are allowing the devices at the U.S. Open or The Open, yet.) Situations like the above rangefinder usage chips away at real skill. The same goes for players relying on green books to get around local knowledge study.
Add both to the termination list if we’re genuinely trying to restore more nuanced skills to this great game.
Ummm..Geoff, a number and a clean look are two very different things.
I really just don't get the argument. With a Tour caddie on the bag, Mr. Goosen was always going to be the beneficiary of a "perfect yardage", it's only a matter of how that is obtained and, perhaps, how long it takes to obtain. It's not a great look and your humble blogger might prefer the old-time charm of stepping it off, but this doesn't rise to much of an issue to me.
On Olympic - Geoff has a post up on the venue for this week's Women's U.S. Open, a track I've always revered for a simple reason that can be found in his lede:
The U.S. Women’s Open tees off at Olympic Club this week for the first time following five men’s Opens. But after 2025’s U.S. Amateur, the storied Lake Course becomes a PGA of America venue of sorts, hosting a PGA (2028) and Ryder Cup (2033).
For a lot of architecture-loving geeks, the Lake Course has been passed by other areas courses in terms of interest and stature. It’s seen as a series of sidehill holes offering strange stances, incongruous bunkering and greens with just-okay character. In a neighborhood with several other stellar layouts, Olympic Lake has slipped in all but the Golf Digest ranking. Historians will also point out that the super elites have always come up short (Hogan to Fleck, Palmer to Casper, Watson to Simpson, Stewart to Janzen, etc), though I’m not sure how that denigrates the course (unless you’re Hogan fanboy Dan Jenkins).
Yeah, I threw you a wee hint there. After all, an over-sized blow-up of that Sports Illustrated cover adorns my office wall.
Only slightly modified from the original.... But enough about me, back to Geoff:
But there’s something magical about tournament golf and the “test” presented by Olympic. I first attended the 1987 U.S. Open and have since been at the ensuing U.S. Opens played there. (TheUSGA declined to entertain my request for a media credential at both of their Opens this year otherwise I’d have been there this week.)
I’m very bummed not to be watching the fog tumble in, out and around the Cypress, or to watch golf played under those super-crisp, clear-blue skies (wear sunscreen!). The turf turn always turns dangerously firm and fast thanks to the surprisingly loamy soil and long June days.
While it’s no visual marvel compared to Cal Club or San Francisco or even Harding Park and it’s Cypress, there is an intangible quality to watching the world’s best deal with Olympic’s intricacies.
The fun part being that he lists said intricasies:
- Shotmaking. Olympic asks a player to move the ball every way: up, down, left, right and sometimes all of those combinations on one hole. While overhanging limbs and tree losses have taken some of this away, the Lake still calls on loads of creativity.
- Never a flat stance. It seems increasingly rare for top players to confront wildly uneven stances, though we still see them tested annually at Augusta National and a few other stops. Making the constant adjustment is a huge part of conquering Olympic.
- So many places not to miss your approach. Without a flat stance, the misses always seem to be accentuated at Olympic and the small greens offer just enough tilt to make you wish you’d overcompensated even more. Short-siding here is not fun.
- Tilt 2. The extreme tilt of the property toward Lake Merced also makes distances and green reads more complicated that even elite golfers can handle. The downhill par-3 3rd in Open conditions features a tiny window to land a tee shot and keep it on a green that has a generous opening and looks tilted toward the tee.
- Reverse altitude. Even though it sits atop a dune overlooking Harding Park and San Francisco Golf Club, the cool, heavy air can make everything play up to 10% longer. The women’s yardage this week is 6,457 (par 71). While that will be offset some by a dry winter and U.S. Open firmness, it’s still a brute.
Which will be quite an adjustment given the heat and dry air of Shadow Creek.
Should be great week, at least for those that didn't arrive already worn out.
I'll leave you here and expect to see you next on Thursday morning.
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