For those keeping a scorecard at home, this represents my third consecutive day of blogging... A few of you remember when I was at the keyboard every weekday, though lately I've been keeping a mild case of blogger burnout at bay. This week is an odd one, though... Way too much golf, though it happens to be afternoon golf, which leaves morning free for musing.
Olympic Fever - Tokyo qualifies as a first-world city, making it appropriate to lede with this first-world problem:
The toughest decision for Olympic golfers? To stay in the Village, or near the course
In a normal Olympic year, the dilemma would be obvious. But this ain't your grandfather's Olympics, though it does sound like the lockdown isn't as severe as we've been led to believe:
Take Tommy Fleetwood’s experience thus far. He’s staying in a Team Great Britain block of “apartments,” as they’re called, with the Union Jack hanging from the balconies. If his Monday evening tweet is any indication, he’s having a blast: “Please excuse my language but I’d just like to say that I F*@%ING LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!!”
Team GB’s male golfers arrived in the Village Saturday, and before long Fleetwood was enjoying the complimentary masseuse services. He was even invited to a sparring session with the British boxing team. “Tommy in boxing mitts. I can’t wait to film it,” his caddie, Ian Finnis, said.
I was under the impression that the athletes would be required to stay in their accommodations, leaving only for the competitions:
There’s plenty on offer in the Village, even during a pandemic. Free laundry services. A barbershop. A sprawling gymnasium to accommodate thousands of athletic freaks, and an impeccable, 24/7 food court that everyone seems to rave about. There’s also a bit of celebrity floating around.
In between her arrival and a visit to the nail salon, Mexico’s Gaby Lopez ran into Simone Biles, perhaps the greatest gymnast of all-time. Later, she posed for a mandatory selfie with Mexican footballer Guillermo Ochoa. Tennis star Novak Djokovic isn’t even staying in the Village, but is visiting most days and has been stopped constantly by athletes of other disciplines, asking for advice on how to deal with pressure. Team USA’s basketball stars left their hotel on a special trip to check out the scene and take photos in the Village. Clearly, there’s a bit of magnetism to it for all athletes. It’s just the golfers can’t agree on if they should actually stay there overnight.
But while most commentators are focused on the weather and that pesky typhoon, your humble blogger is providing traffic updates:
Therein lies the dilemma. Even with a limited field, players will hit the course in threesomes Thursday and Friday, between 7:30 and 11:09 a.m. local time. They might be used to waking up before dawn, but waking up before 4 a.m.? That’s too much for Schauffele. And while you can get lucky with Tokyo’s elevated traffic system — highways situated above city streets, weaving among the downtown buildings — the commute from the Village is almost surely 90 minutes. Tuesday at 5 p.m. it was a 70-minute ride, no traffic. But Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. it was a full 100-minute trek. You won’t find any four-lane interstates between the Village and KCC. The quickest route is actually quite meandering.
There’s also the company they keep. Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners both brought their wives as “personal coaches” this week, skirting the rules about non-essential visitors to Japan. Caddies and physios are allowed in the village but family is not. Schauffele’s father, Stefan, who is also his swing coach, cannot get into the Village. His credential won’t allow it. Morikawa’s girlfriend, also listed as a personal coach, is not permitted. For the Canadian players’ wives, it’s the same story.
Not that I blame them, as they're taking one for the team. Though I think you'll agree that this is unintentionally hysterical:
“With our bodies, it’s not ideal to sit in a car for a couple of hours beforehand,” Australian Marc Leishman said. He and his teammate Cam Smith are staying in a hotel in Saitama. “So that was our thinking behind that, try and prepare like it was a major. I think I would love to stay at the Olympic Village, but it just wasn’t as convenient as we maybe would have liked this year.”
Fair enough, if by "Our" bodies you meant your Pillsbury Dough Boy frame....
Dylan Dethier is, I believe, home in Seattle, but nevertheless has time enough to tank the men's field, breaking it into seven amusing tiers. I assume you'll know the show ponies, but perhaps might be surprised at how quickly the talent falls off. This, as an example, is Dylan's third highest tier, after the thoroughbreds (JT, Rory and Hideki) and Hipster Faves (Cam Smith, PReed, Abe Ancer, for example):
TIER 3: THE PELOTON
Mackenzie Hughes, Canada (66-1)
Hughes is trending up after a T14 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a T6 in his last start at the Open Championship.
Carlos Ortiz, Mexico (66-1)
Ortiz is all in on adapting a team/country format for the Olympics: “I think the format can definitely be better and I think that would engage the country to be more involved and make it more about the country, not individual,” he said on Tuesday.
Jhonattan Vegas, Venezuela (50-1)
Vegas, a three-time PGA Tour winner, became the first Venezuelan golfer to play on the Presidents Cup in 2017.
Guido Migliozzi, Italy (50-1)
Migliozzi went on a summer heater with back-to-back runner-up finishes on the European Tour before capturing hearts and minds with a T4 at the U.S. Open…
Garrick Higgo, South Africa (50-1)
…but nobody has been on a summer heater like Higgo, who won twice in three starts in Europe and then won in his second-ever PGA Tour start at Congaree.
Alex Noren, Sweden (50-1)
Noren owns 10 European Tour titles but is still chasing his first win on American soil.
Si Woo Kim, South Korea (40-1)
At 17, Kim was the youngest player to make it through PGA Tour Q-School when he finished T20 in 2012, and in 2017 he became the youngest-ever Players Championship winner.
Marc Leishman, Australia (40-1)
Leishman shot three under on the back nine Friday of the Open Championship while putting with his sand wedge, missing the cut by just one shot.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout, South Africa (40-1)
Bezuidenhout has been consistent but not quite at the top of his game of late; in his most recent 10 starts he has made every cut but hasn’t finished better than T23.
All names we know, though many haven't exactly been lighting it up recently.
But it's that seventh tier that should embarrass folks:
TIER 7: DIAL UP THAT WIKIPEDIA PAGE!
Udayan Mane, India (1000-1)
Mane plays most of his golf on the Tata Steel Professional Golf Tour of India, where he has won five times since the tour got world-ranking sanctioned in 2019.
Ondrej Lieser, Czech Republic (750-1)
Lieser was the first Czech golfer to ever win on the European Tour and breaks the golf mold by competing in glasses and no hat.
Juvic Pagunsan, Philippines (500-1)
Pagunsan got plenty of attention when he qualified for the Open Championship with just 11 clubs in his bag — but there was far less fanfare when he skipped the Open to prep for the Olympics instead.
Gunn Charoenkul, Thailand (500-1)
Charoenkul has put together a solid career across Asia for the better part of a decade but doesn’t enter the Games in his top form; in 10 Japan Golf Tour starts this year he has just a single top-20 finish.
Gavin Green, Malaysia (500-1)
Not to be confused with the clothing company Galvin Green, nor with his brother, Galven Green, Gavin Green was an eight-time winner and three-time All-American at the University of New Mexico.
K.K. Johannessen, Norway (400-1)
Asked why he didn’t become a ski jumper like his father, Johannessen had a simple explanation: “Yeah, I’m just too fat.”
Hurly Long, Germany (400-1)
Long owns a decent claim to fame: He’s the course record-holder at Pebble Beach, where he shot a second-round 61 at the Carmel Cup in 2017, competing for Texas Tech.
Ashun Wu, China (350-1)
Wu, 36, became the first Chinese golfer to win on the Japan Golf Tour in 2012 and the first Chinese golfer to win three times on the European Tour after his KLM Open win in 2018.
Compare that list to the list of top players that didn't qualify, and it's pretty clear that it's not a serious competition, yet folks like Shack and Alan Shipnuck will whine on about those that don't participate.
The Shipnuck call-out was far from random, as we've a new installment up of his mailbag feature, which just happens to have Olympic-themed questions:
I would like to #AskAlan, does golf need the Olympics more than the Olympics need golf? @_Qonquistador
I’m really bummed about a second straight Games turning into a semi-disaster for men’s golf. I thought the Olympics could become an awesome tradition for the sport and a way to to introduce its charms to new global audiences. But the disingenuous Zika fear-mongering four years ago was a disgrace, and this time around too many of the top players turned out to be myopic, selfish buzzkills. I certainly wouldn’t blame the IOC if it drops golf at some point. But all hope is not lost. As we saw coming out of Rio, the golfers who actually get the Olympic experience are deeply moved. They wear their flag and train and eat in close proximity to many of the world’s best athletes. For one of the few times in their lives they are a part of a team and treated like a real jock, not a golf nerd. Hopefully the good word-of-mouth will continue to build and in 2024, when the Olympics are in Paris, I would expect all of the best players to show up, because who doesn’t love Paris? They’ll certainly turn out in a big way for the 2028 Games in L.A. Golf just has to survive Tokyo and hopefully the next two Games will be remembered as the turning points when men’s golf finally fell in love with the Olympics. If not, we will be able to declare the whole experiment an unmitigated disaster and move on.
There's way more nonsense contained in that 'graph than I have time to unpack, but that's always been the case on the subject of Olympic golf, to which so many of our best golf writers seem incapable of applying critical thought.
To begin at the beginning, I don't think that golf needs the Olympics but nor do I believe that the Olympics needs golf. But I do believe that Peter Dawson, et. al. felt that golf desperately needed to be in the Olympics, because it's the only rational explanation for the disastrous deal they negotiated. If their objective was to structure golf's Olympic competition to ensure that golf would once again disappear from the Olympic Games, what would they have done differently?
And this equally silly bit on Captain America:
Is it too weird to think the late-arriving Pat Reed can come in and swoop gold at a wacky Olympics when no one is watching? Top 3 at least to spite us? @JustShake
That would be so on-brand. It would also pretty much guarantee Reed is on the Ryder Cup team, which will further vex much of the golfing public. Jet lag to Japan will be no joke, and Reed probably won’t get in a practice round; it’s a big ask for him to podium. But he’ll be running on adrenaline and spite, two powerful fuels.
Yeah, it's a stretch to assume that his Ryder Cup heroics (which are a bit overstated) will translate to stroke play. But the buried lede is that Captain America will need a captain's pick to be in Whistling Straits, and we really don't know how Steve Stricker and the cabal feel about the man after Royal Melbourne. He did have that win at Torrey, though that came with yet another instance of Patrick's disregard for the rules of our game.
This will, of course never happen, though it's amusing to contemplate:
Does Steve Stricker have the intestinal fortitude to pair Justine’s husband with Cryson Douchecanoe all week at the Ryder Cup for some much needed team stability for the others? #AskAlan @woolydub
A Reed-DeChambeau pairing would certainly get under the skin of their opponents, and these anti-heroes might very well thrive if thrown together. Their games are so different—Reed is probably the shortest hitter among the elites—it’s amusing to think of them as alternate-shot partners … but it could work. Imagine Bryson swinging for the fences and Reed erasing any mistakes with his magical short game. As you suggest, it also eliminates the headache of having to find partners for two very, uh, specific personalities.
I hear Douchecanoe and instinctively my mind adds, "And Tyler too". Fact of the matter is that, even if you add Reed to the team, you don't want him out there in alternate shot, he's so short and crooked off the tee.
The Euro Beat - Alistair Tait has done the unforgiveable, which you'll quickly suss out from his header:
Still Waiting For Strategic Alliance Joy
Geez, that seems uncomfortably close to actual journalism....Is this wise? Here's the bit that will offend in Virginia Water and Ponte Vedra Beach:
“The landmark agreement will see golf’s two major Tours explore all facets of collaboration, working together on strategic commercial opportunities including collaborating on global media rights in certain territories.
“The Tours will also work in partnership on a number of other areas including global scheduling, prize funds and playing opportunities for the respective memberships. Further details of these areas will be announced in due course.”
They don't like it when we remind them of their nonsense...
The coming together of both circuits can’t come soon enough for the junior partner in this strategic alliance. Pelley and his team have done a fantastic job putting together a schedule during the pandemic to allow European Tour members to continue to ply their trade. However, all you have to do is look at the prize funds and strength of the fields on this year’s schedule, compare them to what’s on offer on the PGA Tour, and it’s no surprise many European Tour members are champing at the bit to see where the European Tour is heading with this strategic alliance.
I think we've known from the beginning where they're headed. The nagging question is whether that's preferable to the option that presented
The European Tour turned down a chance to take Saudi money to build a circuit that could have rivalled the PGA Tour in a significant way. Pelley and the European Tour made the right choice from an ethical standpoint. From a business standpoint… Well, only time will tell. European Tour members will hope getting into bed with the PGA Tour pays off in the long run.I hear through the grape vine an announcement on the strategic alliance benefits is imminent. It can’t come soon enough for the European Tour.
I certainly understand the concern about Saudi money, though in the last Premiere Golf League stories we had non-Saudi deep pockets involved as well.
But I have a decidedly contrarian take, which is that a scrappy European Tour was and would be a blessing for our game. The more I see of Jay Monahan, whose focus is on sports betting and paying off Tiger and Phil through the double-secret PIP program, the more I worry about his stewardship of the game. And let's not mince words, Keith Pelley sold out his birthright for a mess of pottage, and his tour is now a vassal of the U.S. Tour, to the detriment of the golf world, I fear.
Linksy Goodness - Geoff simply refuses to move on, a position with which I completely agree:
While golf moves to soft, green, inland Japan I refuse to let the links season go just yet. Thankfully some fantastic “content creators” are giving us fresh, smart and beautiful looking short films to watch. One is on an old, well-known favorite in North Berwick and the other is on a course I knew nothing about, Hayling.
Nor do I.... A few days back, this flyover of North Berwick popped up in my Twitter feed:
Stunning.. Can't wait to play it soon 😉 https://t.co/GZisaLce0f
— lawrencedonegan (@lawrencedonegan) July 5, 2021
Because, yanno, I wasn't sufficiently depressed about my second consecutive year with a fix of links golf...
Geoff has this video to add, from something called The Old Tom Trails:
But, like Geoff, I've never heard of Hayling, which appears to be located in Berkshire:
Dustin Johnson missed the cut badly at the 3M Open with a weak field. Maybe his W/Dfrom the Olympics was a blessing? Discuss. @JStew68129215
I don’t know, the only way DJ could have salvaged this woebegone season would have been to win a medal at the Games. Unless he goes bonkers in the FedEx Cup—and it’s possible he’ll find the needed motivation, because the dude loves money—this is going to go down as Johnson’s worst season since 2014. It’s particularly stunning because after his record-setting performance at the November Masters, it felt as if Dustin, 37, might go on a history-altering run. But he has been sabotaged by mediocre putting and driving stats and a baffling tendency to make a bunch of bogeys whenever it appears he might generate some momentum. Time will tell if this is just a bad year or if Johnson’s reign is really over.
Forget the Olympics, this would seem to be an issue for the Ryder Cup.... But who knew that one win a year was a "reign"?
Alan, out of any living veteran golf pro, who would you pick to mentor Bryson and why? He really needs some guidance outside of his circle. Tough love from Lee Trevino, who lives in Dallas, would be my choice. #AskAlan @forearmshivers
I love Trevino, but now that he’s a crotchety old-timer I’m not sure he could put up with Bryson’s schtick. There is only one answer: Phil Mickelson. Like Bryson, he is an esoteric thinker who always wants to be the smartest guy in the room. He’s also a mad scientist when it comes to equipment. Most of all, Phil has been through myriad controversies and he understands the media, modern celebrity and outrageous wealth in a way that older pros simply can’t. Some low-key mentoring has already been going on between these two, but if I was Bryson I would move into Phil’s guest house Kato Kaelin-style and refuse to leave for a year or two.
This is unintentionally hysterical, given the manner in which these two guys beclowned themselves in Detroit. It's better not to encourage Bad Phil...
#askalan By my reckoning Collin Morikawa is the first major champion from L.A. (Corey Pavin is from Ventura, Tiger is Orange County.) Amiright and what accounts for L.A.’s lack of champions? @PeteViles
I did the requisite snooping and couldn’t turn up any Angelenos who have won majors, which is flabbergasting given the perfect year-round weather, great private clubs around town and the long history of the L.A. Open. But there is a depressing dearth of public courses throughout Los Angeles, which has to be a key factor. More than that, there is not a culture that supports junior golf. Now travel down the freeway to San Diego, where a tribe of dedicated citizens built out the Junior Worlds and various other programs and in the process churned out so many accomplished golfers, including major championship winners such as Phil Mickelson and Craig Stadler. Of course, if Anthony Kim mounts a comeback he could still make history for El Lay.
So, by my math, Argentina has three majors to L.A.'s two.... Who woulda think it?
#AskAlan What do you think is the most prestigious non-major golf event of the year? (My vote is the Memorial.) @War-Eagle1991
That is an excellent choice, but I’m taking the L.A. Open. Better course, richer history, more of a big-time feel and far less irritating milkshake content. That said, the Memorial victor’s 18th hole handshake with Jack is one of the cooler traditions in the sport.
Errr, guys, doesn't it sort of have to be The Players? I'm a fan of The Riv as well, but it comes a bit early on the calendar.
That's it for today. I expect I'll see you later in the week, but no promises as to on which days....
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