Tuesday Tidbits

 There will be blogging today, just with an eye on the clock...

R.I.P. Ben Wright - Another legend heads to that broadcast booth in the sky, though look at who shows up in John Feinstein's lede:

On the last day of the 1983 Kemper Open, the final threesome of Fred Couples, T.C. Chen and Scott Simpson slogged their way through a miserable finish at Congressional Country Club, reaching the 17th hole long after everyone else had finished.

With little else to do while the players dawdled, CBS producer Frank Chirkinian cut to a group of ducks hanging out around the pond that fronted the green. Without missing a beat, Ben Wright, sitting in the tower above, said: “When this round began, those were eggs.”

Point taken.

Ben Wright died on Friday at the age of 88. He suffered a fall on Thursday, broke two vertebrae and never made it through surgery the next day. While those who enjoyed his work on CBS’s golf coverage for 24 years will remember him for pithy lines like his one at Congressional, his legacy will always be darkened by the way his career at CBS crashed—and the way CBS mishandled the crash.

Yeah, while your humble blogger was distracted by the mention of his namesake (not to mention the author of the most famous double-hit in golf history), it's that last bit that folks will remember him by:

Long before the cool kids taught us about cancel culture:

In the spring of 1995, Wright was at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Del., to be part of

CBS’s coverage of what was then the McDonald’s LPGA Championship. On Thursday May 11, he did what would normally have been a routine interview with Valerie Helmbreck of Wilmington’s local paper, the News Journal. Twenty-four hours later, when Helmbreck’s story was published, Wright was smack in the middle of a national controversy.

According to Helmbreck, Wright said the following: “Let’s face facts here. Lesbians in the sport hurt women’s golf.” There was more: “They’ve gone to a butch game and that furthers the bad image of the game . . . It’s not reticent, it’s paraded.”

And then, just in case there were still some women out there he hadn’t yet offended, Wright added: “Women are handicapped by having boobs. It’s not easy for them to keep their left arm straight and that’s one of the tenets of the game. Their boobs get in the way.”

Feinstein seems to be critical of what he calls the "cover-up", and no doubt part of it were dreadful, such as this:

And then, when Sports Illustrated’s Michael Bamberger looked into what happened, Wright, after saying CBS didn’t want him to talk, claimed that Helmbreck was divorced, involved in a custody battle and possibly a lesbian who he had the misfortune to run into just prior to Mother’s Day.

It turned out, according to Bamberger’s story, that Helmbreck was happily married with three children.

Whoops.

How's that for an early Mike Bamberger sighting?  But while Wright's comments are worthy of contempt, that wasn't the sum and substance of the man:

He was a superb, often self-deprecating storyteller, and the truth is I showed up at lunchtime because the food was good and I loved listening to Chirkinian, Will, McCord and Wright tell stories. Sitting among “the boys” at CBS, Ben talked that way at times about women. It was borderline lewd, and in that sense, his remarks to Helmbreck were not out of character. Still, the question I never got to ask was this: Why in the world would you make comments like that to a stranger on or off the record? It made no sense at all.

The other thing to know about Wright is that, Verne Lundquist notwithstanding, the "Yes, Sir!" call is legally Wright's intellectual property, as you'll see in this compilation:

Hate the sin, love the sinner.... R.I.P.

The Curtis Cup - I saw just a little bit of it from Conwy Golf Club in Wales, but was grateful for one last links fix.  But they apparently kept to the script:

It’s a theme followers of trans-Atlantic team contests have seen many times. It goes like this: More familiar with the intricacies of foursomes and four-ball strategies and rhythm, the Old

World underdogs battle their way to parity—or close to it—before the final-day singles. It is then, however, that the (on-paper) greater depth of the American side really begins to tell. By close of play, the trophy either stays in the States, or heads west across the Atlantic.

Welcome to the 41st Curtis Cup at the Conwy Golf Club in northern Wales.

Tied 6-6 with eight points to play in head-to-head, the U.S. team cruised to an eventually comfortable victory on Saturday. With the Americans taking the singles 6½-1½, the final score was 12½-7½. Which is not to say that it was all easy sailing for the visitors to this picturesque part of the Principality. Of the eight matches, six went as far as the penultimate green, a sure indication of an overall competitiveness that was a far cry from the previous Curtis Cup at Quaker Ridge, where the home side won by the embarrassing score of 17-3.

 But this is a nice circle-of-life bit:

Best story of the final day, however, was provided by Rachel Kuehn. Back in 1998, Rachel’s

mom, Brenda Corrie Kuehn, holed the winning putt in the 1998 Curtis Cup at Minikahda, and 23 years on her daughter did the same at Conwy. The younger Kuehn’s last-green victory over Louise Duncan was enough to take the U.S. points total to 10½, guaranteeing victory.

“This is unbelievable, especially as we only scored a point-and-a-half on day one,” said Kuehn, when ended with a 3-0-1 record. “To make the comeback we did yesterday was pretty amazing. It was anybody’s game this morning. So this is really cool, really special for me to do what my mom did all those years ago. I’ve heard about it since I was 8 years old.”

Speaking of whom, mom was on hand to witness history being repeated.

I love the Walker and Curtis Cups, but I do think we're approaching the point where continental Europe will need to become involved to keep things competitive.  The only downside there is that I hate to lose that old-timey GB&I designation.

About That Other Cup - Shocked by that effortless segue?  Hey, its what I do...

Via Shack's Quadrilateral post, here's a quickie update on the two-tier Euro qualification process:

Sergio All But Locks Up A Spot

Captain Harrington said earlier this year that Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter held a huge experience advantage. He noted how Garcia would have to lose a limb to be passed up for a pick.

After a solid T6 at the BMW and with all limbs visibly intact, Sergio Garcia will be at Whistling Straits.

With the Tour Championship and BMW PGA still to go, here is the team, starting with the four who get in off the European Points list:

Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy

The World List:

Viktor Hovland, Paul Casey, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Lee Westwood, Shane Lowry

This leaves three picks but really only one left which—depending on how the week goes at Wentworth and other political nonsense we don’t know about—ought to go to a fresh face like Victor Perez, Robert Macintyre, Guido Migliozzi or, perhaps an older fresh face in, dare I say it, Richard Bland?

Strong at the top but questionable depth, just like pretty much any Ryder Cup.  Also typical is that their fate will likely be driven by how well the old guys hold up.  But, spoiler alert, guys like Westwood and Sergio, who have struggled on the greens their entire careers, will show up and putt like Bobby Locke.

I would assume that Victor Perez will get that last slot.

A couple of the Golf Digest writers take their stabs and picking Captain Stricker's....err...picks.  First, Joel Beall:

JB Captain’s Picks

Tony Finau

Xander Schauffele

Jordan Spieth

Harris English

Daniel Berger

Webb Simpson

The top three are generally considered to be cast in stone at this point, though Harris English might be as well, however much it pains me to peck out those words.

Daniel Rappaport's list is less conventional:

DR Captain’s Picks

Tony Finau

Xander Schauffele

Jordan Spieth

Harris English

Scottie Scheffler

Kevin Na

Daniel concedes that his colleague's list is chalk, and takes pride in going off the reservation.  Normally I'm a fan of that, and he's certainly correct to pose this question:

I’m not arguing for complete anarchy here; I’m with you on those first four picks. I simply do not see the value in adding a semi in-form Simpson. Yes, he’s experienced, but every Ryder Cup team he’s been a part of has lost.

I would give the Webber that last slot, but he for sure hasn't really seized it.  I like the Kevin Na baloon to a certain extent:

Then there’s Na, who I truly believe has big-time potential to emerge as a U.S. answer to Ian Poulter. The guy’s in terrific form, going T-2, T-23, T-2, T-8, T-17 since the John Deere. He’s also done it on all different types of courses. His early walk-ins and willingness to call out anybody—remember, he got in DJ’s face at the match play without hesitation—could get under the Europeans’ skin in a way no one else on this team can, especially if Reed isn’t there. At last week’s Northern Trust, I asked him what his response is to people who say Whistling Straits is too big a golf course for him. “The way, I’m putting,” he said, “it doesn’t matter.” How can you not want to go into battle with this guy?

OK, but shouldn't all those high finishes have him higher than 19th on the points list? 

I would take either Berger or Na (and Webb, as well) over Scottie Scheffler, for the simple reason that they're far better putters.  If we see Stricker take Scheffler, the only logic I could see for that would be if he needs another guy to throw out in foursomes, where superior ball-strikers rule.

I find this list of future Ryder Cup sites to be among the more depressing things I've seen lately.  Considering that the next two Walker Cups will be at Cypress Point and the Old Course, how tired do Hazeltine and Olympic feel.  And, on the heels of yesterdays Live Under Par item, Bethpage scares the heck out of me.... My faves from this list are clearly 2031 and 2035, because I can at least lie to myself and think they'll go somewhere interesting.  My truly unrealistic hope is that the Walker Cup will demonstrate see that Old Course is an epic match-play venue and commit to a Ryder Cup there.  But they're not bloody likely to cash a big check from the Links Trust, so I assume that in 2031 we'll be playing in, say, Slovakia.

More Linksy Goodness - Of all the obscure links in GB&I, this just might top the list due to it's location in Northwest Donegal.  Theresa and I began our 2008 trip here, and it's only gotten better since we were there.

The Rosapenna Resort features a first class Pat Ruddy links, as well as nine delightful Old Tom Morris holes, that are now paired with a new nine from Mr. Ruddy.  In my phot archives I have a picture of a vast track of land called the St. Patrick's Links, that back in the day were supposed to have been built out by jack Nicklaus.  In a thunderbolt of rational thought, Nicklaus was separated from the project and the new links was built instead by Tom Doak, and we have some tasty photos:

It's a spectacular property, just don't know when we would get back there.

Our Cups Runneth Over - Guess what, kids, we've got another Cup for ya this weekend, when the ladies play their Solheim Cup.  Not much to be found, so we'll just go with this from the Tour Confidential panel:

5. This week, the Solheim Cup kicks off at Inverness in Ohio. The U.S. side will feature eight of the top 30 players in the world, headlined by No. 1 Nelly Korda, and are the betting favorites (-200, according to BetMGM). But if we’ve learned anything from Solheim and Ryder Cups past, the odds don’t mean much. Two questions: Who ya got, and who is primed to be the breakout star of the event?

Dethier: Team USA is going to roll. On paper, they’re a top-heavy squad, but I like young stars like Yealimi Noh to introduce herself to the team golf world. And watch out for Leona Maguire

on Team Europe — she’s coming in with a hot hand.

Sens: Maguire is a great call for a break-out star. But yeah — on paper, the U.S. is rightly the big favorite.

Zak: Team USA is NOT going to roll. Don’t be silly, Dylan. Team Europe has shown better form of late, so they’ll keep it close. I think Madelene Sagstrom is the breakout star. She’s been really, really good of late. Ultimately, the Americans win from one of the final three singles matches.

Bamberger: Completely agree, Sean. Don’t see either team winning by much over a point. As for Sagstrom, she looks to be a star on the rise. She looks strong and athletic and confident through the bag.

Team match-play rocks, and there's just that frisson of bad blood between the squads to pique our interest.  Of course, absent the Asian powerhouse, it has the feel of a consolation match.  

I shall leave you here with an uncertain schedule.  Blogging tomorrow will be contingent on the Wednesday Game being rained out (which seems quite likely), and Thursday is a no-go zone.

Weekend Wrap

I'm so glad to be back in the saddle that I've briefly considered acting excited about the FedEx playoffs...  Fortunately that little exhibition in late September provides all the motivation we need to stay focused on these events.

Charm City Happenings - Did you know that Baltimore is known as Charm City?  I'm just guessing that the nickname predates The Wire...

I'll confess that I'm not your best option in tour guides for this event as, save Cantlay's 72nd hole birdie putt, I missed it all.  But, sounds like there was fun to be had:

There is an axiom in golf that the player plays the course and not an opponent. But it was fitting that in a week when the course was mostly defenseless for the best in the world, a true one-on-one clash made this BMW one of the most memorable tournaments in recent years on tour.

There are sudden-death playoffs that can become par-fest pillow fights. This one had a bunch of pars on the scorecards, but it was decidedly not that. It featured an all-world up-and-down par-save from Cantlay and a similar miracle save after a tee shot into a hazard by DeChambeau (who outdrove Cantlay by an average of 42 yards as they kept playing up the hill on the 18th). There were two absolute darts their third time through the par-3 17th for matching birdies, and fittingly, an almost-20-footer right in the heart of the cup on the 18th green, again by Cantlay, to decide it. The putt mirrored the one that kept him alive in regulation.

It was frenetic, with each playoff hole building on the previous one with unexpected turns and an unresolved championship.

I guess I missed something special if it has the Tour Confidential panel responding to hyperbolic questions such as this:

1. Patrick Cantlay edged Bryson DeChambeau on the sixth (!) hole of a sudden-death playoff at the BMW Championship to become the first player to win three times on the PGA Tour in the 2020-21 season. Lots to unpack, but we’ll start here: Given the stature of

the players involved, the stakes (the top spot in the FedEx race heading into the Tour Championship) and the number of shots and putts both players needed to convert down the stretch (and did), where does this Sunday rank among PGA Tour finishes in the modern era?

Dylan Dethier: Sheesh, that is a lot to unpack. We’ve had epic fist-pumping putts from guys like Jon Rahm (this event last year) and Collin Morikawa (last year’s Memorial), but the way these guys traded blows for hours today made it the best duel in recent memory. The contrast in playing styles, the relentless runs of great shots interrupted only by occasional intriguing chinks in the armor … I’m having a hard time naming a recent showdown that was better. Tiger at the 2019 Tour championship seems like a different category, after all. This was good.

Josh Sens: That was ridiculously fun entertainment, especially with the fire-and-ice contrast and the tensions that were surely there after Bryson barked at Cantlay for walking while he was in pre-shot prep. It wasn’t Reed vs. McIlroy at the Ryder Cup. Not even close. Does any fan really really care who goes to East Lake with more points? But it sure made for great Sunday TV.

Sean Zak: I think it was the best sudden-death playoff the Tour has ever seen. Two players getting in trouble, hitting it tight, dropping putts in on top of each other. The only thing that could have made it better is if they were allowed to play other holes (though the finishing two were at least interesting). The best part was that it really wasn’t sudden death. They had been competing mostly against only each other the entire weekend.

Michael Bamberger: It was outstanding. So was the 1968 playoff between Lee Elder, a 34-year-old Tour rookie in his, and Jack Nicklaus, a rising god in the game. Jack won on the fifth hole. Jack was a child of privilege, and Elder learned the game as a caddie and playing on baked-out courses. But this was good on Sunday at Caves. This was way up there.

No love for Tiger v. Ernie at Kapalua?  Though Josh Sens should be sent into time out for his category error of citing a Ryder Cup match, especially one that peaked on the 8th hole.

As I've mentioned previously, Patrick Cantlay is a player I've always struggled to assess.  The assumption has long been that he's a break-out star, though one for whom we've waited a good bit for said break-out.  But, as this follow-up question notes, it seems he's in a good place with his putter:

2. If there were any lingering questions about Cantlay’s Ryder Cup credentials, he put them to rest at Caves Valley, where he gained a stunning 16.431 strokes on the field in putting for the week, including a torrid stretch late on Sunday (in regulation and the playoff) where he drained five consecutive do-or-dies. What did you observe or learn about Cantlay this week that he hadn’t seen or known before?

Dethier: This week served as a reminder that Cantlay loves being under the gun. He gets plenty of grief for his inscrutable flatline persona in big spots, but it’s clear he loves having that “Patty Ice” identity. In other words: The dude loves the moment.

Sens: Exactly. That putt on 18 to get himself into the playoff conveyed everything you need to know.

Zak: Definitely loves the moment. We will soon forget his three very (or even below) average approach shots — two in regulation and the first in the playoff — that made things appear like he had no chance to win. Great players rebound from bad shots with better shots. It was damn impressive.

Bamberger: I never realized how near-perfect his putting mechanics are. It gives me hope, to think that putting can be improved. I’ve seldom seen anybody make more straight putts. Other great putters — Seve, Jordan Spieth, Crenshaw — look like they’re doing some magical thing. Tiger, the best of them all, looks both like an engineer and an artist. But Cantlay on those soft Caves Valley greens looked like Vladimir Horowitz on a Steinway: every position, technical perfection.

Oddly, that first linked article above includes a different SG number:

Following Cantlay’s birdie putt from 18 feet, DeChambeau missed from nine feet to bring an end to a wild Sunday that barely beat the sunset in Baltimore. DeChambeau repeatedly burned the edges both at the end of regulation and throughout the playoff, with one incredulous reaction after another as he was unable to shake his newly christened Ryder Cup teammate. Cantlay had cause to be incredulous, too, as he gained 14.58 strokes on the greens, the most in the recorded history of that stat for a 72-hole PGA Tour event.

Someone seems to have struggled with the math....  But even at the lower number he picked up 3.6 strokes per day on the greens against the best players in the world.  Not too shabby...

Shall we get to the odder bits from the week?  I expect you'll agree that nothing was odder than this:

"And I took that personally." pic.twitter.com/Y2D6LHHX1Z

— Skratch (@Skratch) August 29, 2021

Here's more on that, including Cantlay's reaction:

The great burden of hitting it 30 and 40 yards past your opponent is that you’re almost always

hitting second while he is trudging up behind you as you get over the ball. In the 14th fairway, this apparently came to a head for DeChambeau, who stepped off his ball and asked his playing partner to stop walking.

“He just wanted me to stop walking,” Cantlay said. “We had just been told by the rules officials to kind of speed up, and I'm not always the fastest walker, so I was trying to get ahead and do my part. No big deal; that stuff kind of happens every once in a while out here.”

It was a polite enough request, but certainly added a tinge of tension to a final pairing. The two did not seem to engage each other at all until it was over and the customary handshake required.

I guess we can add Patrick's name to the list of those with whom Bryson will not be paired.  More on those Ryder Cup implications below.

One last bit I want to cover, as per this ESPN feature from Kevin Van Valkenburg:

Bryson DeChambeau was steaming.

He had just missed a birdie putt that brought an end to one of the most memorable playoffs the PGA Tour has seen in recent years, and understandably, he wanted to get away. From everyone.

The roars for Patrick Cantlay, Sunday's winner of the BMW Championship, were still ringing out as DeChambeau ducked into the tunnel that cuts beneath the 18th hole grandstands. DeChambeau handed his hat to a gleeful adolescent fan standing at the rope line, then began a furious but silent walk up the steep hill that winds its way toward the Caves Valley clubhouse.

Halfway up the hill, something happened that made me feel like we've arrived at a miserable place in the never-ending circus that is DeChambeau. A patron waited until DeChambeau had walked by, but was not out of earshot, then sneered from over the rope line, "Great job, Brooksie!" DeChambeau spun around in a rage and began briefly walking in his direction.

"You know what? Get the f--- out!" DeChambeau yelled. He had rage in his eyes.

OK, that'll perhaps strike you as trivial, but Van Valkenburg doesn't consider it so:

I'm being dead serious when I say it could have gotten ugly really fast. Maybe not "Malice at the Palace" bad, but in that moment, nothing would've surprised me. A rope line is little more than a polite suggestion when it comes to security at a golf tournament. DeChambeau had been hearing, and ignoring, that kind of taunt all week. But everyone has their breaking point.

Thankfully, DeChambeau paused, angrily motioning for a police officer to handle the heckler, then continued his march up the hill. The entire exchange took less than 10 seconds. The PGA Tour declined comment when asked about the incident by ESPN. But we've been building to something like this all summer. And I don't know what the endgame is.

This from Brentley Romine was written before Sunday's round:

A few weeks ago in Memphis, as DeChambeau coughed up a late chance at winning, the hecklers were as emboldened as ever.

“It kind of sucks,” said Harris English, who played alongside DeChambeau that Sunday, “and obviously he hears it, and it affects him a little bit and he doesn’t like it, and I think that causes them to do it more. It just sucks that that’s out here right now, that they’re trying to irk people like that. It’s just unfortunate.”

DeChambeau’s former college teammate at SMU, Harry Higgs, agrees.

While he contends that DeChambeau has brought some of the criticism upon himself, Higgs, a fan favorite who has already achieved cult-hero status in the game, believes things are getting out of hand once DeChambeau steps inside the ropes.

“I think it’s wildly inappropriate what goes on,” Higgs told GolfChannel.com on Saturday. “The he and Brooks thing, I don’t really understand it … and neither one of them has acted as they should at times, but you know, no one’s perfect, either. I watched Memphis and it affected Harris, it affected Bryson, and I don’t understand why someone who buys a ticket to an event thinks that they get to have a hand in how it plays out, and there’s starting to be a few too many people who are doing that, and then a lot of those people are following Bryson.

“It’s not in the spirit of the game, it’s not how any of us grew up, it’s not how any of us were ever told to act while at a golf course or competing.”

Geoff goes on a righteous rant on this subject, though cause and effect are perhaps not so clear cut as he implies:

We knew this day was coming when the PGA Tour went from These Guys Are Good to Live Under Par.

From a golf tour filled with supremely talented and generally good guys to being all about YOU! The fan.

The PGA Tour, ever desperate to lower the average viewer demographic from 65, became a wannabe lifestyle brand where you come, hold up your phones, get drunk and are as much a part of the action as the players.

The slogan has been iced due to the pandemic and hopefully never returns. But the philosophy remains the same: do whatever we have to do to get younger, cooler, and less Villages-y and more TikToky.

Throw in once-secret incentive for players to make money for mentions—PIP!—and we get a little rivalry brewing that gives fans a side to take. Now, of course the ad geniuses and Commissioner Jay Monahan cannot be blamed for failing to anticipate fans returning from the pandemic with pent-up energy. But they still should have considered the ramifications of encouraging general obnoxiousness and making fans think they are as much a part of the product as players.

Let's not fall into the trap of thinking the guy is screaming "Mashed potatoes" because Kubla Jay encouraged it.  But Jay seems disinclined to put an end to it, which is sufficiently damning in my book.  But, combine that with the embrace of legalized sports betting and ability of said punters to actually affect outcomes, and it's quite the mess we've created.  Bryson may well be an unsympathetic victim (I know, that "may" was a stretch), but it won't stop with those "Brooksie" taunts.

A Ryder Cup Update - I'll stick with the Yanks for today, but the top six slots are now set in stone, as Patrick Cantlay's win allowed him to grab that last automatic slot from last week's winner:

Except for those two guys that went 78 holes last weekend, it's hard to see much current form from the other four, no?

More to the point, Geoff also helpfully provides a graphic of the next eight:

Geoff covers this in a Quadrilateral post, with this take on the latest shuffle:

Finau finished T15 and is a lock after his Northern Trust win, as are the next three names.

Yanno, I've reconciled myself to the fact that Harris English will likely be on the team, though  I certainly don't see him as the shoo-in that Geoff does.  Here's what passes for his case:

Harris English (T26) continues to be a deserving 10th pick based on his 2020-21 consistency.

Is consistency what we're going for here?   He reminds me more of guys like Tom Kite and Jay Haas, guys with solid careers but how do we think they held up against Seve and Faldo?

Geoff thinks that Stricker has one difficult decision to make, but here's how he gest there:

• Patrick Reed is out of the hospital from his bout with “bilateral pneumonia” but his status remains uncertain and doubtful. 

• Daniel Berger’s two playoff events have not been inspiring, but his quiet consistency and good-health makes him a strong candidate. 

• Scottie Scheffler (T22 at BMW) remains on the outside looking-in at 14th, but with all the bilateral pneumonia that’s going around, Scheffler could still end up at Whistling Strait

• This reminds me: how have they not announced expanding each team by at least one alternate? Anyway…

I've read it a couple of times though I'm still not sure who Shack thinks is that 11th pick.  I'd like to think that they'd be happy to have an excuse to solve their Patrick Reed problem, though even I have to admit that this is where you'd think they'd be revisiting Harris English.  

Just to be clear, from that list above I'd take Daniel Berger, because at least he can putt.

But that last pick is, per Geoff, down to these two names:

• Webb Simpson finished a solid T12 to finish 13th in points. If Stricker is going the veteran route, that should be enough. Simpson’s mellow presence looks better by the day given team room dynamics that only Nurse Ratched could love. And then there is Webb’s competition…

• Phil Mickelson made it to the BMW weekend! Oh, right. It’s a no-cut event and he finished T66 in a 69-player field. Also, a player with self-described focus issues decided to randomly blast the USGA Friday morning, spent some quality time replying to fans about a possible cap on driver length, and then went out and posted a 77.

Hey, don't be stealing my Nurse Ratched bit....

Not Phil!  Please not Phil!

Eamon Lynch has an interesting take on this conundrum, one perfectly captured in his header:

Lynch: U.S. needs Steve Stricker to use Ryder Cup picks to buck the buddy system that made him captain

 Exactly.  Although I gave Phil credit for taking Stricker off the hook, though Eamon discounts that:

Mickelson has made modest noises about being undeserving of a spot on Stricker’s team. He said similar things in ’18. He didn’t mean it then and he doesn’t mean it now. Furyk picked Mickelson and he lost both sessions he played. There are reasons why Stricker might do as his successor did.

Successor?  I assume he meant predecessor, but whatever...

Mickelson is a binding agent in the team room, a mentor to some of the younger players and a

gleeful tormentor of them in friendly money matches. His experience in the cauldron of the Ryder Cup will aid nervous teammates. But none of those attributes requires his clubs. Mickelson would be an excellent vice-captain and Stricker should name him to that position soon after the automatic qualifiers are finalized, thereby removing him from the pool of potential picks in a respectful manner.

The U.S. captain has been presented with circumstances that he needs to exploit. While Tiger Woods is recuperating, other mainstays of the squad—Zach Johnson, Bubba Watson, Matt Kuchar—are, like Mickelson, struggling for form. Now is the moment for Stricker to make an unapologetic and defensible all-in bet on the next generation of young, hungry guys eager to prove their worth.

If Stricker announces Mickelson’s name for anything other than a backroom position, it’s evidence that the stale task force buddy system endures, and that America’s Ryder Cup team, rather like its two main political parties, just can’t bring itself to pass the baton to a new generation to forge a brighter future.

I'm in complete agreement that Phil needs to be limited to cart-driving duties, though my logic relies more on hjs current form, dreadful record in the event and his unsuitability for alternate shot.  

Eamon presents as if this will be an investment in the next generation of U.S. talent, though that seems like wishful thinking given that the alternative is Webb Simpson.  But those next-gen bits are a red herring, the objective (and Stricker's only job) is to win this here Ryder Cup, and Phil doesn't seem to be the guy that can get you there.  Besides, he's off on his driver shaft-length jihad, so let's not distract him.

Alan, Asked - I'm already on the clock, so I'll use Shipnuck's mailbag for some low-aerobic filler content:

What are Patrick Reed’s Ryder Cup chances after today’s news? @NoahWieder

I’m not a doctor but I play one on the Internet. And this is a tough scene. Reed has been battling an ankle injury, now he’s in the hospital with what he is calling pneumonia. Once a shot in the arm for the U.S. Ryder Cup squad, Reed has become a kind of virus that threatens to infect the entire team room. Given all the drama Reed brings, I’m guessing Capt. Steve Stricker was already looking for a way to quarantine his squad from the negativity. Now Reed’s illness has given the Americans a much needed vaccine against having to pick him. I’m sure all the U.S. Ryder Cuppers are going to test positive for happiness.

Obviously this was posted just as the news of Reed's pneumonia broke.

I hope Alan is correct, though I've seen no evidence that Patrick has worn out his welcome with the Ryder Cup junta.  I'd like to think so, but the illness means we won't know how to interpret his exclusion.

This is an amusing query:

Which major is in 1,957 days? I pick big Tone! @WayneOW66L67

Oh, c’mon, give the guy his due. Finau was rock solid down the stretch! I can’t imagine a more popular win in the locker room, press room and caddie yard. Quite simply, Big Tony is good people. He has been hammered for years about not winning more, and yet along the way he showed nothing but class and grace. You have to figure this second career victory will free him up and more wins will follow. I’d be surprised if he goes 190 days without notching another W.

Oh please, not the "this will free him up" trope again... Tony might be good people, but he's quite the horrible putter, so who knows?

Why is the longest drive circus happening at the same time as the Ryder Cup? Asking for an idiot. @MingMizuno

I think it’s kind of cool that Bryson DeChambeau is going to let it fly at the Long Drive Championship. It will throw into sharp relief the chasm between Bryson and the animals who chase distance for a living, just as it would be instructive for Brooks Koepka to stand next to an NFL linebacker. The problem is that DeChambeau knows he will be the center of attention and thus over the coming weeks is likely to tailor at least some of his training and preparation for the Long Drive thingy. This seems unhelpful in getting him locked in for a Ryder Cup on an exacting, windblown venue.

Like Alan, it does seem that Bryson is setting himself up for criticism here if he drives it poorly at Whistling Straits.  Almost as bad as a guy showing up at a Ryder Cup with new equipment...

I do agree with this questioner that this is passing strange:

Nordqvist playing in the Solheim Cup and Kokrak with an outside shot at a Ryder Cup spot…is it time to create another team event where the U.S. can face off against the

#GolfSaudi national team? People are saying. @luke_peacock

Yeah, it was a buzzkill to see the Golf Saudi logo get so much airtime at the Women’s British Open trophy ceremony. Anna Nordqvist is a helluva player and I’ve always loved typing her name; there is something so satisfying about employing a v where you expect a u. But for any golfer to take the Saudis’ blood money reveals something unflattering about his or her character, and it makes it hard for me to celebrate that success.

It seems strange to me to have Kokrak plugging Golf Saudi at the same time his Tour is refusing to allow its members to play in the event in the Kingdom.  

When will hospitality tents, et al, be declared O.B.? @ACartride

Stroke and distance is a steep penalty for hitting a ball into a spot that is not part of the golf course design. I would be on board with red stakes but only if the man-made structures are far off-line. Often they’re encroaching on the playing corridors, so even a lateral hazard seems like a severe penalty. I do like the R & A’s solution, which is to provide gnarly, unkempt drop areas so there is a price to pay for hitting it sideways, even if it’s not a penalty stroke.

Alan is spot on that the tents are far less of a factor than the grandstands.  I've never understood why we allow such favorable drops for horrible shots, which actually incentivizes players to play for the grandstands.

 Obviously I could have included this one above:

#AskAlan How ’bout Finau, Scheffler, Cantlay, Spieth, Berger & Burns for the six U.S. Ryder Cup picks? @brianros1

I would definitely rock ’n’ roll with this scrappy crew! Lotsa game and swagger. A few caveats: Right now Finau and Xander Schauffele are in basically a dead heat for the sixth and final qualifying spot, with Finau having nosed ahead. But if Xander were to spurt into the sixth position, Big Tony would certainly get picked; he was one of the few Americans to display any heart in Paris. There is also the Harris English factor. He is ninth in the standings with two wins this year, both in ballsy playoff performances, which is the ultimate match-play scenario. (The less said about Memphis the better.) I think Stricker will have a hard time leaving him off the team, but it’s not clear who from your half-dozen get bumped; probably Scottie Scheffler, who has never won on Tour, though he did finish second at the Match Play this spring … to Billy Horschel, who I kind of want on this team, just because he is sure to flummox the Euros with his preening. But Horschel hasn’t had a good finish on Tour since the team event in New Orleans, way back in April. You can go down a rabbit hole of stats and analytics, but the biggest thing this U.S. team needs is scrappy mofos, especially if they can putt. If I’m Stricker I would take Kevin Na, who has been on a heater since the John Deere. But for every potential addition—including the ultimate enigma, Phil Mickelson—the corresponding subtractions is really tough.

Alan seems to consider Harris English a "scrappy mofo", so good luck with that.  Interestingly Horschel's names hasn't come up in a bit, as I was dubious of that boomlet that followed his Match-Play win.

First the Red Sox, then the Cubs, now Finau has broken the Puerto Rico curse. Is the Wednesday par-3 tournament at the Masters next? Who is the odds-on favorite? #AskAlan @kevin_demsky

It has to be Bryson, right? Or Reed. They are the most star-crossed players in golf, so I’d love to see them put the jinx to the test. Things would surely get weird.

Since we don't care about the Puerto Rico event, why would we care about any alleged curse?

Less of a question, more of a statement that I want you to nod and agree with: We need more events at courses in the Northeast #AskAlan @itsnotmybest

Yeah, riiiiiiight, because there is always such a traditional bias against the Northeast. [insert eyeball emoji here]

Which, ironically, come shard on the heels of the PGA Tour abandoning New York and Boston for Memphis.

Can you give some love to the updated Oakland Hills and a future U.S. Open?! Please. #AskAlan @wadster13

I have always been a huge fan of Oakland Hills and am dying to see Gil Hanse’s restoration. I think the Monster would be a fantastic U.S. Open venue, especially as the Midwest doesn’t have any anchor courses. But the USGA appears increasingly interested in staying on the coasts, I guess because the blue coats think it’s easier to monetize these events in bigger markets. But it’s the National Open, and I feel strongly it should visit all parts of the country at least once in a great while. I bet Oakland Hills will get another shot.

I suspect it will, unless the USGA allows the PGA of America to grab this one to complete their collection of abandoned U.S. Open venues...

This last one demands a reader warning.  Anyone on the sensitive side might consider closing the browser tab right at this juncture:

Would Monty look slimmer in Sansabelts? @jbayzzz

There is not a brand of pants extant that could make the noted custard enthusiast look slim. And I wouldn’t recommend pink polos these days either. But you’ve hit on an interesting idea for the Senior Tour, which is perennially fighting for attention: fabulously tacky old-school clothing! They should all dress in full ’70s attire. Think about how popular the nostalgic throwback jerseys are in team sports. If you were to come across Monty rocking green polyester slacks with emerald shoes, a yellow hard-collar polo and a belt buckle that looks like he just won it in a championship boxing match, there is no way you’re changing the channel.

The intersection of Monty and Sansabelt is indeed a funny place, though I had been planning on breakfast after blogging, which now isn't in the cards thanks to those alarming images Shipnuck has planted in my brain.

Have a great week and please do check back in the next few days.

 

In Memoriam

 It's the end of an era:

Chigger Reeves Simpson

June 27, 2004 - August 24, 2021

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~ Theodor Seuss Geisel

Chigger joins his sweet brother Ray, who we lost in April, 2020;  It seems an eternity ago, but these were the boys when we brought them home in 2004:

Which, of course, seems like yesterday.  The photo above is from our last family nap over the weekend.

It's not that I won't take the good Doctor's advice, it's just that there's still some crying to do before we get to those smiles...

I'll likely take a few days.

Weekend Wrap - Monday Finish Edition

 I'll not keep you long, but the man that can't win (well, one of them) did, and a few other loose ends.

Finau In Full - It's for sure hard to win out there, but https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2021/08/23/tony-finau-wins-northern-trust-playoff-cameron-smith/when this guy's putter behaves...

Down to the final three events in the FedEx Cup playoffs, his deadline was looming to win a tournament in the PGA Tour’s 2020-21 “super season” of 50 events and to convince U.S. Ryder Cup

captain Steve Stricker that he was deserving of a spot on the 12-man team.

On a Monday finish thanks to Hurricane Henri, Finau hunted down World No. 1 Jon Rahm by shooting 6-under 65 at Liberty National and defeated Cameron Smith in a sudden-death playoff with a par on the first extra hole to win the Northern Trust for his first victory on the PGA Tour since 2016.

Finau, who trailed Rahm and Smith by two strokes entering the final round, birdied two of the first four holes to grab a share of the lead, but he flubbed a shot from greenside bunker at the par-5 eighth and made bogey to drop two strokes behind Rahm.

 Which is the kind of thing that has followed him around, though at least they have a plan for such events:

On an episode of his podcast, “Let’s Get It,” which he hosts with his swing instructor, Boyd Summerhays, Finau explained how he kept his poise and delivered in the clutch.

“What are three things we never do?” Finau said to Summerhays rhetorically. “We don’t panic, we don’t panic and we don’t panic.”

I did have the golf on, but was distracted and missed this tear:

Finau played a five-hole stretch beginning at No. 12 in 5 under, which included a 3-foot eagle

putt at 13, to catapult past Rahm. That brought to mind another of his favorite sayings, courtesy of World Golf Hall of Famer Billy Casper.

“He said the loudest noise in golf is the swift change of momentum,” Finau said. “When I read that I knew exactly what he was talking about.”

There certainly was no noise to be had out there, with the absence of spectators a throwback to the good old days of 2020....Perhaps the only thing that the man that can't get it done on Sundays needed was, yanno, that Monday finish?

I don't have all that much to add, except to note that this now moves Finau into the sixth and final automatic qualifying slot for the Ryder Cup, guaranteeing his qualification, notwithstanding that there remains one week before it's official.  Even should Xander, Jordan or, God forbid, Harris English win next week and leapfrog him, based upon his strong play in Paris there is a 0% chance of him not being selected by Captain Stricker.

A couple of odd notes is all I have but, like Finau finally getting it done, this was only a matter of time:

🚨BREAKING@McIlroyRory drops out of the top 15 in the world rankings for the first time since November 2009!!!

Take a moment and think about that... #OWGR

— Nosferatu (@VC606) August 23, 2021

OK, completely arbitrary and all, but the guy just hasn't been much of a player in recent times.

Dylan Dethier gets himself way too absorbed by Jordan Spieth's God-awful round, offering a range of prisms through which to interpret said day.  First, the details:

Spieth, Patton Kizzire and Zach Johnson were first off No. 1. Spieth made bogey at No. 1 but got it back with birdie at No. 4. Ho-hum. Entering the week at No. 2 in the FedEx Cup, Spieth’s

ticket was already well-punched to next week’s BMW. Still, he had 14 holes still to play.

Holes 5-8 at Liberty National are two par-4s and two par-5s. If you go through ’em 4-4-4-4, you’ve done well. Spieth went 5-5-5-5. At No. 9, things got worse. He tugged his tee shot into the left water, dropped, then hit his next shot into the water, too. He walked off with triple-bogey 7 to make the turn at five-over 41.

At No. 10, Spieth missed wide right off the tee. He took another drop — his third in two holes — and chopped out to the fairway. Then he found the front bunker from 180 yards, failed to get up-and-down and walked off with another triple-bogey 7. Another bogey at 12 left him nine over par.

Of course, Dylan was affected in a manner similar to your humble blogger, as his Monday Finish feature was rendered moot by an actual Monday Finish.  But this is the prism that I found interesting:

2. “Spieth can’t play final rounds!”

There’s something intriguing about this one, since Spieth’s final rounds have been decidedly mixed this season. Entering the week, he ranked 38th in Round 1 Scoring Average, 44th in Round 2, fourth in Round 3 and yet just 112th in Round 4. He averaged 68.65 strokes on Saturdays and 70.65 on Sundays.

But those substandard rounds mostly came in one stretch earlier this season, when Spieth was in the lead or near it and shot some high-profile 75s. Another statistic tells another story: In Final Round Performance, which measures the percentage of time golfers improve their leaderboard standing in the last round of a tournament, Spieth is 13th on Tour at 76.5%. He’s actually steadier than it seems.

Interesting, because while Jordan has a reputation for his Cup play, there is this one anomaly captured in this 2018 header:

Jordan Spieth drubbed by Thorbjorn Olesen, now 0-6 in team singles matches

In the Ryder Cup, Spieth has lost to Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell, in addition to Thunder Bear.  In the Prez Cup he's lost singles matches to luminaries such as Jhonottan Vegas,  Marc Leishman and Graham DeLaet.

I can be a tad harsh, as you might have noticed, though I see a parallel with D=Sergio Garcia, who has made a Ryder Cup career of exceptional play in the team formats with disappointing Sundays (a gratuitous Anthony Kim reference could be made here).  I have always wondered whether that's a fatigue issue, either physical or mental, as both guys seem to have little left by Sunday.  I'd suggest that Stricker go easy with Jordan, especially since there's really no call to have him out there in foursomes.

One last bit with Ryder Cup implications.  I haven't a clue as to whether this guy has yet worn out his welcome, but Mr. Stricker has been gifted xcan euse to duck this issue:

Patrick Reed has been in a Houston hospital since Friday battling bilateral pneumonia, according to a report from Golf Channel.

Reed, who withdrew from the last two PGA Tour events, released a statement to the Golf

Channel’s Todd Lewis on his condition.

“I just want to update everyone…First and foremost-thank you all for your support,” Reed said in a statement. “The good news is, my ankle is okay. The bad news is I’ve been in the hospital with bilateral pneumonia. I’m on the road to recovery, once I’m cleared from the doctors-I look forward to returning. I wish you all the best and I can’t wait to get back out there! Thank you so much for your support, it means a lot to me. Also a special thank you to the doctors nurses and staff at the Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center."

According to WebMD, bilateral interstitial pneumonia is a serious infection that can inflame and scar the lungs. A virus, bacteria or fungus causes the tiny sacs of the lungs, called alveoli, to become inflamed and fill with fluid or pus, causing a range of symptoms, including breathing difficulties.

Rory might be over the moon, not that he'd ever let us know it.

Judicial Non-Restraint -  I'm not a fan of what Jay Monahan did to Hank Haney over his silly, but true, comments, but I never expected Haney's lawsuit to have much affect.  But the story here is less the decision than an idiot judge trying to be clever:

"As the Court remarked at the outset of this matter, the allegations teed up in this case -- like a well-hit drive on the golf course -- [have] avoided pleading hazards . . . remained in bounds, and left Plaintiffs with an opportunity to take their next shot," U.S. District Court Judge Rodolfo Ruiz wrote in his ruling. "However, Plaintiffs' next shot has not fared as well as their opening drive. In an effort to reach the green and get this matter to trial, Plaintiffs' approach has found the water. And the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure do not provide for mulligans. ... Plaintiffs' round has come to an end."

Nothing speaks to an appropriate judicial temperament quite like going for cheap laughs by mangling golf terminology...

"Rule 9 of the USGA Rules of Golf states a key principle of the game: 'play the ball as it lies,'" Ruiz wrote in the ruling. "In other words, absent a few exceptions, players cannot improve their position by simply moving the golf ball. Here, under Rule 56, the Court must similarly take the evidence as it lies in the record. And that evidence makes clear that Plaintiffs are unable to establish the necessary elements of their claims."

Though I think Shack misses the delicious irony here, in that the defendant, for whom the judge is ruling, has shown more than a casual indifference to the concept of playing the ball as it lies in recent months.  

Alan, Asked - A perfect time for some low aerobic blogging via a Shipnuck mailbag:

Is there any chance the big boys will play to different fairways at the next U.S. Open at Oakmont? I’m pretty sure there will be no new trees, and with a packed house and grandstands it would be difficult. @ricmerc21

The ongoing debate about all the cross-country golf we saw during the U.S. Amateur has been fascinating. Some folks are saluting the players’ creativity while others are appalled, as if these guys were looting the Sistine Chapel. I fall somewhere in the middle. If the goal is to shoot the lowest score and/or win holes in match play, why not take advantage of better angles and render obsolete many hazards? These kids don’t care how Johnny Miller shot 63; they just want to make birdies any which way. But it did feel kind of wrong for such a proud course to be bastardized. Unless Oakmont suddenly grows a bunch of white stakes for internal out-of-bounds, which seems unlikely, I’m sure we’ll see some intrepid pros similarly finagling their way around the course at the ’25 Open. That raises many questions about player safety and pace of play, but, again, the pros just want to shoot a score and they don’t tend to get bogged down by such details.

I've been surprised by the relative lack of reaction to this, which I thought might serve as a wake-up call.  Not the first time I've been wrong or early on such a call...

Like everyone else, I think Adam Scott is a great dude, but how many hands would it require to count the number of Tour guys you’d trust less than him to bury one with it all on the line? #AskAlan @hailflutie

Remember when Greg Norman nearly cut off his hand with a chainsaw? Yeah, that’d about do it.

No one is quicker to the Shark attack than your humble blogger, but I still find that a strange answer from Alan...

Should some PGA Tour events have multi-hole aggregate playoffs like the majors? Or an extra playoff hole a la the tiny one that Tiger and Phil played in The Match? #AskAlan @martincbrennan

Sudden death is fun but kind of unsatisfying: A player can summon heroic golf for 72 holes, and then one bad bounce or mediocre swing at the wrong time torpedoes the whole thing. No doubt a three-hole playoff is the most equitable way to determine a champ, but it lacks the urgency of sudden death and is an inferior TV product. So I don’t see it happening at a run-of-the-mill Tour event.

Maybe Alan is distracted, but he seems to be fanning on a few today.  His answer about Tour events is perfect, it just leaves that 400 lb. elephant there in the corner, and by elephant I mean the Masters.  Of course, probably the ultimate the scenario would be to have a sudden death playoff at the Tour Championship whereby a  player prevails by virue of that staggered start.  Good times.

If someone in the top 125 can’t play in the first Fed Ex event, does the PGA bring in 126 and so on? @ReggieFrederick

Nope, those spots go unfilled. In fact, No. 8 Louis Oosthuizen won’t be teeing it up at Liberty National. I’ve clearly been spending too much time with Monday Q Info, but I do think the Tour should have some kind of play-in event. Imagine a Monday qualifier at the Northern Trust for that last spot. You could take all the guys who finished 126 to 200 and give them one final chance at salvation in a 75-for-1 18-hole shootout. That would be great fun and instantly mint the one player we would actually be invested in during the otherwise grim slog of the so-called playoffs.

 Yeah, and it can also leave us with a 29-player Tour Championship field.

If there was (impossibly) no stigma or shame in skipping the Ryder Cup, which Americans would choose to do so?@KennyDaGambler

Dustin for sure. He’d rather be boating. Probably Bryson; he’s a flag-waver but not exactly a guy built for team settings or partner play. I think Brooks (above) has inculcated the feelings Tiger had about the Ryder Cup during his heyday, which is to say, if you get too buddy-buddy with guys you’re trying to beat every other week between Cups, it diminishes your aura. Of course, Tiger’s brooding intensity was the real deal while for Koepka it’s mostly cosplay. But I think Brooksy would be happy to take a pass and not have to spend all that time getting touchy-feely with hard-core golf goobers. All the other Americans appear to be game, but, alas, the above players are 2-3-4 in the point standings, which doesn’t exactly bode well for a U.S. team that is already facing serious chemistry challenges.

No real argument with his answer, but from 1997-2018 the answer would have been Tiger, no?

These two logically go together:

Is Oakmont the best championship course in the USA? #AskAlan @pintosjavi

It has to be. It’s brawnier than Pebble Beach, more interesting than Winged Foot, asks better and more varied questions than Pinehurst, has far more frightening greens than Shinnecock Hills. I wouldn’t want to play Oakmont every day, but it’s one helluva test.

Do you agree with the general consensus that Johnny Miller’s 63 at Oakmont for the final round of the 1973 U.S. Open is the greatest round of golf ever played? @HofSpillane

As an exhibition of flawless golf, I think David Duval’s 59 to win the 1999 Bob Hope reigns supreme. But when you factor in the weight of history, the quality of the venue and the fact that one round crystalized an entire Hall of Fame career, you gotta give the edge to Miller.

Plus one other factor, that it hadn't been done before.... That it came at Oakmont made it all the more shocking.

We'll exit on this one"

Discuss Rory Sabbatini. The guy is 45, wins silver in the Olympics (playing for Slovakia), finished T10 at Wyndham yet nobody talks about him. Is he still not well-liked? @JStew68129215

It was Rorypalooza coming out of Tokyo, but I agree the goodwill was short-lived. Sabbatini reminds me of Vijay Singh: a very particular character who rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but the few folks he is close to are fiercely protective of him. Ages ago I spent the better part of a day with Sabbatini at the Oven, Nike’s club-fitting factory in Fort Worth, Texas, and I thought he was hilarious, but definitely blunt and politically incorrect. The guy has been through some stuff and become guarded with the press and standoffish with his peers. I hope the silver medal gets him to loosen up. He is one of the few players on Tour who inspires emotion in the fans—it would be fun to see him be himself a bit more.

I'm completely open to the concept that Sabbatini isn't quite the complete jerk he's reputed to be, and the Vijay comparison is a good one.  I'd also allow for the possibility that he's mellowed with age and a happy home life (though that home life is not in Slovakia). 

My issue is less with him than with Olympic golf, because the simple fact is that his inclusion in the field makes a mockery of the entire undertaking.  You're not supposed to be able to sleep your way onto an Olympic team, which is precisely how he got there.

Not sure of the schedule going forward, so bear with me.

Weekend Wrap - Hurricane Henri Edition

So, Dear Reader, I trust that you had an enjoyable hurricane.  This is far from the first time we've sat to wrap a weekend still in progress, though this one could extend into the middle of the week, at least judging by the rain still pounding our roof.

Dateline: Angus, Scotland - Both our major and links seasons came to a conclusion yesterday, with this unexpected survivor of a highly compacted leaderboard:

There was nothing minor about this major, the AIG Women’s Open, that had it all on Sunday, including a worthy champion on a historic links and 72nd-hole drama that delivered agony and

ecstasy and a euphoric native Swede who had become a hometown favorite on the eastern shore of Scotland.

Anna Nordqvist, 34, a Scottish caddie at her side and a Scottish husband and crowd in her corner, ended a four-year victory drought by winning the third major championship of a career defined by majors.

“I think this is the most special one,” Nordqvist said, “just because it's taken me a couple years and I've fought so hard and questioned whether I was doing the right things. Also, my caddie [Paul Cormack], he's been working so hard and I really wanted to do it for him, too. My husband [Kevin McAlpine] has been supporting me so much, too, and all friends and family, and having spectators back and feeling that adrenaline kicking again, I think this is definitely my most special win.”

The husband is a Scot, so a quasi-home game for the Swede.

That excerpt above is from the Golf Digest game story, which is a conventional take on the genre.  Mike Bamberger gets the nod at Golf.com and goes all virtue-signaling on us, so you've been forewarned.  The part of interest is his take on the conditions:

For a while, during Sunday’s final round, Carnoustie was bathed in sunshine. You don’t associate

Carnoustie with sunshine. Carnoustie brings to mind Hogan in black-and-white, winning there in ’53, in his only Open appearance. Jean van de Velde, climbing into the burn on 18, pants hiked to mid-calf, golf’s oldest trophy slipping away from him. Affable Francesco Molinari, winning the Open there in 2018 but looking more like a mortician all the while.

The fairways, this year, were so green the Scottish linksland looked like Ireland in spring. For many of us, watching the TV broadcast was the next best thing to being there. This summer of ’21, like the summer of ’20 before it, never fired on all cylinders. Do you know anybody, this year or last, who has made the mecca journey, packing spikes and waterproofs, from the United States to the motherland? I don’t. Things are still broadly off. But this Women’s Open was as on as on could be.

Mike is one of your humble bloggers old trusties, but this effort seems a misfire.  The sun might have been unexpected, but the dominant feature of the week was the absence of any wind which, as you might have heard, is expected in this jurisdiction.  Yanno, nae wind and all...

 I neglected to blog this story from last week:

AIG Women's British Open sets new benchmark for women's golf with $5.8M purse and more to come

That's roughly a 25% increase, nothing to sneeze at in the summer of our discontent.  But Mikey would rather tilt at windmills:

For many of us, Maui in January is an escapist fantasy. The fellas, all those winners, are out in Hawaii, playing golf in warm trade winds while we’re wondering where we last saw the ice scraper. Well, this was that and more: In the dog days of August, with Henri and Delta and Kabul in the air, the greatest women players in the world were playing one of golf’s greatest courses — Carnoustie! — in one of the game’s greatest championships:

The Open.

More formally, the AIG Women’s Open.

AIG, an insurance company, is the event’s longtime sponsor. Golf needs sponsors, especially right now, when gate traffic is meager. Last year’s Open winner, Sophia Popov at Royal Troon, won $675,000. This year, the first-place haul was upped to $870,000. The increase is a nod to the renaissance women’s golf is and to the broad desire for equity.

Yes, the gap is still a chasm: Collin Morikawa earned $2 million for his British Open win at Royal St. George’s last month. But the dream will never die.

First, does anyone get the Maui bit?  In a story about the Women's Open in Scotland?  Then there's the bit about AIG being the longtime sponsor.... Err, does Mike not have a Google subscription?  It was the Ricoh through 2018, so it all depends on your definition of "longtime"...  But apparently your humble blogger is more of a glass-half-full guy than Mikey Bams, as I would have celebrated the increased commitment from AIG, as opposed to whining about it being less than the men get.

There's a few other bits worth mulling over, covered in this free Quadrilateral post from Geoff, starting with some harsh words for NBC:

At two key times they inexplicably cut to ads via the “Playing Through” feature: Sagstrom’s par putt on 18 and amateur Duncan’s walk up the last hole to an adoring home crowd.

Twitter went bonkers. One stretch of my timeline:

Besides the poorly timed breaks—but you knew those were coming based on NBC’s spotty performance at other USGA and R&A majors—the listless telecast never conveyed any sense of drama. Some of that could be on Carnoustie’s lush turf and no wind squashing the edginess we saw in 2018. But even without Mother Nature’s help, the broadcast featured plenty of talking and little scene-setting.

This was NBC’s third women’s major of 2021 and lead analyst Judy Rankin was missed on all of them. While Rankin’s not known for a high-energy style, her assessments would have been especially useful given a long history of covering Open Championship’s at Carnoustie.

Lead announcer Grant Boone moved things along and knew all of the pertinent facts, but too many on the team veer toward a strange blend of advocacy and sycophancy, unable to bring themselves to assess a poor shot without making an excuse, often stopping just short of mentioning what humanitarian work the player dabbles in when not making a ton of birdies.

Maybe Bamberger could take time out from his whining about the purse to notice that the ladies got Grant Boone and Karen Stupples (and don't get me started on them calling her a major champion) in lieu of Dan Hicks and Paul Azinger.

Shack's rant goes on from there if you're so inclined, adding fuel to his call for Comcast to spin off Golf Channel from last week.

But the most jarring moment of the entire week was this one:

Nanna Koerstz Madsen was tied for the lead and chasing the biggest victory of her young career. But she also faced a tricky bunker shot on a golf hole that’s long been the site of memorable misfortune. Jean van de Velde, most notably, famously lost a three-shot lead on the 72nd hole at Carnoustie and ultimately lost the 1999 Open Championship.

On Sunday, on the same par-4 18th, Koerstz Madsen found herself in trouble. Playing in the final pairing, she was tied with Anna Nordqvist for the AIG Women’s Open lead. But right after Nordqvist found the fairway and then hit the green in regulation, Koerstz Madsen, from the intermediate cut of rough, flared her approach out to the right and into a bunker. She now faced a difficult up-and-down for par, which would have likely been enough to force a playoff with Nordqvist, who had about 20 feet for birdie.

But what seemed destined for a drama-filled finish on the green had little, as Koerstz Madsen shanked her bunker shot right and well over the green.

This hit way too close to home for your humble blogger.  Oddly, my own ball-striking has been better recently (though still wildly inconsistent), though it has featured the occasional shank.  On one particularly odd day recently, I shot 80 with three hosel-rockets.  When Madsen fanned that iron into the bunker, I was on the phone with a ski buddy from Utah who had called to check on us in the hurricane.  With the volume off, I saw her shank and my body reacted much as it does to my own incidents, and I wonder if that reaction was apparent at the other end of the phone line.  I didn't hear the commentary, though, as apparently they were in denial in the 18th hole tower:

And the stunned post-shank discussion where Karen Stupples could not use the “s” word made it seem like the announcers were more upset by the moment than willing to characterize what we were seeing: another painful last hole unraveling at Carnoustie.

When the ball goes at a right angle, it's hard to avoid the s-word.

Before we leave the ladies, the Tour Confidential panel led with this odd question about the week at Carnoustie, after their one odd Q&A last week to preview the event:

1. The AIG Women’s Open concluded Sunday at Carnoustie with Anna Nordqvist shooting 12 under for the week to beat a trio of players, including American Lizette Salas, by one. Nordqvist represents the 13th different major winner in the last 13 women’s majors,

including 11 first-time winners. Is this balance of power a good thing, or would one or two dominant players be more compelling?

Josh Sens: Parity is great in elementary school kickball. But professional golf is better off with a small handful of dominant players. Bad blood not required, but a hint of tension is a healthy element as well. At least to the point where no one wants to go on spring break as a group.

Dylan Dethier: Josh is right. Fans admire great golf but they tune in to watch characters that they know. The LPGA, like the PGA Tour, is at its best when the best and most compelling golfers are contending at the best events. But that hardly discredits Nordqvist’s win — she’s a fantastic player and deserves all the credit we can give for navigating Carnoustie so nimbly.

Michael Bamberger: I like it. It’s fun. It’s why golf is golf, and tennis is tennis. It’s also not sustainable.

Alan Bastable: It’s true that no player has dominated the major rota in recent years but there’s also no question that 2021 has been the year of Nelly Korda. Three wins, a major, a gold medal, a firm grasp on the top spot in the world ranking, and you get the feeling she’s just getting started. It would be no surprise if this time next year, we’re praising Nelly’s dominance in the 2022 majors.

Last week's query was Nelly vs. the field, which is always a stupid question even if it's about Tiger in 2000.  This one is almost as bad, because what they call parity the rest of us call golf.  And it's hardly as if Anna Nordqvist was an unknown, as this is her third major.  

They did follow up about the shank heard round the world:

2. Nordqvist came to the 72nd hole tied with her playing partner, Nanna Koerstz Madsen. But when Koerstz Madsen played her third shot on 18 — from a greenside bunker — the unthinkable happened: she hit a shank that darted hard right and into the rough behind the green. “I was nervous all day,” Koerstz Madsen said later with commendable honesty. “On 18, I tried to not make a mistake and that was the only thing I shouldn’t do.” Where does that shot rank on the all-time major shock-o-meter?

Sens: Amazing what pressure can do. For me, the biggest shocker probably remains the series of shots Greg Norman hit during his back-nine meltdown at Augusta in ‘96. The water balls on 12 and 16 stand out especially. To see a player of that stature and experience come so fully unraveled is not an easy memory to shake.

Dethier: On the contrary, I’m surprised every time this doesn’t happen. That pressure, that situation, that shot? I get it. But when it comes to major shock, it’s tough to match Spieth on 12 at Augusta in 2015. The guy had one arm in the green jacket until he suddenly didn’t.

Bamberger: Not shocking at all. Finishing is the most difficult thing in golf. Now make it at an Open. At Carnoustie. Playing with a major winner. Trying to win your first. Not shocking at all.

Bastable: Not shocking at all, Michael?! Make no mistake, it was a tough, tough shot for Koerstz Madsen — a dreaded mid-range bunker blast, with the weight of a potential career-altering major title upon her. A nervy chunk that came up 40 feet short wouldn’t have surprised, nor would an all-ball flier that airmailed the green. But a dead cold shank in that moment, from a player who had deftly navigated 71 holes of Carnoustie in 12 under par? I, for one, was taken aback!

Shanks always come as quite the shock to the system, as both the sound and the ball flight aren't what we expect.  I would have asked for a listing of great shanks in golf history, because the only one I can remember at a critical juncture is this one:

1972 – Shanks for the Memory

Leading Nicklaus by one in final round, Johnny Miller hits a classic shank on his second shot on 16, forcing a playoff. Nicklaus wins on the first extra hole. Miller will go on to find his own magic at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, becoming the only golfer ever to win the event in three different decades.

Though in my memory it happened on the 18th hole, which provides a valuable lesson in trusting our powers of recall. 

Dateline: Hudson County, NJ - It seems the Tour made a good call with the early rescheduling of the final round of the Northern Trust, at least sparing folks a nasty trip to Jersey City.  But the rain continues to pound down, and the latest from the Tour is this:

I'm not liking their chances, but at least tomorrow is supposed to be dry.  I have no clue what the Liberty National substrate might be, though I'm hoping it's sand-based.  here's an update from the Tour's website:

John Mutch, the PGA TOUR rules official overseeing the event, said the course was “really good for 6 1/2 inches of rain." After visiting the course Sunday to see the impact of the storm, Mutch said, “They were working on the bunkers. There's not a whole lot of standing water. I was pleased. I've seen a lot worse.”

Sounds promising.... this is no surprise as well:

Update (Monday, 7 a.m. ET): Tee times have been pushed back three hours with the first tee time scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET.

Though if you thought your Monday would involve Golf Channel, this might come as a surprise:

NOTE: ALL TIMES SUBJECT TO CHANGE

Broadcast: TBD.

PGA TOUR LIVE: Monday 10:30 a.m. ET

Radio: 1 p.m.-6 p.m. ET or the conclusion of play. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com/liveaudio).

TOURCast: Get shot-by-shot info in real time with shot tracks and video with TOURCast.

TOUR Pulse: Get the PGA TOUR app to utilize TOUR Pulse, which provides users the ability to experience a mix of content, such as video highlights, written hole summaries and stat graphics on every player after every hole they complete.

The Golf Channel program guide for today shows the Northern Trust for two hours at 10:00 a.m., though that might be the original schedule's re-airing of the final round.  I assume that Golf Channel will have it, though it seems strange that they don't seem to know their own plans.

I haven't watched a minute of it, but Eamon Lynch has, and it's pretty clear he won't be receiving a Christmas card from a certain pouty Tour player:

For those keeping count—admittedly a task less onerous than charting his 44 strokes on the final

nine holes at the U.S. Open—Friday marked the sixth consecutive round after which Bryson DeChambeau has declined to speak with waiting media. His silent snit dates to the WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational two weeks ago, when DeChambeau breezily told reporters that he didn’t need the COVID-19 vaccine because he’s healthy and wouldn’t take a shot from someone more needy, ignorance that suggested he reads the news with considerably less intensity than he does his yardage book.

Faced with backlash to his vaccine comments, the world No. 6 has opted for silence, unwilling even to enumerate his Friday 65 at the Northern Trust at Liberty National. That’s his prerogative, of course. There’s enough going on in the world that only the most attentive sports fan will miss the regular fix of pseudo-scientific bunkum.

A reasonable man might wonder how this could be possible, and what the Tour will see fit to do about it.... Serious question: Isn't talking to the press a requirement of Tour membership?

Eamon has an amusing recitation of the summer of Bryson's discontent, of which I'll excerpt just this small bit:

DeChambeau’s wariness of the press—and this being golf media, it’s not exactly Woodward and Bernstein he’s dodging—implies one of two things. Either he believes the media treats him unfairly or he doesn’t trust himself to navigate a simple interview session without stepping on another landmine. Whichever it is, stiff-arming reporters has been the only consistent feature of his tumultuous summer.

DeChambeau had fans ejected from the Memorial Tournament for the apparently grievous offense of calling him “Brooksie,” which served only to inspire copycat hecklers who trail him still. That back-nine implosion at the U.S. Open sent him from the lead to a T-26 finish, yet he tersely insisted it was due to nothing more than “bad luck.” At the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, his caddie quit just before the opening round, causing DeChambeau to refuse media requests for the rest of the week, despite being both the defending champion and sponsored by Rocket Mortgage.

That was just his June.

Click through for his July and August, though my concern points towards his September, and that awkward team room..... There should obviously be a price to be paid for this obstinacy, but this is where the Tour's refusal to disclose such disciplinary actions is so maddening.  

Got time for some udder stuff?

Dateline: Lucas County, OH - Did you know that it's a Solheim Cup year?  Yeah, it'll get lost in the shuffle with the Ryder Cup deferred into 2021 as well, but I'm all about the silver linings.  To wit, there's joy for Mike Bamberger, because the participants in the Solheim Cup have achieved purse parity with the Ryder Cup.

The European team's automatic qualifiers were set as of yesterday's conclusion, with a certain Swedish player securing one of those slots with her win:

AIG Women’s British Open winner Anna Nordqvist, Germany’s Sophia Popov, England’s Charley Hull and Spain’s Carlota Ciganda made Matthew’s team off the Rolex Rankings, while Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen and England’s Georgia Hall, qualified on Solheim Cup points.

Not exactly a juggernaut.  Captain Catriona Matthew rounder out the roster with her captain's picks:

This time Matthew picked three rookies in Ireland’s Leona Maguire, Finland’s Matilda Castren and Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen. The Dane, of course, was tied for the lead going into the

72nd hole with Anna Nordqvist before suffering a double-bogey shocker. A pick to compete at the Inverness Club Sept 4-6 surely helped put some salve on the wound.

Maguire becomes the first Irish player to make the Solheim Cup team while Castren is the first from Finland.

Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom, who competed for Europe in 2017, returns to the roster after finishing in a share of second with former British Open winner Georgia Hall at Carnoustie.

France’s Celine Boutier went 4-0 as a fantastic rookie pick for Matthew in 2019 and is back for more. Mel Reid, who missed out on a pick two years ago, returns to the lineup after serving as a vice captain in 2019. She broke through with her first LPGA title last fall at the ShopRite LPGA Classic.

The U.S. team is set as far as automatic qualifiers are concerned:

Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang, Ally Ewing, Austin Ernst, Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda and Megan Khang all made the team via the points standings, and Lizette Salas and Jennifer Kupcho were also named to the team as the two highest-ranking Americans in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings not among the seven qualifiers.

Kupcho, the winner of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019, is the only Solheim Cup rookie among the group.

Captain Pat Hurst will make her picks later this morning.  

The 2021 Solheim Cup is Sept. 4-6 at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Europe won the previous meeting 14.5-13.5 at Gleneagles in Scotland in 2019. The U.S. leads the all-time series 10-6.

Smart to schedule it on Labor Day weekend, which the big tour has left open.  Unless, yanno, they're still trying to complete the Northern Trust.

It's a fun event that's well worth watching just for the team match-play format and the trace elements of bad blood between the squads.  Though it's hard to ignore the fact that the U.S. vs. Europe nature leaves out the biggest concentration of golf talent on the planet, rendering it the equivalent of a consolation game.

Dateline: Everywhere - A Year in review question from the Tour Confidential panel:

3. The Women’s Open was the final major — across both the men’s and women’s game — of 2021. When you look back on those nine events (11 if you include the Olympics), which single moment most endures?

Sens: I keep going back to Hideki Matsuyama’s caddie, Shota Hayafuji, bowing to the course as he put the flagstick back in on the 18th hole on Sunday. A small moment that put sports in proper perspective.

Bamberger: Sensan, that is outstanding. Can’t be topped. So pure. Of the game and beyond the game. Thanks for the memory.

Dethier: Nelly Korda getting her major and then her gold medal, too. She has arrived.

Bastable: Ooh, so many moments from which to choose, and, yes, Korda’s ascent is high on the list. How about the mob of fans enveloping Phil at Kiawah, or Rahm coolly holing those snaking putts in the decisive moments at Torrey? But I’ll always remember a moment that happened off the course: Morikawa’s gracious victory speech on the 18th green at Royal St. George’s. His composure in that moment was striking, as if he’d been a hundred times before. Physically, mentally and emotionally, I’m not sure there’s a more complete player in the game.

My immediate reaction is to note that it was quite the downer year of majors.  Hideki  was historic, but at the time I called it The. Worst. Masters. Ever.  Phil as well, though I might never lose the image of Brooks caving on the second hole after Phil handed him the opening on the first.  In any event, I think they'll all look better in hindsight whereby the bold-faced names will endure but that actual golf will recede from our collective memories.

Just a few more bits from the TC panel, and then I'll bid you adieu:

5. Jon Rahm last week questioned the FedEx Cup Playoffs format, which gives the FedEx points leader a two-shot advantage at the beginning of the final playoff event, the Tour Championship. Rahm said the system is “unfair” because it fails to give enough credit to the player who had the best overall season. “At the end of the day you could win 15 events, including both Playoffs events, and you have a two-shot lead,” Rahm said. “I understand it’s for TV purposes and excitement and just making it more of a winner-take-all, and they give you a two-shot advantage, but over four days that can be gone in two holes, right?” Critiquing the playoffs format isn’t a new topic, but with the World No. 1 poking holes in the system, the subject is worth revisiting. Is Rahm right?

Sens: I can’t say I have any brilliant solution to a question that has been beaten to death by people much smarter than I am. But kicking off any tournament with a player already holding a two-shot advantage has never sat well with me. Any changes I made to the format would start with getting rid of that.

Dethier: Sure, he’s right that the system isn’t perfect. But I’d love him to sketch out a more fair system.

Bamberger: Very, very simple solution: The playoff is a 216-hole event. That is, 12 rounds. Add ‘em up. Cut players after every round. Ramp up the pressure.

Bastable: Love Michael’s idea. I’ll say this about Rahm: I was surprised to see him come out firing so aggressively. Clearly it’s been something that’s been nagging at him, and I applaud his candor. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him channel that fire and run away with the thing.

As you well know, the hot mess of the FedEx Cup is a result of the Tour trying to make the event both a season-long race, yet not have the outcome decided before Sunday at East Lake.  What I think is of interest here is that the Spaniard is advocating for the season-long model, whereas the writers instincts take them towards the high-stakes shootout model.   

As you know, I favor the latter, though it would be perfectly appropriate to add an award for the season, along the lines of the discontinued Wyndham Rewards.  But if we stop pretending that the Playoffs actually mean anything, we could have some actual drama out there, an idea so crazy it might just work.

One last silly bit:

6. Steve Stricker has been learning more about his prospective Ryder Cup team via a questionnaire that he dispatched to players. “It’s funny, we filled out some stuff kind of like that: ‘What are you good at, what are you bad at.’ I think so he can get a feel for all the guys,” Scottie Scheffler said at The Northern Trust. If you were in Stricker’s shoes and could ask players one question to better understand them, what’s your query?

Sens: “Brooks and Bryson, I’ll be pairing you in the four-ball matches. Got any problem with that?” I’m serious, by the way. That would be a good move for many reasons.

Dethier: Pretty simple: “How much do you actually want to win the Ryder Cup?”

Bamberger: Or, to borrow Dylan’s theme: Here’s the first sentence of your obit: He won a U.S. Open. Or: He played on one Ryder Cup team, and he got the winning point. Which do you choose?

Bastable: Boxers or briefs?

How ya gonna feel, Mr. Bastable, when PReed responds that he goes Commando?

Seriously, if you wanted to make yourselves look like complete eejits, what would you do differently?

I'll depart on that note and hope everyone has survived Henri.  I suppose if my pageviews are down today, I can console myself with the thought that many of my readers have lost power.  Hey, we all need our delusions.