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.