Monday, August 30, 2021

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:

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. 
  • 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.

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