A few bits to gnaw on, then we can all focus on our weekend.
Dateline: Tokyo - You know those "storm clouds on the horizon" metaphors that we usually avoid?
The good news? They've been giving out umbrellas to players and caddies on the first tee, so those could prove to be even more useful than intended...As the sun beat down late on a steamy Friday afternoon at Kasumigaseki Country Club, American Nelly Korda holding a three-shot lead through three rounds of the women’s Olympiccompetition, the same question lingered on everyone’s minds:Will there be a fourth round come Saturday?
Tropical storm Mirinae was moving steadily towards the eastern coast of Japan on Friday, carrying rain, lightning and gusty winds that could potentially keep the 60-player field from completing the remaining 18 holes of the scheduled 72-hole competition.
“Luckily overnight the tropical storm we’ve been tracking has shifted 25 miles to the east, so a little bit further away from us,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, an LPGA executive and technical delegate with the IGF. “So the forecast looks a little bit better for tomorrow morning. We’re going to have potential windows where we can play.”
That said, Daly-Donofrio acknowledged there is a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms come late Saturday morning, the number increasing throughout the afternoon. And the chance of rain lingers at 50 percent.
They're doing what seems to be the right things:
Officials with the International Golf Federation, adamant about giving players every opportunity to complete the entire competition, have devised a schedule that attempts to sneak in the last round on Saturday. They’ve moved up tee times an hour early so play begins at 6:30 a.m. local time, and will send players off the first and 10th tees in a mad dash to get everything in before the wet weather arrives.
But are they the right steps? Normally, the commitment to getting 72 holes in is an indication that the competition is treated seriously, but this is the bizarro world of the Olympics.
Cutting the competition to 54 holes is troubling, but to this observer there's bad and worse ways to get the that lamentable result. Bad would be to have informed the players before they teed off that it is now a 54-hole event, so go for the gold.
What's worse, I hear you ask... That would be trying to get that fourth round in, perhaps even getting some players on the course, only to have to cancel and declare the event over after 54 holes retroactively, without the players knowing that they were playing their final round. That'll be a good look, should it come to it...
Should the weather prevent them from finishing play on Saturday, the golfers could return to the course on Sunday to try to wrap things up. However, the chance for rain increases to 80 percent with one to two inches expected to fall.If they are unable to finish 72 by Sunday—Olympic rules prohibit any competitions from running past the Closing Ceremony, which begin at 8 p.m. on Sunday—officials have said that the competition will revert back to where things stood after 54 holes.
Golf in the Olympics has been deemed necessary for the game's survival, though it seems to your humble blogger that our challenge is more for the game to survive the clown show run by the IOC.
The previously unknown to me Kent Paisley declared victory before the girls even teed off:
Golf in the Olympics has already been a win for women's golf, LPGA
There's lots of happy talk about the positive effects, though color me skeptical:
India’s Aditi Ashok almost single-handedly inspired her country into action during the 2016 Olympics. After shooting back-to-back 68s to sit four off the lead, the then 18-year-old shared her aspirations for the game in her homeland. “Golf becoming an Olympic sport is definitely going to help,” Ashok said. “We are hopefully going to have more golf courses and kids taking up the sport.”
That hope paid off nearly immediately, as more than 20 million people from India searched for
golf clubs on Google that evening. Ashok returns to Tokyo with another chance to inspire after almost becoming the first Indian to win on the LPGA at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational in July, finishing T-3 alongside Thailand's Pajaree Anannarukarn.Anannarukarn broke through for her first career victory at last week’s ISPS Handa World Invitational, becoming the fifth player from Thailand to win in LPGA history. The LPGA started playing the Honda LPGA Thailand in 2006. Whan views the road Thailand took to growing the game as a notable example of the success golf has witnessed since becoming a “podium” sport.“[The LPGA] went from playing in Thailand and generally never seeing women play in Thailand,” Whan explained, “to being televised in Thailand, to having women on the tour from Thailand, to Ariya Jutanguarn [and Patty Tavatanakit] win majors and be top players in the world from Thailand.” Thailand's growth is showing brightest in 2021 as the country with the second-most wins of any nation on the LPGA this year (four), trailing only the United States (six).
I probably should have broken this into two excerpts, though I'll require a forensic audit before I believe that 20 million number.
But did you catch the sleight of hand in the Thailand bit? The LPGA has been playing in Thailand since 2006, but somehow the more recent growth is related to the Olympics? I'm gonna go way out on a limb and speculate that Mr. Paisley never participated in his school's debate club.
This execrpt is more of the same kind of pablum, there's just an individual word that has me wondering?
Lydia Ko’s silver medal contributed to her receiving the New Zealand Order of Merit at the end of 2018, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors. Along with her scholarship, Ko focuses on growing the game in her home country. “If I can inspire one more juniors to take up the game and want to become the next LPGA player or PGA player, I think that's a job well done on my part,” Ko said.
Scholarship? Obviously there are no editors at Golf Digest, but does anyone know what the "F" he's talking about?
With all the happy talk, pieces like this are notoriously light on data. Mostly they do what we saw with the Thailand example above, citing growth that cannot in any way be attributed to golf's participation in the Olympics. And, while they universally posit that governments will increase their funding of golf development programs, five years after Rio they remain unable to cite one actual case.
Dateline: Rye, NY - The bride and I have been there twice this week, and have greatly enjoyed watching the young ladies, specifically this match
NCAA champion Rachel Heck of Stanford rallied to beat Arkansas' Brooke Matthews in 19 holes Thursday to advance to the U.S. Women's Amateur quarterfinals.
Heck, from Memphis, Tennessee, overcame a two-hole deficit with two to play at Westchester Country Club. She won the par-4 17th with a par, pulled even with a 15-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th and won with a two-putt par on the par-3 19th.
"I think that's what this tournament is all about," Heck said. "You expect to have these kinds of matches. Really high pressure. My hands are shaking, my heart is beating so fast, but that's what's fun about it."
In May, Heck capped her freshman year at Stanford with the NCAA individual title -- her sixth victory of the season. No. 2 in the women's world amateur ranking, she trying to join former Georgia star Vicki Goetze (1992) as the only players to win NCAA Division I individual and U.S. Women's Amateur titles in the same year.
Unfortunately, it's the source of some annoyance, because we had to leave early in the match because I was committed to playing Thursday Night League at Fairview, only to arrive and discover that our opponents didn't show.
One interesting aspect of the event is that, as many of you know, they reverse the nines at Westchester Country Club's West Course for tournament play, although I had thought that was because the member's final green has no room for grandstands. As a result, the first hole is a Par-3, but the more interesting aspect of that is that the 19th hole is the same Par-3. That's where on Tuesday they settled the 12-for-2 playoff for the last slots in the match-play bracket, and for the Heck-Matthews match as well. We saw Heck butcher the hole, putting her tee ball in the front right bunker (not a great play with a back pin), then blasting her second over the green and making an ugly five.
To Heck's credit, she showed no emotional reaction at all to those bad shots, and birdied the second and third holes to turn it around rather quickly. As you we=ll know, I'm not one to keep my opinions to myself, but I speculated with these girls on the third hole that the winner of this match might go all the way, so stay tuned.
Our Tuesday visit provided a reminder that my namesake had one of his moments at this very venue:
And here I am stalking Rachel Heck in the second fairway:
It's been good fun watching the young ladies compete, though unfortunately today's afternoon coverage is limited to Peacock, NBC's streaming service.
Call And Response - We have a new installment of Alan Shipnuck's mailbag feature, so forgive me for using it for an exit strategy:
What do you think of the suggestion from a number of prominent golfers that caddies should be awarded medals at the Olympics? @pkeen52
I understand the sentiment but strongly disagree. Coaches in basketball and water polo don’t get gold medals when their team wins it all, and they have much more direct say in their success by choosing the squads, implementing schemes and managing substitutions and strategy during games. This year’s podium helps settle the question, as the silver and bronze medalists didn’t have grizzled veterans on their bags but rather spouses who were giddy just to be there. There is also the potential awkwardness of player and caddie being from different countries—if they earn gold, which anthem do you play? And how weird would it be if some tiny country turned out the winning caddie and he or she became the first person from that nation to win a gold medal. Are we really going to celebrate that achievement when the caddie hasn’t hit a single shot?
I'm sorry, exactly who are these "prominent golfers", because that's some Olympic-level stupidity on display. Of course it's the irony, stupid, because the IOC wanted initially for the guys and gals to play without caddies, just to save on the accommodations needed.
How do you think this finish translates to Xander’s next year of majors? @stanfordpegolf
It’s a huge boost. The guy is so talented and consistent. That Xander Schauffele hasn’t won more to this point in his career is proof of how metaphysical success is at golf’s highest level. Now that he has kicked down the door on such a grand stage, I expect him to just keep going.
Grand, is it? Seems to me he nosed out the worlds greatest living Slovakian golfer, so there will be no holding him back now... And there's historical precedent, because who doesn't remember the tear Justin Rose went on after his gold medal.... Or not.
This particular form of recency bias is all too prevalent, but Alan really should know better given the weakness of the field. Obviously Xander is a talented guy who should have won more frequently, but that next major is eight months down the road, and it's a bit rich to think that what happened last week will matter much then.
Now, did someone mention the world's greatest living Slovakian golfer?
Do you think Rory Sabbatini knows all the words to the Slovakian national anthem? @shaunrsa5
I’m sure he can hum parts of it!
Do our sport's leaders no understand that this clown show isn't helpful?
Do you think there should be a team competition in Olympic golf? @pfritzburgh
It’s a nice thought but problematic in practice. Hideki Matsuyama’s medal chances go way down if he has to take on a relatively weak countryman. Same for, uh, Sabbatini and plenty of others who are by far the best player from their country. A mixed-team event has its own issues. Take South Africa. It pumps out tons of good male players, but for whatever reason, doesn’t have a woman in the top 75 of the world rankings. There is so much squawking about the Olympic format, including calls for match play, but the PGA Tour’s annual match play event is often a turkey. The gold standard for the game has always been 72 holes of stroke play, and there is no reason to deviate from that with medals on the line. The one change I would like to see is having the field expanded to 100 or 120 players, so it’s deeper and richer in storylines.
How a man can be so right and so misguided simultaneously remains a mystery.
The last half is spot on, to wit, that there should be an individual stroke play competition and that the field is embarrassingly weak, so much so that the competition can't be taken seriously. That said, we can't have a team match-play competition because the South African women aren't very good? Boo-friggin'-hoo! And that Alan can't bother to understand the difference between individual and team match play? Should disqualify him from his current position, no? God forbid we allow any fun to be had.... after all, why start now?
For anyone that doesn't understand the discussion, the model is not the Dell Match Play, it's the NCAA's, though I'd hate to rule out going the collegians one better and making it a mixed team competition.
I know the Olympic athletes are playing for love of country, honor, blah, blah, blah … can we assume their club sponsorships come with some sort of cash bonus for Olympic performance? @paulkoehorst
Oh, for sure. And there’s nothing wrong with that. For the equipment industry to grow, it needs to reach new customers in China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Germany and other far-flung places. How many folks there know what the PGA Championship is? It ain’t many, but everyone everywhere understands the power of the gold medal.
Especially when we expect these guys to play in more than one team event per year, because I hear talk of another team event in September. At least that one isn't located on the far side of the globe...
Now we get to the Sophie's Choice question:
#askalan The obvious: Would the athletes rather win a gold medal or the FedEx Cup? What’s you take on the relative value between the two? @DStan58
Ask Justin Rose. He talks often about the thrill of taking gold, but I’ve never heard him wax about the FedEx Cup. Xander is as chill as they come, but he was clearly moved by the significance of winning for his country. Granted, $15 million all at once certainly doesn’t suck, but the gold medal is it own windfall: Rose parlayed his glittering performance in Rio into much higher-profile arrangements with blue-chip companies such as MasterCard and Morgan Stanley and Zurich and new mega-deals with Homna and Bonobos, among others. Guarantee all of that was worth a lot more than $15 million. Every year there is a new FedEx Cup winner, joining legends of the game like Bill Haas and Brandt Snedeker and Billy Horschel. It’s all about money, so fans have no reason to care. Winning a gold medal for your country is a rare and precious opportunity, and I think any sane golfer would choose that over the filthy lucre of the FedEx Cup.
Homna? I think their lawyers will be reaching out to Alan, but funny he should mention that deal...My answer is none of the above, because I'd rather win the Barbasol, which has a better field than both (here I'm referring to the 30-player Tour Championship field).
Excitement level from 1-10 on seeing how Riv plays in August? @KYECHSPORTS
A solid 11. Even in February, when the greens can be soft and the turf lush, Riviera is a fascinating test. It’s gonna be a racetrack when L.A. hosts the Summer Games in 2028. Bring it on.
That's an interesting question, although there are precedents, as two PGAs have been held at Riviera in August, but that latter version (won by Steve Elkington) was quite the agronomic disaster (my recollection is that the greens were pretty bad). No reason to think that would recur, but it's a little difficult to get excited about an event in 2028.
Should the Olympics be amateurs only? @thezipr23
Gawd, no. Can you name 10 amateur golfers? One? There’s no juice there. Even with a handful of big-name pros myopically opting out, we’ve still had two intensely exciting Olympic Games, because the chase for medals featured well-known players in whom we were already invested. Anonymous amateurs would badly dilute the product.
I think Alan is correct here, though we'll have to agree that our respective definitions of "intensely exciting" differ markedly.
Which course would you rather play: Rio or Tokyo? Also, don’t you think TW would kill for that medal, thus bifurcating his career compared to Jack’s? @RealTurtleBR
Bifurcating? Can we get this man a dictionary...
I thought Kasumigaseki Country Club was fantastic—it reminded me of Augusta National in some spots. But I have a soft spot in my heart for the Olympic Course in Rio. I loved the scrubby, sandy look, and Gil Hanse baked so much strategy and risk-reward into the holes. It’d be my choice by a whisker.
It’s true that both Tiger and Phil were openly lusting after a spot in the Olympics. They realized what a cool experience it would have been. I think more than anything they wanted to share it with their kids. But you’re right, a medal for either would have added to the discussion of their respective places in history.
Maxing out the silly credit card, I see. Do we tactually think Tiger would have gone to Rio if he had qualified? C'mon, this is man that at his peak couldn't muster any enthusiasm for the Ryder Cup...
Alan finishes with a funny bit, though it's a little Inside Baseball:
Is being nicknamed “Shipwreck” by @useGolfFACTS one of the top 10 achievements of your career? @MidwesternGator
I gotta say, Justine outdid herself with that one. Folks have been calling me that since recess at University Park Elementary School, but for Mrs. Reed (lurking, below) to go there was an unexpected delight. Not sure it makes the top 10, but it’s definitely the 11th most prestigious honor of my life.
Here's the tweet in question:
We've covered this ground previously, but you're forgiven if you don't recall. This is the anonymous Twitter account that aggressively defends the interest of PReed, and his presumed to be written by Justine Reed. It might be worth a follow come late September....
I shall leave you here and wish you a good weekend.
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