Weekend Wrap

I'll need to warn you of scheduling issues for the next week or so, though first I suppose I should explain the recent past.  Not only did our basement flood due to IDA, but we lost Internet (and TV) for three days in the aftermath.  Hence, the radio silence at Unplayable Lies....Good thing nothing much was happening in the golf world.

Looking forward, Employee No. 2 and I are off on a shortish jaunt to visit her family in The People's Republic of Portland.  It's not quite Kabul, for sure, but it is quite high on that list of last places you'd ever expect your humble blogger to visit, yanno, ever.  But family is family, and in this case includes the two cutest young girls you'll ever see, which we figure is the cure for this annus horribilis.  Combined with a couple of commitments upon our return, you'll likely next see me late next week, either the 16th or 17th.

There won't be much golf of significance in that stretch, though there will be some Ryder Cup picks that we'll have to circle back on upon my return.

So, shall we have at it?  Even today must be somewhat abbreviated, but we'll crank it out for as long as time permits.

An interesting weekend of golf to recap, though your humble blogger saw not a minute of action from East Lake.  Rather than do the typical sequential thing, Mike Bamberger compares and contrasts for us:

For golf fans, Tour Championship and Solheim Cup offer wildly different vibes

Do tell, Mike.

On Golf Channel, there were 24 female pros — 12 Americans, 12 Europeans — playing (or cheerleading) on a classic Donald Ross course, Inverness, in golf’s most primitive form, match play, for nothing more valuable than the right to hoist a crystal cup.

And the other?

On NBC, there were two male pros — one American, one European — in Atlanta, on a classic Donald Ross course, East Lake, playing a convoluted stroke-play system with so many millions at stake the money seemed practically meaningless by suppertime.

Yes, you went back and forth. Of course you did. But where did you log more time? Which event meant more to you?

But wait, I had been informed that there wouldn't be any math:

Jon Rahm, the bull-like Spaniard, played four days at East Lake in 266 shots. Nobody played better. Patrick Cantlay, a low-key Californian, traversed those same 72 holes in 269 shots. But he started on Thursday, per contest rules, with a two-shot lead on his nearest chaser (and a four-shot lead on Rahm). So he’s your FedEx Cup champion. Which means he’s now $15 million richer. Rahm, as runner-up, earned $5 million.

Whatever.

Can you say "Soulless money grab?"  I thought you could...

But here's the part they should be memorizing in Ponte Vedra Beach:

You can’t have professional golf without prize money. Golf without prize money is amateur golf. But the neatest moments in golf are when you’re not thinking about money at all, and for both fan and player the world becomes ball, hole, club in hand.

That’s why, in no particular order, the four men’s Grand Slam events are so enduring, as are the four women’s majors (sorry, Evian), the three senior majors for men, plus the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup and (some years more than others) the Presidents Cup. In Toledo on Sunday, the earth was shaking when Jennifer Kupcho do her thing and then Mel Reid did hers. As pure sport-as-theater, it was hard — you could say impossible — not to be more drawn to that.

Shockingly, I have precious little to say about the Tour Championship/FedEx Cup, so let's grab the Tour Confidential Panel's observations and hope some kind of spark is ignited, though I'm not optimistic:

3. Patrick Cantlay continued his hot play and won the Tour Championship — and $15 million bonus — on Sunday at East Lake. His FedEx Cup finale capped a three-week stretch that also featured a T11 and win at the BMW Championship. Few golfers have

surged over the last month like Cantlay. If you are drafting players for next season, where are you picking Cantlay?

Sens: In my top five with Rahm, Morikawa, Spieth and Thomas,

Melton: He’s definitely in the top five. His consistency is incredible.

Dethier: All the unbeatable golfers are looking beatable, so at risk of being prisoner of the moment I’d take Cantlay just behind Rahm and Xander Schauffele as the Tour stalwarts of the 2022 season. But ask me again in two months and I’m sure I’ll have a different answer.

Bamberger: Very, very, very hard to repeat. Very hard to keep a thing going. Not in my top five. But Jordan Spieth is.

Spieth over Cantlay, Mike?  I might need a slice of that action... But at least Dylan Dethier acknowledges the recency bias.  While I'm not going to dwell here, this from Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish is worth a long excerpt:

Now that Patrick Cantlay owns a couple shiny new trophies and roughly one zillion dollars it’s easy for him to laugh about hurdles that, at the time, must have seemed insurmountable.

So after hoisting the trophy on Sunday night, Cantlay spoke to the assembled media and opened up about the back injury that sidelined the beginning of his professional career. He told the story with a smile. After all, his golf story now officially has a happy ending.

Cantlay was asked if there had ever been a moment when he’d doubted his golf future. And while he said he’s never questioned his golf ability (“Not really,” he said first) he thought back to the period of his career where he’d been sidelined with back pain.

“I had gone to a spine doctor,” Cantlay recalled. “And the spine doctor said, ‘What hurts your back?’

“And I said — it’s the 15th time I’ve seen him — I said, ‘You know, Doc, golf hurts my back.’

“And he goes, ‘What makes it feel better?’

“I’m like, ‘If I don’t play golf, I’m pretty okay. I could do a desk job.’

“And the doc says, ‘I don’t think you should play any golf for a while.”

“I had already been out 18 months or two years, and I said, ‘How long?’ He said, ‘Maybe a year.’ And he was dead serious.

He put his concerns about proprioception aside and took the year off, inconceivable for a world-class athlete, and has now recovered to the point where he's delivering on his potential.  Cantlay doesn't exude personality, though his comments last week on Bryson and the like revealed a thoughtful man, but that some testament to his determination and patience.  Easy to root for him just because of the level of pain he's endured.

Which inevitably leads us to Steve Stricker's big day tomorrow.  This from that TC panel:

4. The six automatic qualifiers for the U.S. Ryder Cup team are now set with Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Cantlay. Assuming players 7-9 in the standings make the team — Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele and Jordan Spieth — that leaves three more options for captain Steve Stricker to pick on Wednesday. Who would you select? [Editor’s note: Koepka WD’d from the Tour Championship with a wrist injury, and for this exercise we will assume he is healthy enough to play at Whistling Straits.]

Sens: Kevin Na, Sam Burns and Daniel Berger. Different styles, but all share that bulldog trait that makes me think they’d be great teammates and thrive in the atmosphere.

It seems possible to me that Josh goes 0 for 3.... 

Melton: Harris English, Will Zalatoris, Scottie Scheffler. English is a fringe top-10 player in the world at the moment (11th) and for the other two, I’d like to see some new blood in the mix. Plus I’m a sucker for my fellow Texans.

The fact that they're Texans does seem the strongest argument for their inclusion.... I get the Zalatoris boomlet back when he was posting high finishes in majors, but at the present moment aren't we more likely to see him on a milk carton?

Dethier: Harris English, Daniel Berger and Kevin Na. English for the steady ball-striking. Berger because he’s a gamer. Na because he seems like a pain in the ass to play against, regardless of golf course or setting.

Bamberger: Na, English, Scheffler. And in that order. Not that order matters.

I must say, the Scheffler thing puzzles me.  The only real argument I see for him, given his unreliable putter, would be if Stricker felt he needed another ball-striking machine for foursomes.  Otherwise, he leaves me cold.

Nick Piastowski makes the case for this good 'ole boy, strikingly similar to the case I made in 2018.  Actually, he allows the gent to make his own case:

So while we’ll eventually argue that Kisner is a match play monster, that he could be the

clubhouse guy for a team in need of one, that he has every chance to be the Americans’ Ian Poulter, we need to settle this distance debate. And we know a guy who can make the case.

What say you, Kis?

“I know it’s long,” Kisner said a few weeks ago after his victory in a six-man playoff at the Wyndham Championship. “In match play, it’s a total different animal than stroke play, so I’m not having to beat 155 other guys on the golf course. I just have to beat one or two depending on the format. So I can bring value to the team in the ways I can get the ball in the hole.”

“So,” a reporter followed up with, “you feel like the style of match play almost eliminates the concerns of, yeah, like length or whatever? It becomes a whole different game that you’re good at?”

“What if I’m playing with D.J. and I’m hitting all his approach shots?” Kisner said. “The game’s pretty equal from there out.

Whoa, Nellie (no, not that Nellie, we'll get to her in a minute), I thought they tested for wacky tobaccy on Tour?  We might be considering you as a pick, but that's a long way from playing you in foursomes...  The old saw is that in foursomes you need ball-strikers but in fourballs you need putters, and the Kiz falls into that latter category.

I personally like the Kiz-Berger-Na model for the last spot or two, as opposed to the Scheffler-Zalatoris profile.  But, to be fair, I was using that logic to argue against Tony Finau in 2018, and he was one of the few Americans to actually show up.

The further wild card is Koepka's withdrawal from the Tour Championship after hitting a root and reinjuring his wrist.  Don't know what it means nor the timing thereof, but I'm also surprised that we haven't heard talk of a thirteenth team member for Covid and injury protection.  Seems a no-brainer, eh?

I was asked by our head professional over the weekend about picks, and answered in the negative.  To wit, I'm OK with whoever Strick picks, as long as their first names don't start with a "P".

Solheim Scenes - Does team match play rock, or what?  With the exclusion of the Asian players, I've long joked that the Solheim Cup has the athletics integrity of a consolation match.  But that snark only highlights the value of the format and, when mixed with a frisson of hard feelings between the teams, makes for an engaging and dramatic week.

It's actually quite notable how many controversies have erupted in this wee exhibition match over the years, which Beth Ann Nichols helpfully compiles for our reading enjoyment.  I'll assume you remember Gimmegate, featuring Suzann Pettersen, but anyone remember this one?

2000: Annika Sorenstam forced to replay a chip

Perhaps the most well-known controversy in Solheim Cup history occurred in 2000, when Team USA forced Annika Sorenstam to replay a chip shot after she’d holed it, saying that she’d played

out of turn.

Sorenstam, who was partnered with Janice Moodie in the four-ball match at Loch Lomond, was squaring off against Pat Hurst and Kelly Robbins. It was captain Pat Bradley who ultimately made the call to have Sorenstam replay the shot. The steely Swede didn’t convert the second time, and Europe ultimately lost the match. Sorenstam was reduced to tears after the round.

Years later, Bradley told Golfweek that she wouldn’t change a thing.

“I elected to honor the rules of the game,” Bradley said. “That’s all I can say about it. That’s what I fall back on.”

It's a fun stroll down memory lane, with Annika seemingly involved at every turn.  But this was just the latest, from Saturday's action:

2021: Sagstrom picks up overhanging ball in controversial concession

Seconds after world No. 1 Nelly Korda dropped to her knees in disbelief after her lengthy eagle

putt failed to drop on the par-5 13th, Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom picked up Korda’s ball and tossed it back to her in the afternoon four-ball session at the Inverness Club.

Missy Jones, the LPGA rules official on the scene, quickly informed players that Sagstrom had picked up the ball too early, and that because it was overhanging the edge, she was in violation of Rule 13.3b. According to a statement issued by the LPGA, “the chief referee, match referee, observer and TV observer all deemed that Korda’s third shot on No. 13 was overhanging the hole and was picked up by her opponent before the waiting time had ended. Therefore, her third stroke was treated as holed.”

Korda was entitled to wait 10 seconds after reaching the hole.

Her birdie on the 13th was immediately changed to an eagle, giving Korda and partner Ally Ewing a 1-up lead they never relinquished. The ruling changed the momentum of the afternoon, which had been tipped in Europe’s favor since their morning foursomes thrashing.

An emotional Korda called it “the worst way to win a hole.”

Seems to me that the team that benefits from the controversy, whether or not they caused it, ends up losing in the aftermath, though I've not subjected that impression to scientific testing.  Some theories are too good to fact check.

It was an unusual year for a Cup, in that no one made the trip from Europe:

Not even the gusto of tens of thousands clad in red, white and blue could will Team USA back from the brink. Instead, it was the cheers of just 40 people — outfitted in European blue and yellow — that echoed through Inverness Club Monday evening as Team Europe claimed a 15-13 victory in the Solheim Cup.

The win marks the second in a row for the Europeans and the fourth out of the last six Solheim Cups. In an event once dominated by the Americans, Team Europe has placed a stranglehold on the event over the last decade.

“It’s not really sunk in yet,” European captain Catriona Matthew said. “Closing out on 18 was just dream-come-true stuff.”

What to make of the Euros and their milking of underdog status?  Back to the TC gang:

1. The 17th Solheim Cup finished on Monday at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, with Europe beating the U.S. 15-13 to win its second straight meeting and fourth in the last six. The Americans were stronger on paper — several Europeans even said so — yet scored just half a point in the event’s opening session and could never claw back. What went wrong for the U.S.? Or, what went right for Europe? And who was the MVP?

Josh Sens: The European players themselves said that the absence of their own fans created an even greater sense of solidarity for their team. That’s probably true. But it was also about players

peaking at the right time and being unleashed appropriately. Witness Leona Maguire, the MVP, set loose in all five matches. She was ferocious. On a side note: is there a more worrisome sign for a team than being considered stronger on paper? It would not be surprising to see a repeat of this result at Whistling Straits later this month.

Zephyr Melton: While the players deserve their due, Catriona Matthew out-captained Pat Hurst. Matthew rode the hot hand, leaning on Solheim Cup rookie Leona Maguire, and it paid off with 4.5 points. Hurst on the other hand had some head-scratchers, including her decision to play world No. 1 Nelly Korda in two foursomes matches, effectively limiting the number of shots her best player could hit, while sitting her in the all-important Sunday four-ball. This Cup was won on the headsets.

Michael Bamberger: Incisive analysis, Zephyr Melton! This is much less insightful, but Inverness, surprisingly, played firm, some of the bounces were quirky, and it really required shot-making. I saw far more European shot-making than American shot-making. That is, shaping shots, punching shots, using different clubs from around the greens. But there was outstanding play on both sides. The Americans got outplayed. It also sounds like they they got out-lineuped, per Zephyr.

Dylan Dethier: Sixteen of 28 matches came down to the 18th hole, and Team USA simply didn’t win enough of those. Team match play comes down to making the little putts at big times and Europe thrived in that department. As for MVP? Leona Maguire, easily. She punctuated an undefeated week with a 5-and-4 drubbing of would-be rookie rival Jennifer Kupcho.

The Euros dominated that 18th hole in what seemed a flashback to The Belfry and they made far more putts?  Remind anyone of that other cup?

Dylan Dethier seems to have spent long hours at the keyboard, helpfully ranking each of the 24 ladies' performance this weekend.  here's a few that jumped out at me, starting with the American's biggest disappointment:

12. Danielle Kang (1-3-0)

Credit to Kang for wanting the rock — she was first off in the first foursomes match of the week and last off in the final singles match. But this wasn’t her week, and even after Team Europe had retained the Cup she was left as the final match on the course, where she lost a rollercoaster session 1 down despite a bomb birdie putt at No. 18.

Kang is one of the women I used to like to watch the most, but something seems seriously off since that event where she got paired with the Sisters Korda in the final round.  Just hasn't done much since then... 

Speaking of which:

11. Jessica Korda (1-2-0)

It was heartening to see Korda rally back for a victory in Monday singles, but a little disappointing to see one of Team USA’s best players only twice in the team portion. Splitting up Team Korda after just one match felt like a letdown.

We can argue in perpetuity over the relative merits of playing your horses in all five sessions vs. having them rested for singles.  Hurst quite clearly opted for the latter strategy, quite defensible when you have the deeper roster, but Jess just didn't play well at all, even in her winning singles match.

And my fave:

7. Lexi Thompson (1-2-1)

Thompson played a spirited final match against Anna Nordqvist and poured in a number of clutch putts, earning a satisfying tie to finish off an uneven week.

Even when putting well, she didn't exactly deliver the goods.  Nordqvist was obviously a worthy opponent, but on what planet is a tie satisfying when you're behind?

 Here's the best of the bunch:

4. Nelly Korda (2-2-0)

The world No. 1 looked at different points to be energized, deflated, locked in, burdened and the absolute best player on property. That tallied up, fittingly, to a .500 record and a middling week with decidedly bright spots.

3. Yealimi Noh (2-1-0)

One bright spot was more of the world being introduced to Yealimi Noh, a Solheim Cup rookie who made the most of her three matches — even if Mel Reid did bail her out with a three-putt at No. 18 on Monday.

2. Lizette Salas (2-1-1)

Salas seems to absolutely thrive in the spotlight and there’s an alternate reality where she carried Team USA to a miracle victory with a late charge Monday. Instead her final two putts went begging and she ended up on the wrong side of a 1-down defeat to Matilda Castren.

1. Jennifer Kupcho (2-1-1)

Kupcho is a Solheim Cup rookie but was Team USA’s star of the week — and she and Salas played the match of the week against Mel Reid and Leona Maguire on Sunday. But things took a turn when she ran into buzzsaw Maguire on Monday and lost 5 and 4.

Wow, are we grading on a curve, or what? 

The best player in the world goes 2-2?  That's not helping the cause...

But your two best players of the week actually lose their singles matches?  Given that that's Job #1, perhaps they weren't actually your best players?  Especially that one in the top slot who got crushed 5&4....  Just sayin'.

Yealimi Noh was, as Beth Ann notes, about the only bright spot out there.

Compare and contrast with the Euro top dogs:

4. Anna Nordqvist (2-1-1)

Nordqvist and partner Matilda Castren set the tone by earning two victories on Saturday to help Europe jump out to a lead. Then she gritted out a hard-fought tie against Lexi Thompson in singles.

3. Emily Kristine Pedersen (3-1-0)

Pedersen finished off the entire Cup with a birdie and a putter drop to beat Danielle Kang, sending Team Europe officially into celebratory mode.

2. Matilda Castren (3-1-0)

In addition to teaming up with Nordqvist, Castren leapt into Solheim Cup lore with an up-and-down from a fried egg lie on 18 to earn the clinching point for Team Europe.

1. Leona Maguire (4-0-1)

The clear MVP of the Solheim Cup played every session and went undefeated, earning immediate star status. Maguire entered as the first Irishwoman to ever play in the competition. She finished the week with a 5-and-4 trouncing of Jennifer Kupcho to put the finishing touches on a dominant week.

There were some votes last week for Leona Maguire to be the breakout star of the week, so props to those commentators ( I'm far to lazy and harried to go find those names), but Castren is the other big surprise.

But how bizarre was that final match featuring Emily Pedersen and Danielle Kang?  Kang's caddie is Olly Brett, who just happens to be Emily Pedersen's boyfriend.  Just weird...

But if we're ranking things, I think we should include the team uniforms.  Specifically, those mustard yellow togs the Euros sported on Sunday were about the ugliest thing I've seen since Ben Crenshaw puts his squad in shirts featuring old photos for singles in 1999.  Just on the off chance that you might have repressed that memory:

Then again, who knows what Strick has in mind for Whistling Straits?

I'm unfortunately eyeing the exit, leaving an Ask Alan column on the cutting room floor.  Though this bit, while out of order, parallels the thoughts of Mike Bamberger:

How much attention is the Solheim Cup going to get going up against the Tour Championship? @T2Va

Hmmm, let’s see, you have a group of likable young women playing their hearts out for each other and their flag(s) at a spectacular venue versus a soulless corporate cash-grab headlined by a bunch of petty, bitchy, entitled stars on one of golf’s most boring championship courses. Seems like an easy decision for this viewer! Thank goodness the Solheim Cup ends on Labor Day so the women will have the stage to themselves, as it should be.

Your humble blogger's decision was easy, though Cablevision made a hash of it all week, including the fact that my "tape" of the final day was compromised (and this one was not me error).

OK, one more that should have been included while were dismissing the playoffs:

What, if anything, would you change about these “playoffs”? @Alverdonk

Since abolishing them is not listed as an option, I would make them far more Darwinian: three tournaments, starting with 120 players … and after every round, 10 of them are eliminated. The most interesting part of the playoffs are the guys at the bottom of the points list trying to survive and advance, so let’s bake that into every day, which would offer a juicy subplot running parallel to the drama atop the leaderboard. (There would be a playoff just about every day for the last spots.) By the time you get to the final round of the Tour Championship, only 10 players would be left. All scores get erased and they then play in a 10-some in an 18-hole shootout, with the winner taking home $20 million. (Let’s give the other $15 million to Youth On Course.) Second place gets a set of steak knives.

Take your $50 million PIP program and award that cash for season-long performance.  Then turn the playoffs into a high stakes shootout, and we can have ourselves some fun.  Contra the point above, it's OK to play for money, it's just the pretense that it mean something that diminishes the experience.  Not to mention the long year of FedEx Cup standings and promos that sap our will to live.

OK, you caught me, I lied again... How can I ignore this one, with the picks on the horizon?

Does Stricker have to pick Phil so he has someone to pair with Bryson? @wannabgolfer22, @pkeen52, @forearmshivers

It’s starting to look that way! (Shout-out to three readers who all asked very similar questions.) I

was warming to the idea of an anti-hero pairing of DeChambeau and Patrick Reed, which could have produced some crazy alchemy. If you take the former’s long game and the latter’s short game, it’s quite a formidable combination. But I think Reed is out of the mix, given his injury and health woes. For the last decade-plus the U.S. team’s designated babysitters were Matt Kuchar and Webb Simpson. Webb is definitely still in the conversation for a captain’s pick: Going back to the Open Championship, 11 of his last 20 rounds are 67 or better. But he and Phil could wind up as vice captains, clearing the way for the next generation of talent. Maybe Tony Finau gets the call? He’s the most agreeable guy in the world and plays a power game similar to Bryson’s. There aren’t many other candidates. Part of me would love to see a Brooks-Bryson pairing in fourballs. They would both play their hearts out trying to one-up the other guy. It’s not your traditional team spirit, but it could produce some epic golf. It would certainly be the golf spectacle of the year.

Thank God we agreed on the exclusion of given names beginning with "P".  

Kids, I gotta run.  I'll miss you, but we will flood the zone in the countdown to the Ryder Cup, so I will see you all then.