Weekend Wrap

I'm not suggesting that I watched any of that which I'm about to analyze...  I did break down and watch a baseball game yesterday, though that's not something I'll need to do too much more of in the near future.

The Sanderson Farms - You win your second (presumably of many) PGA Tour events and this is the header:

The mustache is gone but Sam Burns remains an outlaw, taking the Sanderson Farms title

It was, admittedly, quite the dreadful mustache:

That sound you hear is your humble blogger's sigh of relief that I can once again embed pictures in my blog posts.  It's not much to ask from a blogging template, but it was more than Blogger could handle last Friday.  But enough about me...

The Yosemite Sam mustache is no more, the whiskers falling like leaves at the turn of the calendar. The outlaw disposition? Very, very much alive. While all eyes were elsewhere on

welcoming the latest young gun to the sport, Sam Burns quietly and confidently captured the Sanderson Farms Championship.

So it may seem odd to claim Burns, 25 and the highest-ranked player in the Sanderson field at 25th, rolled into Sunday under the radar. He was in the penultimate group, one back of the 54-hole lead. But this round, this tournament was supposed to belong to someone else.

Of course, that header may pale in comparison to the fact that, after winning a PGA Tour event, they make you take a photo holding a chicken... But tell me more about this "outlaw" thing:

Like most outlaws, Burns is not one that emotes or wants for attention, instead relying on the steady undercurrent of conviction to get him to where he wants to go. It is also far from blind faith: Burns is coming off a breakthrough 2020-21 season where he grabbed his first career PGA Tour victory along with eight top-10s. Though his game is complete (14th in strokes gained), the aforementioned stoicism belies a game that is among the more exciting follows on tour (fifth in birdie average, ninth in SG/putting). When Burns gets hot—which has been often as of late—it is a reminder that those inside the ropes can make this beautifully difficult sport look ridiculously easy.

By Joel Beall's logic, Billy the Kidd must have rocked the Strokes Gained: Stagecoach Robberies statistic.... Let me just drop this amusing bit in as well:

Of course, outlaws—as Burns’ performance stated emphatically on Sunday—are cold-blooded, and Burns wasn’t exactly thrilled at being left off the Ryder Cup team. “Hearing the news that I didn't make the team was definitely very motivating and definitely kind of gut wrenching,” Burns said. “And, so, yeah, I think it's definitely motivated me to try to be on the next team and continue to try to improve and hopefully be on it the next go.”

This is textbook stuff, an athlete using (creating?) a slight for motivation.  If you haven't seen it already, I can't recommend The Last Dance , in which Michael's Jordan inventing a grievance is the recurring leitmotif of each and every victory.

But Sam Burns burning to play in an international team competition has a precedent from 2017:

After winning the Jack Nicklaus Award as the Division I college player of the year in June, Sam Burns did what a lot of talented collegiate golfers do: He announced he would not be returning to school for his junior year at LSU this fall, but instead would turn pro. However, the 21-year-old from Shreveport, La., has one more accomplishment he wanted to achieve before making the formal jump: play for the U.S. team in the Walker Cup. So he announced he wouldn't be turning pro until the end of the summer, hoping that his impressive college resume would be enough for him to make squad.

Turns out the wait was for naught as Burns’ name was not among the 10 listed Sunday night when the USGA unveiled the 2017 U.S. team at the conclusion of the U.S. Amateur Championship.

And it's not like I was the only one questioning the omission:

— Jason Sobel (@JasonSobelTAN) August 21, 2017

I think he's got a ton of game and is very much a candidate to make the team in 2023 and beyond.  But he seems to elicit strong reactions in folks, which remains unexplained at this time.  Is it perhaps the redneck thing, or is there more going on?  But in a world happy to embrace Patrick reed, one can only wonder what it takes to alienate that crowd...

The Dunhill Links - I did watch some of the Thursday-Friday coverage from Scotland.  While it was far too green for this purists taste, Friday was fun because the wind picked up.  It so happens that the guys that made to long trip from the American heartland played better than we might have expected, though it does seem a classic buried lede:

Back across the pond, Team Europe dominated at the Dunhill Links

Errr, a point of order.  Can you dominate without, yanno, winning?

As Team Europe conducted their final press conference at the Ryder Cup a week ago, most of

them were thinking about the longterm future, but a few of them must have been thinking about the short term,. It was already Monday in Scotland.

Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton all competed at the Ryder Cup in Wisconsin, but were also all in the field at the Dunhill Links Championship, which is played annually on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns. So, too, were assistant captains Luke Donald and Martin Kaymer, as well as captain Padraig Harrington. And while their Ryder Cup desires didn’t pan out at Whistling Straits, the majority of those who made the trip found plenty of success back across the pond.

Hatton was the high man on the leaderboard, finishing second, just two shots behind a resurgent Danny Willett. “Obviously I was quite tired after the Ryder Cup. So if you told me at the start of the week I’d end up finishing tied second, obviously I’d been quite happy with that,” Hatton said afterward. When you shoot 29 on the back nine at Carnoustie, like he did Thursday, he was naturally ‘quite happy with that.’

Always love when the ski hats come out...

We've been talking about the projected weakness in the European team looking forward, specifically the fall-off in talent after Rahm and maybe Rory and Viktor Hovland, so a return to form of a former Masters champions would seem to merit more than being buried deep in the game story.  Though 2023 is pretty far off....

Especially when he did so on his birthday:

Willet became the first player to win a European Tour event on their birthday since Ernie Els at the 2004 HSBC World Match Play Championship. The birthday boy said he wouldn’t have time to celebrate the occasion or his victory properly as he was catching a flight to Las Vegas for next week’s PGA Tour event. When an interviewer referenced his birthday, Willett smiled widely and cracked, “Just don’t tell people how old I am.”

And they didn't, though I'll break the omertà and inform you that Mr. Willett is 34 years young.

The Long Drive - Didn't watch any of this either, as I gather it was available to be streamed on YouTube or such, though that far exceeds your humble blogger's technical capabilities.  But it was quite the event, apparently. and our Bryson acquitted himself nicely.

By way of background, Long-Drive and Golf Channel seemed, just a very few years ago, to be a match made in heaven.  The network has an obvious Monday-Wednesday void, and the long-drive beasts will show up on any day ending in "y".  However, baby, bath water:

In 2020, Golf Channel dropped the World Long Drive Championships at the beginning of the pandemic despite owning a majority stake in what was then called the World Long Drive Tour. The network’s decision was a death knell. Sponsors scattered and the league quickly folded, leaving many to wonder if the sport had a future. Instead, players and a core group of sponsors came together to form the Professional Long Drivers Association — resuscitating the sport with shoestring budgets and grassroots events.

Hence the streaming-only coverage...

The irony was painful. Here, long drive had waited for 30 years for a missionary in the pro game to jumpstart interest in their niche sport, and now he shows up, with long drive on life support? Word also soon trickled out that DeChambeau had forged a relationship with the brightest young star long drive had seen in years — a long-haired, soft-spoken fire-breather named Kyle Berkshire.

Berkshire is to long drive what Jordan and Magic were to the NBA. He’s the longest, fastest hitter in the world, and if you’re anywhere within several hundred feet of him at the time of impact, you know why. PLDA merchandise features his silhouette in follow-through position, and it’s obvious he’s been asked to carry the weight for the future of his sport, despite being just 24.

“Golf Channel made a mistake dropping us,” he said. “But I also think they had no choice. We had something happen to us, two years ago, that was a once-in-a-lifetime thing [the pandemic]. They’ve got to protect their business. So I think it’d be unfair to say they’re villains in the sport. But I do think we’re on the precipice of a massive resurgence.”

The Tour Confidential panel threw some shade at the PGA Tour this week, but had lots of time for Bryson and long-drive, so let's see what the boys thought:

1. Bryson DeChambeau sent a charge into the world of long drive last week when he advanced to the final 8 of the World Long Drive Championship in Mesquite, Nev. What was your key takeaway from his performance?

Sean Zak: That it was as healthy a week as Bryson has had in a long time. He’s been a bit battered in recent months by things out of his control, and other things he has definitely inflicted

on himself. This week in Nevada felt like the best week of his year. Smiles all around. Praise all around. At least that’s what it seemed like from afar. James Colgan captured it quite well for GOLF.com.

Josh Sens: Exactly. The striking thing wasn’t that he advanced so far. It was how at ease he looked, and how welcomed he was. On the Tour, he often seems to be working so hard for acceptance. This past week, he was like one of those quirky characters finding a home on the Island of Misfit Toys.

Michael Bamberger: How well said, Josh. An outsider finding his comfort zone, a long-ball hitter finding others with whom he can play, and who can play with him.

James Colgan: That’s very kind of you, Sean! It was hard to leave Mesquite without reflecting a bit on the version of Bryson I saw. He was so stoked to be there, so happy to engage with everyone he met, so grateful for the time and the experience. The big guy gets a ton of heat publicly (a lot of it entirely justified), but man, the long drive was a breath of fresh air I’m not sure he realized he needed.

So, how many people watched?

2. DeChambeau’s appearance had vast reach, driving hundreds of thousands of viewers to the event’s YouTube live stream. Was DeChambeau’s immediate impact on the long drive scene more, less or about as impactful as you had been expecting? And what long-term effect do you suppose his success/support could have on a sport in desperate need of a boost?

Zak: About as impactful as I expected. Forgive me for sitting on the fence there, but we knew he’d cause a stir. We knew people would be tuning in to just see him. His impact might be felt further down the road if, say, Golf Channel dives into the TV rights again. Or some other provider. If Bryson just comes around to Long Drive once in awhile, it might not have sustainable effects for that corner of the golf world.

Sens: It’s a Catch-22. The sport needs a TV deal and sponsors to draw in viewers. But to lock up that TV deal and those sponsors, it needs help from a big draw like DeChambeau. If this was just a one-off for Bryson, I don’t see how it has a sustainable impact. If he makes more regular appearances, different story. But even then, the question I would ask is: has anything in the market fundamentally changed? Long-drive used to have a TV deal and it lost it. Why did that happen? Has anything changed that would make the next TV deal more sustainable, the sponsorships more enduring, whether or not Bryson is in the mix? I have no idea.

Bamberger: Chicks dig the long ball, or so the said the advertisement in less sensitive times. Fellas do, too. It’s always been that way. DeChambeau is sort of an outlaw, or at least marches to his own drummer. There’s a crowd for that. And it’s a circus act, not meant at all disparagingly. Circus acts are at the heart of the American experience.

Colgan: Considering the World Long Drive Championships just owned a week in the golf space, I’d say yeah, Bryson’s performance was pretty impactful. But the path forward to legitimacy isn’t any more clear now than it was last Sunday. There are hard questions about how to make the sport self-sustaining, let alone profitable, that are still unanswered. But I think the hope of many within the sport (including Bryson), is that his performance could spur interest from the rest of the pro game.

That's about what the LPGA draws on Golf Channel, and one assumes those numbers would have been much higher on GC.  Shockingly, they have time for a third Q&A:

3. What did you learn in recent days about professional long drive that you didn’t know a week ago?

Zak: That the wind direction really, really matters. Of course it was always going to matter for distance, but it matters more than just about anything for spin rates on balls struck with 220 mph ball speed. Definitely an oversight for me!

Sens: The wind, for sure. But also the variables of the grid itself. Like golf courses, they all play differently, with some slots that run out better than others. It’s not just about bombing it. It’s also about the nuances of ground game.

Bamberger: That size matters.

Colgan: I learned that long drive as a sport is being propped up by a (mostly) benevolent group of diehards, including a large chunk of the current playing population. I also learned that more than anything, they’re tired of being a golf sideshow. They want to be recognized as more than an entertainment product. A bonus: gas station Mexican food in Mesquite, Nev. is not only trustworthy, but also delicious.

It's its own interesting sub-culture.  In watching a few of these previously, I was surprised that they'd have the guys hitting into the wind at some events.  You'd have thought they'd vary the set-up to ensure the gaudiest distances, but that wasn't the case in my experience. 

I would expect this to end up back on Golf Channel at some point, simply because it seems too natural a fit.  Where else could they go, and where can GC find cheaper programming for Monday-Wednesday?  OK, admittedly they can show Tin Cup again, but how often can you go to that well?  Please, that was rhetorical, I don't really want an answer....

The Ryder Cup - Just a few quick bits, the most interesting being that that vaunted Euro system isn't all that it seemed to be.  For instance, golf balls?

With former captains such as Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn emphasising the imperative for the visiting team to get off to a fast start, Europe lost the Friday morning foursomes 3-1, with the United States gaining a commanding advantage they were never to surrender in their record 19-9 victory.

In defeat, Harrington announced: “The one thing I can walk away with is I am very comfortable with all the decisions all along.”

That's amusing just because of the way we all lock down on our decisions.  Hal Sutton still defends pairing Tiger and Phil (and the golf ball was a huge factor in that one) and Jim Furyk still can't understand why Phil isn't a great fit for foursomes.  But, cynics that you are, this seems like rather poor planning:

However, Telegraph Sport has learnt Harrington’s best-laid plans were ultimately forced to be

ripped up on the Wednesday, the penultimate day of official practice, when it was discovered that Lee Westwood and Paul Casey played different balls and, so too, did Matt Fitzpatrick and Viktor Hovland. Harrington felt obliged to make a hasty switch in the quartet of duos he named 24 hours later, with Westwood partnering Fitzpatrick and Casey teaming up with Hovland. Both partnerships lost.

Hovland and Casey did not appear together again, but Westwood and Fitzpatrick also went out in the Saturday foursomes, which they again lost.

“Maybe they should have thought about the ball issue earlier, as it is always part of the equation of putting two players together in a foursomes,” an insider said. “But all four play Titleist and you might have thought it would be fine. Yet there are different sorts of Titleist balls.”

Europe clearly needs a golf ball Task Force.   And this is despite the fact that, in the aftermath of Tiger & Phil, the rule was changed to allow for greater felxibility:

Fitzpatrick plays the Titleist Pro V1x issued in 2019, while Hovland plays the Titleist Pro V1 released earlier this year. Westwood and Casey also employ different types of Titleist, by far the most popular brand on Tour. As the source said, the ball has long been a factor in putting together pairings, although interestingly a new rule introduced in 2006 apparently reduced its relevance.

Instead of being required to use one make and model the entire round, team-mates were allowed to switch balls at the end of each hole. That permitted a compromise where the player driving off would use the favoured ball of his partner, who would then have the luxury of familiarity on the approach shots, for which distance control is paramount. However, stats have since revealed that those partnerships who use the same ball do have an advantage.

It would be far easier to enjoy such comic ineptitude if we hadn't lost so regularly to these guys....

This amusing London Times item is accessible through a free trial, though I'll just excerpt the bits not requiring such effort:

Ryder Cup: Not one fan was thrown out of this drunken hellhole

Alasdair Reid in Wisconsin is baffled as to why officials failed to react to record levels of abuse for Europe team

Wisconsin bills itself as “America’s Dairyland”, so it was only to be expected that the galleries at the 43rd Ryder Cup would feature some kind of bovine behaviour. Throw in Milwaukee, the nearest city of any size to Whistling Straits, and a boorish backdrop became even more predictable.

It is not exactly news that American golf fans enjoy a beer and can get a little noisy at times. When that is as far as it goes, then nobody should get too pious about behaviour that offers a welcome counterpoint to the sport’s stuffier, old-world traditions. But it went far, far further here, as fans scraped the barrel — in every sense — with their deepest dive into outright obnoxiousness yet.

Fact is, I don't really have a sense of how bad it got out there.  I heard the complaints from Shane Lowry, though there really weren't any specifics on offer.   

I actually think this event is at some risk going forward.  There's a potential problem with competitiveness, but the more important issue might be crowd control.  In a world where the PGA Tour is promoting loutish behavior, this event poses particular challenges because of its format.  Fans are allowed (which is really required, because of the need to grab a viewing spot) to be there for some ten hours with precious little golf to watch.  

While Bethpage 2025 seems to promise profound issues in this regard, Marco Simone is not without its issues.  I'm worried about the Euros going over-the-top in their course set-up, which I assume would mean narrow ribbon fairways and punishing rough, but I would expect European galleries to become increasingly Americanized in the process.  Combined with on-site gambling, where does this lead?  I'm certainly not clear on that, but neither seemingly is Jay Monahan or anyone else in a position of authority.

Just one last bit of woe for those Euros, courtesy of Alistair Tait:

I didn’t make this statement up. It seems to be accepted fact. Here’s another accepted fact: Ian Poulter will captain the 2025 European team in New York.

Most will have no problem if those two scenarios play out. However, Europe has an embarrassment of riches waiting in the wings to step into the skipper’s role.

Here’s the problem: some great candidates are going to miss out. They can’t all be Ryder Cup captain.

Look at the quality on offer in Padraig Harrington’s back room staff at Whistling Straits. Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell, Luke Donald, Robert Karlsson (pictured) and Martin Kaymer all served as vice-captains. All have a wealth of experience. All are potentially great captains.

Throw in Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey. They played this year but, at 41 and 44 respectively, are obviously approaching the end of their Ryder Cup playing days.

That's what happens when you win nine of twelve, the supply of deserving captains exceeds demand.  Though an interesting choice of photos, because Karlsson  would seem to be an easy one to skip over.

But, given my love of the man I call "Mumbles", you knew I'd include this excerpt:

Here’s another thing: not every player with a glowing Ryder Cup record or great individual playing career achievements turns out to be a great leader of men. Everyone expected Nick Faldo to make a brilliant Ryder Cup captain but he was a disaster at Valhalla in 2008. Darren Clarke? He looked out of his depth at Hazeltine in 2016.

Whisper it, but there are those currently pointing fingers at Padraig Harrington as partly responsible for Europe’s lopsided loss.

I completely agree that Faldo projected to be a great captain.... I mean, yeah sure, as long as you weren't hung up on the fact that he had no friends amongst his peers and isn't very bright....  I know, niggling details.

Certainly that golf ball bit above won't help Padraig's reputation, but he was never going to win an away game with that roster...

Keiser Rules - The public golf course project has been on and off for years, but it just keeps getting better in Oregon:

A year after the Sheep Ranch opened at his Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, golf developer Mike Keiser has the itch to start building even more courses along the Oregon coast.

Next up for Keiser is a new 18-hole public-access layout on the opposite side of the town of Bandon named New River Dunes, which will be designed by David McLay Kidd, plus a new par-3 course designed by Tom Doak at the main resort.

Both are in the early stages as Keiser, plus his sons Michael and Chris, navigate state and sometimes federal permitting processes. There is no schedule for when a shovel might be stuck in the ground to start construction.

Keiser said demand for tee times at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has convinced him to add more holes.

Here's the background on that public course:

The second project, the 18-hole New River Dunes layout, is the resumption of a plan Keiser had more than a decade ago. He owned what he describes as a superlative piece of golfing terrain south of town, and he worked with state officials for eight years on a land swap to expand his contiguous holdings to accommodate a 27-hole course.

But after reaching agreements with the state, complications with the federal Bureau of Land Management – and its ability to possibly reclaim the swapped land – halted the project in 2015. Keiser’s interest shifted to other projects, such as Sand Valley in Wisconsin and the under-construction Cabot Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, which is slated to open in 2022.

Keiser is now ready to resume the project with just 18 holes on land he already owns, making for far fewer headaches in the approval process than if he had stuck with original plans for 27 holes.

And who else would build a SECOND Par-3?  The problem is that one needs to stay for a couple of weeks to play all the courses at least once, and once is insufficient for some of them, especially in light of the arduous journey.

That's it for today, kids.  I'll be back later in the week although, the schedule being jam-packed as it is, I'm not exactly sure when.  have a great week.