Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Midweek Musings

Lots to cover, so perhaps put on a fresh pot of coffee.

PNC Leftovers - Are you still enjoying the afterglow?  The only thing missing thus far is a notebook dump.... What?  Oh, never mind then:

From Tiger to Trevino, 7 things I heard at the PNC | Final Entry, PNC Diary

 Even your cynical yet humble blogger has to admit he caught a few oddball sound bites, such as this one:

1. Petr Korda: “Do you want topspin or a slice?”

This came on the 7th tee on Sunday, as Korda stood behind his ball, driver in hand. This was a window into the way the former professional tennis star sees the golf swing — like hitting a tennis ball, essentially. A draw is a topspin forehand. A fade is a sliced drop shot. Athletes see golf in so many different ways.

Maybe Nelly and he were calling their shots?  That's something we would occasionally do back in my Willow Ridge day when we had all lost our will to live, and inevitably comedy ensues...

This was good audio as well:

2. Tiger Woods: “The audio. He still has the audio, and he still has the shape of shots. It just doesn’t go as far but no one has control of that golf ball as well as he has.”

This was Woods when asked about Lee Trevino, the 82-year-old legend who had doled out some swing tips — and some jokes to Tiger and Charlie on the driving range Friday evening. This quote caught my attention because “he still has the audio” is a particularly satisfying way of saying “he still makes good contact.” But it really stuck with me because Woods could have just as easily been talking about himself. (Although the yardages in question would be dramatically different.)

One more line on audio: “Just listen,” he said to the assembled reporters. “You guys know, when you walk the range you know which guys know how to hit a golf ball.” He might be giving us too much credit, but he’s right. Next time you’re at the range, keep your ears out.

Makes my mind wander to silly issues such as hoping that Charlie hasn't yet been on a TrackMan.... The data it provides is invaluable, but I'd imagine better still is to combine it with the aural and visual (ballflight) clues.

Tiger is quite right that Trevino is a ball-striking machine, but i found this whole scene bizarre, not least because of this from the (allegedly) Merry Mex:

3. Lee Trevino: “You’re not getting nothing from me.”

Sometimes Lee Trevino likes to talk and sometimes he doesn’t. When the subject involves Tiger Woods and he’s standing at a microphone, he seems to fall in the “doesn’t” category.

“See, now that I’ve turned 82, I’m in Vegas every week,” he said when asked about his exchange with Team Woods. “It stays in Vegas. We had a great conversation yesterday. It was beautiful. It would make headlines. You write about it and if it was visible, you figure it out.”

Errr...WTF?  Did they exchange the nuclear codes?  I think I mostly was perplexed by this because the estimable Michael Bamberger wrote this about it:

Except that Mike doesn't actually know what was said and whether it was, in fact, meaningful.  All he really does is sideswipe those mystic chords of memory:

It’s a hoary old line, but worth trotting out, right about now. This is an event, like the Masters and not many others, where the game gets handed down, one generation to the next.

When Woods hosted his first Champions Dinner at Augusta, in 1998, Sarazen was in the room. Gene Sarazen, the man who invented the sand iron, who played elite golf 100 years ago, got to know Woods, and Woods got to know Sarazen. Maybe not well, but they shook hands and then some. People used to say, I shook the hand of the man who shook the hand of the man who shook the hand of President Lincoln. You know, history. Pass it on.

Trevino landed in the game when Arnold Palmer was at the height of his powers, amid golf’s glamor-boom, the swinging ’60s. Trevino can talk about Palmer all day and into the night — if he’s in the mood. That’s a notable if.

I'm still mulling over how I feel about that first bit....  I mean there's something there, but completely different.  Certainly the Masters brings together successive generations of elite golfers (mostly professionals but also those amateurs), but this event is about sharing the game with civilians, and here Charlie is quite the outlier.

Mike blathers on about Arnold and Trevino, capturing a few moments for sure.  But on the larger issue its all seems a stretch to this observer, though this might come as quite the surprise to some:

Trevino was done. Trevino was hungry. Trevino is ornery, or he can be. You know, geniuses aren’t easy.

Yeah, though that might come as a surprise to many.

Of course, this was by far the strangest thing he said:

You're not getting nothing from me. I know when he's going to play and when he's not. He already told me all that stuff. He and I are good buddies. We've been good -- I've known him since he was eight years old. Appreciate him very much. I know what he's going through. I've gone through these back operations and stuff and whatever time limit you give him, he'll beat it.

Given that I rather doubt that Tiger knows when he's going to play, this is a Normanesque cry in the dark, "Damn you all, I'm still relevant."  Kind of pathetic, no?

In case you didn't know it, this is one of the funniest guys out there:

4. Henrik Stenson: “Let me guess, it’s your birthday, too?”

This was the week the world discovered Karl Stenson, Henrik’s hilarious, brutally honest 11-year-old son. But if you spend any amount of time near Henrik, you’ll hear exactly where his son gets it. One tiny example came on Thursday as the elder Stenson was making the turn of his pro-am and was flagged down by a man and his father. “Henrik, it’s my dad’s birthday,” the man said. “Could we get a picture?”

He obliged, posing gamely with the two interlopers. Karl shouted at him from the cart, eager to get to the back nine. “Papa, come on!” he said. “My dad can’t stop talking.” But when you’re a professional golfer, there’s a real risk in giving a mouse a cookie. Two more fans saw the photo and approached — could they have one, too?

“Let me guess,” Stenson deadpanned. “It’s your birthday, too?” Terrific.

No disrespect to Charlie, but Karl Stenson might actually be the cuter kid, though I recognize that in the current moment that probably constitutes a hate crime.   But this posted on Insty Saturday ight was awfully cute:

FWIW, I'm not the only one with a Karl crush:

3. Karl Stenson

Charlie Woods got a lot of attention at the PNC Championship over the weekend, but I would like to take a minute to highlight the star that is Karl Stenson. At 11 years old, he became the youngest player to tee it up in the PNC Championship over the weekend. He was draining putts to the point where his father, Henrik, literally bowed down to him.

This might put that pesky Nature-Nurture issue to bed:

Not really, but the kid has comedic chops.  But you'll notice that it's OK for 11-year old Karl to answer a few questions, but 12-year old Charlie will be kept in the basement.   

One last bit as, like me, you're probably wondering about those ratings... Wonder no more:

So, with all that context in mind, how can the Tiger Effect be quantified in 2021? According to
television viewers (in addition to our good friends at NBC and Sports Media Watch), the answer is clear: in Woods’ grand return to golf resulting in the best ratings for the PNC Championship in two decades. On Sunday, NBC’s telecast of final round coverage of the event drew in 2.24 million viewers and a 1.3 rating — the second-highest rated and most-watched telecast for the PNC since it moved into this schedule slot in 2012. That number was behind only Saturday’s coverage, which (ostensibly with less competition from other sports leagues) drew in a 2.34 million viewers and a 1.4 rating. The numbers represented the highest viewership for a PNC telecast since 2001, according to NBC.

The final viewership tally marked a near 50 percent audience increase over last year’s version of the event, and nearly quadrupled the audience numbers put forth by the PNC Championship in 2019, before Tiger and Charlie competed in the event together.

 Context?

Now, that number still pales in comparison to network viewership for a big-time event. In fact, the closest comparison to the PNC from an eyeball perspective might be the Farmers Insurance Open or the Waste Management Phoenix Open — two respected (but hardly bellwether) PGA Tour events. In 2021, those tournaments averaged in the neighborhood of 2.5-3.5 million viewers, slightly outpacing the PNC.

That's not in the slightest "pale".... But notice what they don't do, which is compare it to a Fall wraparound event.  I can't resist:


The 2019 RSM Classic did not draw a rating of any kind, “surged” in 2020 with a barely discernible audience and reverted to anonymous status in 2021, failing to draw a rating for any day. Whether this is concerning to anyone at the Tours or ponying up the cash, I have no idea. But next time someone is moaning about Ray Romano getting too much air time at the Crosby, or just a golf pro who thinks he’s reinvented the game, just remember that IFC’s reruns of Everyone Loves Raymond are trouncing live PGA Tour golf. The show ended production in 2005.

The Sunday at Sea Island drew fewer than 350,000 sets of eyeballs to the TV.  Accordingly, my prediction is that Charlie Woods is offered a sponsor's exemption into the 2022 RSM.... 

Saudi Fallout - It just so happens that I have a Ray Romano segue for y'all....  No need to thank me, it's what I do.

As previously predicted in these pages, Jay Monahan successfully painted himself into a corner, and we're now treated to the schadenfreudalicious spectacle of watching him cave:

Golf’s biggest tour has granted exemptions into the controversial Saudi International in February, it announced Monday evening, but those exemptions will come to players at a price. As part of
the agreement to grant admission into the Saudi field, the Tour stipulated each player commit to a future start at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which is the Tour event that will be held the same week.

“Players who have played in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at least once in the past five years were granted a release on the condition that they commit to play it at least once in the next two years (’23, ’24),” the Tour said in a release. “Players who have not played the historic tournament on the Monterey Peninsula at least once in the past five years were granted a release on the condition that they commit to play it at least twice in the next three years (’23, ’24, ’25).”

In total, 30 PGA Tour players requested an exemption in order to play in the event at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, including the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Sergio Garcia, among others. As part of their agreement to play in the event, many players reportedly received significant entrance fees — with some players fetching as many as seven figures for their appearance.

Free at last, free at last.  So, this was the Tour's position as recently as late July:

Exclusive: PGA Tour will deny stars permission to play controversial Saudi International

 Compare and contrast with their current thinking:

In granting the exemption, PGA Tour leadership sidesteps an ethical quagmire: it has repeatedly insisted that its players are both owners and independent contractors, a theory the Tour would seemingly subvert should it deny exemption into the Saudi International. In the release announcing the decision, the Tour reiterated its guidelines “fully support denial of such requests” — but the legal boundaries of those guidelines remain largely untested. It’s a predicament not unlike the one facing Tour leadership should it decide to enforce the lifetime ban it has reportedly threatened those considering the rival tour with.

"The legal boundaries remain largely untested" must have Greg Norman giggling like a schoolgirl....  I mean, can anybody here play this game?

The face-saving comes in the form of these conditions that Shack calls "draconian":

Any player who has competed in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am event at least once in the past five years must commit to play at least once in the next two years (2023 and 2024). Players who have not competed at Pebble Beach in the last five years will need to do so twice in the three years until 2025.

A source familiar with the names of the 30 players who applied for waivers told Golfweek that 19 of them will have to commit to one appearance at the AT&T, while the other 11 will be required to play twice.

Well, there are those 6-hour rounds as well as Crosby weather, plus one unfortunate soul draws the aforementioned Ray Romano as a partner. 

Haven't those essentially been the rules all along?  Although I'm probably the only one to remember that Tiger still hasn't satisfied his obligation to play in Napa in return for ther waiver to play the Turkish Airlines Open a few years back.   

So, why do they want to play?  You might think it's about growing the game... No, you never though that, it's always about the Benjamins:

One source familiar with the situation told Golfweek that lower-profile players invited to compete in King Abdullah Economic City have been offered appearance fees of around $400,000, with mid-tier players receiving between $500,000 and $750,000. High-profile stars get seven-figure offers. Chartered private aircraft to and from Saudi Arabia is also provided.

I feel the game growing as we speak....  

In other fallout, apparently the R&A is happy to carry Jay and Keith Pelley's water (I'm including this tweet because the Telegraph article is behind a paywall):

Walkback to commence in 3,2,1....

Big Moe - Mixed feelings here kids, as there doesn't seem to be any way they can pull this off successfully:

Hollywood is finally ready to put Moe Norman’s life on the big screen.

Filming for a feature length biopic on the Canadian ball-striking enigma is set to begin early next summer.

Not to be confused with ‘The Feeling of Greatness: The Legend of Moe Norman,’ the in-production documentary by Todd Graves and Oscar winner Barry Morrow, this movie version of Moe’s life is being undertaken by Canadian-born filmmaker, David Carver.

I'm more interested in that documentary....

While the project’s producers sound like they’d be more adept for a ‘Tin Cup’ sequel or third ‘Caddyshack,’ there will be nothing comedic about the direction this movie is headed, said Carver.

Instead, Moe Norman, the movie, will be depicted on the big screen in a way that respects and is true to who he was as a person. Subtitling the movie is the caption, “It’s Not About Golf … It’s About Life.”

“There are a lot of golf stories about Moe, a lot of stories of his golf prowess, but I think his life story is globally appealing,” said Carver in a phone interview from Los Angeles. “He didn’t care if people got him or not. In today’s world that message of being true to yourself is so important. The bigger message is accepting people for who they are and trying to understand people a little outside the box. Moe’s life lessons are more important than his golf ability.”

This feels to me like the film of Tommy's Honour, a well-intentioned project by serious people that's unfortunately doomed to fail.  Though I'd be delighted to be proven wrong...

A New Golf Friend - A few weeks back I was introduced by a golf buddy to Peter Kauffman, with whom I had a fun talk recently.  Peter, an investment banker by day, has accomplished what perhaps your humble blogger should have attempted, which is to convince actual golf publications to publish his writings on our game.

For me, though, the fun was that he picked oddball moments from golf's rich history that I could readily see my ownself tackling, None more so than this piece on John J. McDermott, perhaps the greatest American golfer lost to the fog of history:

Because it was McDermott who was the first, and today remains still the youngest, American to win the U.S. Open (19 years, 10 months, 14 days in 1911). And he won it again in 1912. He was the second-youngest player to win any of golf's four major tournaments, after Young Tom Morris.

And then, tragically, by the age of 23 he was gone from the game and public view, committed by his family to the State Hospital for the Insane in Norristown, Penn. With occasional stints at rest homes and at home with his sisters, he lived in that hospital until he died at age 80, almost 60 years after being committed.

Neither of his sisters married, and though their brother was consigned the rest of his days to Norristown, they would take him out on many weekends, almost always to play or watch golf. But history was not so kind, thereafter consigning him to its dustbin, his extraordinary and pioneering accomplishments sunk under the waves of oblivion all those years ago. And all the while, Francis Ouimet continues to be regarded as the fair-haired American golf pioneer.

You might find Peter's take on golden boy Francis Ouimet a tad harsh, but the slight of McDermott is very real:

I stumbled across McDermott’s story while researching young players with multiple majors. He won seven tournaments (two U.S. Opens, three Philadelphia Opens and a Western Open — then considered a major — and the Shawnee Open). His story touches me. White-hot genius that needed some care and feeding and instead received an official state designation of being a Lunatic and residing in an institution for almost 60 years. He is not enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame which, I submit, is an omission needing to be rectified.

As Peter documents, McDermott not only won the two Opens before the Ouimet-Vardon-Ray Open, but his intemperate and ungracious remarks hung over that 1913 Open.  That said, this was my favorite bit from Peter's piece, reminiscent of Mike Bamberger's point above:

The coda to McDermott’s life struggles came in 1971, when his sisters and some hospital attendants took him to the U.S. Open at Merion that was won by Lee Trevino, another star not to the manner-born and in 1971 at the peak of his powers.

One can only imagine how McDermott was beheld by the swells at Merion, how they might have wondered why this small, shriveled, old, oddly dressed man was allowed access to the Merion locker room and clubhouse — and they surely wondered who he was.

If they only knew.

But one man did know. As relayed by golf historian John Coyne:

“At Merion because of his dress and appearance, he was ordered out of the golf shop and told not to go near the clubhouse where he had hoped to visit the players. With his hospital attendants, he turned away and started to leave, to go back to the hospital when Arnold Palmer [the King was a keen student of golf history], of all people, recognized the old man, this two-time U.S. Open Championship winner, and put his arms around Johnny McDermott. They talked golfer to golfer, champion to champion, and Palmer then arranged for McDermott to stay at the tournament as his special guest, with all clubhouse rights and privileges.”

Arnie was himself "not to the manner born" (Ouimet, as well), but the Deacon made sure that Arnie knew his golf history.

This was the piece Peter referenced above:

Mission impossible for sure.   I'll just ignore spoiler alerts and jump straight to Peter's conclusion:

And who are the best 25-and-unders of all time? One has to give a tip of the hat to Woods, Spieth, Nicklaus, McIlroy and Bobby Jones. The next tier could include McDermott, Seve and Sarazen. Does Morikawa compare favorably to that threesome? He’s in the discussion but it says here he isn’t quite there yet.

Let us close with a note about Young Tom Morris. Our recency bias makes it tough to properly categorize him, and there were no tours back then. But as a man of his time, he was head and shoulders above the rest, perhaps as few, if any, others have been in history.

That recency bias is no less a factor with Sarazen and Jones as well... 

But what strikes this observer is the amusing falacy involved with guys like Rory and Jordan.  Jack and Tiger and Seve just continued to burnish their credentials, but Rory peaked in 2014 and Jordan in 2015 or 2017, depending upon your metrics.  

I also enjoyed this item from Peter:

I would argue that the entire history of the Ryder Cup pre-Seve has been lost to that fog of history, but Peter's two vignettes are worthy indeed.

 Anyone remember Brain Barnes?  Anyone?

The year: 1975

 The protagonists

Brian Barnes: An Englishman who passed away in 2019. Barnes played in six consecutive Ryder Cup matches from 1969 to 1979. He was one of the leading European Tour golfers in the early years after the tour was founded in 1972, and he placed between fourth and eighth on the Order of Merit each year from 1972 to 1980. He won nine events on the Tour between 1972 and 1981.

Barnes completed all four rounds of the British Open 16 successive years from 1967 to 1982 and had three top-10 finishes, the best being a tie for fifth in 1972. He never fared well in the U.S. — he played in the Masters in 1972 and 1973 and, like Allis, missed the cut each time.

Barnes was a character and an entertainer, often smoking a pipe when playing and sometimes marking his ball on the green with a beer can. He and alcohol were no strangers, sadly, as that relationship eventually hastened the loss of his game. Barnes was also a married-in member of British golf royalty, as his wife was the daughter of Max Faulkner, winner of the 1951 British Open.

Love the Faulkner connection, which is new to me.  That '51 Open was the one held at Portrush back in the day, the only time they played outside Scotland or England until 2019.

You don't need a backgrounder on Nicklaus or this guy, though his role is part of the fun:

Arnold Palmer: At 46, he was still a force at times, having held the 36-hole lead at the 1974 U.S. Open at Winged Foot before finishing fifth. At this particular Ryder Cup at Laurel Valley, he was a non-playing captain. His relationship with Nicklaus had morphed over the years, starting as what can fairly be called rivals before evolving into frenemies as Palmer declined and Nicklaus became a superstar. Their relationship eventually became warm and respectful, friendly. The 1975 Ryder Cup took place in the frenemies period.

As in 1963, Ryder Cup Sunday featured singles matches both in the morning and the afternoon. Barnes and Nicklaus were paired in the morning round as the last match out. As Nicklaus recalls, “We talked about fishing all morning.” Whatever the conversation, it worked well for Barnes, as he crushed Nicklaus, 4 and 2.

Hey, Jack made it to the 16th hole.... is that a crushing?  

But this is what made it so memorable:

At the lunch break Nicklaus, hardly a smack-talker, very uncharacteristically lobbied his captain, Palmer, for another shot at Barnes. Palmer acceded to the request and, again, Barnes and Nicklaus went out as the last match.

In the afternoon, Nicklaus opened with two birdies before Barnes fought back to win, 2 and 1.

Jack considered the event an exhibition (think concession), but you'd have expected him to do to Barnes what Tiger did to Stephen Ames:

“When we went to the press tent after the morning round everybody acted as if I’d beaten Jesus Christ,” Barnes said in a 2012 interview with "Today’s Golfer." “He was Jesus Christ as far as golf was concerned, but he was still beatable.

“The Yanks only needed one or two more points to win and while I was still continuing with the interviews, Jack had gone to Arnold [Palmer, the U.S. captain] and said: ‘Look, there is only one match the punters want to see, and that’s Barnesy and I.’ That was the only time in the history of the Ryder Cup that the match order was changed at that late stage. While that was going on, I was asked ‘Would you like the opportunity to play ‘The Bear’ again this afternoon?’ I replied: ‘Well, lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.’”

Except that it did. Palmer could not help himself from taking a little jab at Nicklaus while accepting the Samuel Ryder trophy as the winning team’s captain.

“The American team did a very outstanding job, even if Jack did lose two matches today to Brian Barnes. He doesn’t mind, really,” Palmer said.

Nicklaus shouted back, “Oh, yes I do” with a sheepish smile on his face.

Yeah, they never like to lose.

Peter's articles for Morning Read can be found here.   Your humble blogger would appreciate if you'd give him some clicks.

That'll wrap today's proceedings, but we'll be back as bloggable stories emerge.

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