Midweek Musings

The Bear Big Cat is out of hibernation...With apologies to Verne Lundquist, of course, or maybe he's just yanking our chain...

The Tiger Tease - How many a side did Charlie give him?

What started as hopeful rumors among the most ardent supporters of Tiger Woods became a reality Tuesday as Woods set foot on Augusta National.

According to reports from Sports Illustrated’s Bob Harig, Woods is playing the course Tuesday alongside his son, Charlie, and world No. 7 Justin Thomas.

There has been much speculation about whether Woods will play in the 2022 Masters, which begins next week, and that is sure to continue in frenzied fashion now that he has taken a scouting trip. Woods has made similar trips in the lead-ups to past Masters, fueling the discussion that he’s seriously considering competing for the first time on the PGA Tour since his car accident 13 months ago.

Sean Zak seems a little disconnected from reality, as the rumor he breathlessly ponders is that Tiger will peg it on April 7th, whereas the reality was a March 29th practice round.  Sean, you're aware that yesterday's score doesn't count, right?

The photo is of Tiger's plane at the Augusta airport, which according to this broke the Internet.  Of course, Will Smith wants Tiger to hold his beer....

Mike Bamberger does Mike Bamberger things in his latest Bamberger in Brief (which is the former but not the latter), including reminding us of Tiger's last competitive round:

Everybody knows that Tiger Woods, 46 years old and recently inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, went to Augusta on Tuesday. Everybody knows because most everything Woods does

beyond the confines of his house is observed. Most everything he says gets scrutinized. Every tournament round he posts gets analyzed. Golf is addicted to Woods, and Woods is addicted to golf. And so we are now posing the same question Woods is posing to himself: Will he make his return to tournament golf next week at Augusta National?

The last scorecard he signed in a PGA Tour event was at Augusta. In fact, it was one of the most remarkable scorecards of his long career, even though he signed for 76. It came on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020, the year the Masters was pushed to football season in deference to the pandemic. Woods was the defending champion.

In that fourth round, hopelessly out of contention, Woods made a 10 on the par-3 12th hole, the highest score he has ever made on any hole as a pro. Then, from there to the house, Woods went birdie, par, birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie. What we witnessed that day was not a cosmetic back-nine 39. He was showing his extraordinary do-not-quit will. He was showing it to all of us, including his son, Charlie, a promising junior golfer, who was on the Augusta premises Tuesday with his father.

Doesn't that seem like it was decades ago?  perhaps because those two weeks to flatten the curve should be wrapping up any day now...

And now we want to know: Will Woods play in the 2022 Masters? He could easily wait until Monday before the tournament, before the groups for the first two rounds are announced, before announcing his intentions.

What we know with certainty is this, not because of anything Woods has said, but because we’ve been watching him for more than 25 years: If he can play, he will. That’s in his DNA.

If he thinks he can shoot 140 for the first two rounds, he’ll play. He knows how to play weekend golf at Augusta National. There is nobody in the field who knows more about it.

Maybe, though after the Father-Son we're pretty sure he can hit those 140 shots.  The real issue is whether he can walk the golf course for four consecutive days, though that will obviously affect his play.  I'm far from the first to make this analogy, but the logical comparison is to Hogan.  

I've been reliably informed that art imitates life, or is it the reverse, but this little cosmic convergence seems to require viewing through a fun-house mirror:

You may know that Woods did not play in a single 72-hole, full-field event last year. He didn’t play in January and February of 2021 because he was recuperating from back surgery, his fifth. He hasn’t played in a single 72-hole event since Feb. 23, 2021, because of his single-vehicle crash that day, one that, by his own admission, could have cost him his life.

The previous day, as part of his contract with the Discovery network, Woods gave a playing lesson to the actor Jada Pinkett Smith, wife (the whole world now knows) of the actor Will Smith. During the taping, Pinkett Smith said to Woods, “Your last Masters that you won, Will calls me and he says, ‘Turn the TV on right now, Tiger’s about to make history.’ I just get so emotional just thinking about it all. I’m like, ‘Tiger’s back! He did it!’”

“I don’t look at it like that,” Woods said. “I just look at the fight.”

You're making this up, right Mike?   I've checked the blog's bylaws and apparently I'm contractually required to insert a G.I. Jane joke here.

I'm holding off on the Masters coverage to ensure I don't hit the blogging wall before the Champions' Dinner, but there is one story I've overlooked in the last few weeks, one related to Charlie's bestie.  That story can best be presented with a pic:

I'm not the best tour guide for golf fashion, as I still think it looks ridiculous when they wear no-show socks with long pants.  Alas, I can't tell you what I think this looks like, because ironically that's what cost JT his Polo contract.

Here's the fashionista take:

It is 2022 and the younger generation is playing more golf than ever. These joggers are keeping up with a youthful lifestyle trend while maintaining a tasteful appearance with its performance fabric and belt loops.

The ankle socks complement the pants as joggers are meant to accentuate the ankle and increase a taper fit. The jogger pant promotes an athletic build and helps add more shape to the lower body.

I think we will begin to see this style of pants more on the tour from a variety of brands in 2022.

Haven't we suffered enough?

But isn't the real question whether he'd risk wearing them at Augusta?  Or whether Augusta would allow it.  Over to you, Fred.

Last Dance At The Dinah - I hate the tendency of our game to needlessly squander their birthright, especially when the take is considerably short of thirty pieces of silver.  The good news?  As of Sunday night, you will never again have to hear that all putts break to Indio....

A couple of items note that we're saying goodbye to more than just this golf course and event, though as house organs they can only go so far:

Perhaps it’s fitting then that as the LPGA prepares to leave Mission Hills at the conclusion of this year’s event, bound for Houston and the promise of more, the golf world celebrates not only the impact of a tournament – but one woman in particular, too. Adding to the bittersweet nature of these final laps around the Dinah Shore Tournament Course is the knowledge that the voice in the booth, the First Lady of Golf as television colleagues have dubbed her (she won a PGA of America award by that name in 1999), will be stepping aside, too.

Rankin isn’t exactly retiring at age 77. She’ll still work a handful of events in 2022. But this week’s Chevron will be her last as lead analyst for Golf Channel as she makes room for another desert darling – Morgan Pressel – to take her place.

“I wish it weren’t,” said Rankin. “I wish I felt 10 years younger.”

Desert darling?  Geez, I really wish they wouldn't try to be so clever....  This feels about right:

Graham calls her a “warm listen,” noting that viewers think of her as someone they’d be friends

with if given the chance. They’re probably right, too.

Terry Gannon, a colleague and close friend of Rankin’s since the mid-90s, said the trip from the compound to the set often goes down to the wire before going on air given the number of stops made in the golf cart to talk to fans. Gannon said Rankin is incapable of being anything but authentic and will answer a fan’s question the same way she would answer his on air.

“I’ve never met anybody who is so absolutely the same off camera as she is on camera,” said Gannon.

That's a great way of phrasing it, but perhaps the best testament to Rankin is that she was quickly accepted as a voice for the men's game.  Unfortunately, as much as she's an impressive individual with a heartbreaking personal story, the voice itself is regrettably squeaky.  We used to speak of performers that have a face made for radio...Morgan unfortunately has a voice made for the silent film era.

Here's a similar take, but from there I'll let Judy make my case:

It’s fitting that Rankin and “The Dinah” go out together. The tournament started well before Rankin’s broadcast career began, but before she picked up a headset, she was a heck of a player.

She won 26 times on the LPGA Tour, and one of the biggest victories of her career came at Mission Hills — the 1976 Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle.

At a time when male celebrities attaching their names to tournaments was in vogue — Crosby Clambake, Bob Hope Classic, etc. — Shore gave women’s golf a similar luminary.

“Her name on this tournament did a lot for us,” Rankin said. “I don’t know that anyone in the entertainment world could’ve done for us what she did in exactly the way she did it.”

Shore had plenty of clout in the entertainment industry, and she brought that influence with her to women’s golf. Although Shore originally thought she was being asked to host a tennis tournament (yes, really), she quickly took to golf and helped elevate the women’s game.

When the event began in 1972, its purse was double that of any other LPGA tournament. Shore’s celebrity friends filled the pro-am tee sheets, and with sun-splashed Mission Hills as the venue, the event became one of the tour’s hottest spots.

“The tournament here was a kickstart for my generation,” Rankin said. “The Colgate tournament here, Mission Hills, and the addition of Dinah, was the thing that drove the tour forward and drove it to bigger heights.”

But Chevron's writing a check!   Progress!

Under Mike Whan's stewardship, the LPGA created an event to honor its founding members such as Babe Zaharias, Louise Suggs and Patty Berg.  No disrespect to any of those ladies, but Dinah's contribution to women's professional golf arguably dwarfs that of those thirteen ladies, not that this is intended to be a competitive category.

Our next tribute is unintentionally hilarious, but bear with me as I set the scene.  It's 1935 and Gene Sarazan is surveying his second shot from the 15th fairway at The Masters.  Three shots behind leader Craig Wood, he pulls his trusty 4-wood and hits what became known as The Shot Heard Around the World, holing it and tying Wood, whom he beats in a playoff the next day.  

Sarazan is celebrated in newspapers around the world as the first man to complete the Professional Grand Slam, having previously won the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship.  Ticker tape parades followed, as did immediate enshrinement in the Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine.

So, am I any good at this historical fiction thing?   As my astute readers undoubtedly know, while Sarazan had won those prior professional events, but his 1935 win was in something known as the Augusta National Invitational, and the first known references to a Professional Grand Slam have been carbon-dated back only to 1960 when, having won both The Masters and U.S. Open, Arnold Palmer made the trek to St. Andrews to try his hand at Open Championship.  Alas, Kel Nagle did not receive a copy of the scripts, and beat The King by a stroke that year (though Arnie did return and win the next two Opens).

The men's and women's game seem to have approached this quite differently.  For the men, The Masters and Open Championships seem to have been accorded retroactive major status, witness my Sarazan parable above.  Reaching peak silliness, the 1860 Open Championship, contested over 36 holes among eight players, is officially a major...er, make that MAJOR.  I bear those eight men no malice, but you see the folly....

The women, on the other hand, have taken the opposite tack, not retroactively majorizing their Open Championship or the Dinah.  Oh, those Golf Channel dweebs continue to introduce Karen Stupples as a major champion, but she knows, we know, and she knows that we know.  Of course, these are the same clowns pretending that the Evian is a major, so their standards are transparently transactional.

But the other trendline that now intersects is the protocol that says, after a sponsor change, that the event has always been known by that current sponsor's name.  We saw this to best effect with the dearly departed Western Open, which tradition was initially abandoned but then, seeing the error of their ways, was reclaimed comically when the event (now known as the BMW) was held in...Philadelphia.  

Forgive me, as I know this has been unduly long, but here's the item that has me simultaneously outraged and laughing out loud:

Bohannan: Designating early years of Chevron Championship as a major would be a proper tribute

With this pic topping the item:

If you want to amuse yourself, right-click on that photo and check out its name.  The file name wins the argument... It was an always will be The Dinah!  Even with a Colgate guy in the photo...

Larry Bonahan writes for a Palm Springs paper, so one assumes he gets it.  But Chevron doesn't get to insist on moving the event's location and dates, yet still claim the Dinah legacy.  If it wasn't sufficiently important to preserve, you don't get to bask in its reflected glory.  

Bonahan's piece is actually interesting, in that it actually makes the opposite case, that it would be an empty gesture that wouldn't move the needle for any of those eleven winners (there actually aren't eleven, because Sandra Post won two of them).  What he does actually do is make the case for preserving this piece of LPGA history, but he's probably realizing that they're not smart enough to listen.

What's ahead for this event?  It'll be another made-up major to presumably be held in Houston in the heat of summer that no one will watch.  they will at some point realize that they've squandered actual history, but the world will have moved on.

From Geoff's Quadrilateral comes this news of profoundly silly social media memes:

And don’t say I didn’t warn you, but they’re saying goodbye to Mission Hills and the Dinah in lame social media campaign called “The Last Splash.”

The Last Splash Sweepstakes – Ahead of the final round of coverage NBC Sports and the LPGA will execute a social media sweepstakes encouraging fans to tweet their favorite splash from Poppie’s Pond using #TheChevronChampionship and #TheLastSplash for a chance to win a piece of history. Fans will have the opportunity to win pin flags from Mission Hills and limited-edition posters signed by some of the best golfers in the world.

The Last Splash Challenge – Following the tradition of tournament winners taking a jump into Poppie’s Pond, NBC Sports will engage with a select roster of content creators including Josh Mayer Golf and other select influencers to kick off #TheLastSplashChallenge across Tik Tok.

Can't we just hold a good old-fashioned wake?  I fully expect that Chevron (and I don't hold them responsible, this is on the LPGA) after a desultory tourney or two, they'll trot out a Dinah statue and maybe a little kiddie pool, but hopefully the girls will just say no.

Small Minds, Big Issues - Daniel Rappaport ponders the existential issues of life, golf edition:

Why pro golf can't figure out match play

Much as we want alternate formats to stroke play, it's still difficult to pull off.

I simply don't have the available pixels to respond to all that's hopelessly misguided in this single paragraph:

Still, poor golf is palatable if the intensity is high—like at the Ryder Cup, where each session

creates legitimate buzz because the players care deeply. It’s their one opportunity to represent a cause bigger than their own bank account or World Ranking, and each match counts for one point no matter the participants or hole-winning scores. The same is true for the NCAA team championship, or the U.S. Amateur, where life-changing exemptions into three major championships are at stake. The 2018 Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson showdown, which ushered in a recent influx of made-for-TV matches, overcame spotty golf because it featured the two best players of their generation, who are far from best friends, playing for $9 million dollars. Every player in this week’s WGC is doing fine financially, and each will leave Austin with a solid paycheck. This isn’t exactly career-defining stuff, and the player’s muted reactions speak to that. You won’t see anyone raising the roof or shotgunning beers this week.

Just to be clear, this was written prior to the Dell as an e-mail from Golf Digest, but posted on their website more recently.

He seems to be fundamentally confused by the distinction between match play and TEAM Match Play, two very different animals.  But perhaps his biggest howler is his take on that Tiger-Phil debacle, which pretty much failed to "overcome" just about everything.  If there's been a more painful golf broadcast in the last decade, I'm unaware of it.

He further buries the lede by mentioning both the NCAAs and the U.S. Amateur, but failing to understand how the former has diminished the latter.  Left unmentioned?  That would be the Prez Cup, a Ryder Cup wanabee that doesn't quite deliver the goods.  There's some harsh realities to our game, but Rappaport is obviously not the guy to ponder them.

His coda is as bad as the rest of the price:

Then there’s the quasi randomness of it all. Golf Twitter loves a good breakout performance, but the general public wants to watch the players it knows. In last year’s event, just one of the 16 top seeds advanced past the group stage. The finals featured Horschel and Scheffler. The other two men in the semis: Matt Kuchar, who did not post another top 10 all season; and Victor Perez, now No. 124 in the World Ranking.

This isn’t to denigrate match play; it’s simply to underscore the difficulty of implementing the format in modern professional golf. There is, after all, a reason the WGC-Dell Technologies stands alone.

Don't know much about history.....and apparently not inclined to ponder it.

Daniel is amusingly dealing with the existential issues of The Dell, blissfully unaware that the PGA Championship was a match-play event until 1958.  What happened to make them change?  TV!

The Dell is a wonderful event, it just fails to be what folks require it to be, which is guarantee a final featuring Tiger and Phil.  The problem is that the desire for such a final is inconsistent with the nature of our game, so deal with it, kids.  So, yeah, you're gonna have cluker finals, and that's a problem because the only other match is a consolation match, and not even the players involved actually care about that.  But Wednesday to Friday is fun, and we even get some intriguing matches over the weekend, think Scottie vs. Billy Ho on Saturday morning this year, a rematch of last year's final.

But no shotgunning of beers, which must be a great disappointment to Jay.

Catch you guys down the road, Friday seeming most likely.

Weekend Wrap - Match Play Hangover Edition

It was a fun event, but it'll be a while before I'm ready to watch any more golf.  Unfortunate, because the whether forecast indicates I won't be playing any golf either...

Scottie In Full - His father's name is Scott, rendering it inevitable that he would be known as Scottie, but a less than satisfying name for a man now bestriding the golf world like a colossus.  A nickname seems in order, no?

What Scottie Scheffler has done of late—and, let’s face it, he’s done a lot in a very short time—we have witnessed before, though not often and never so quickly. It happens when a player finally wins that first PGA Tour title and just keeps winning. Floodgates don’t just open, but they get busted off their hinges.

David Duval, circa 1997 comes to mind. After a frustrating breaking-in period, Duval’s maiden victory at the Michelob Championship that October propelled him to wins in three straight starts, and he eventually rose to World No. 1 after capturing the ’99 Players Championship.

Scheffler didn’t have to wait that long to become the world’s top-ranked player. Granted, the ranking formula was different a quarter century ago, but let’s not be a buzzkill. With an emphatic and emotional victory at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, Scheffler won for the third time in his last five starts, leapfrogged four men to lead the Official World Golf Ranking and extended his lead in the FedEx Cup standings.

It seems they're repealed the laws of recency bias.... But in this case I can't hardly blame them, because that's a world-class heater he's been on.

Even by the dreadful standards of Blogger, the formatting seems especially effed-up this morning, so I'll not sample further form that Golf Digest game story.

We've always had some fun with the mindset of the touring professional, best exemplified to this observer by the legislatively mandated tapping down of imaginary spike marks after any missed putt, the logic being that they are so finely-tuned that only a green imperfection could have resulted in a missed putt (and which just gets increasingly humorous the further removed we are from actual metal spikes).  But see if you agree that Scottie got there pretty damn early:

“I grew up wearing long pants to go practice because I wanted to be a professional golfer,” Scheffler said in his post-round press conference. “That’s what I dreamed of. I dreamed of being out here. I’ve always been, I would say, fiercely competitive, and so for me getting out here was a goal per se, and being out here, I like competing and I enjoy the challenge of playing out here every week. Just competing out here is really fun for me and just being able to win tournaments is pretty awesome.

Which is something in Texas, which can get just a wee bit toasty....

The Tour Confidential gang took Scottie's measure:

1. Scottie Scheffler, with his win at the WGC-Match Play on Sunday and three victories

overall since last month, will incredibly rise to world No. 1 on Monday. It also confirms that he is no doubt the hottest player heading into Augusta. Scheffler’s ascent was swift and unexpected. Which elements of his game have most powered his run to No. 1?

Sean Zak: His laidback nature. When players win for the first time, it’s often followed by an exhale of some sort. They might plateau for a bit once they’ve done it. But I think when certain players like Scottie are so calm in victory, so expecting that it will happen, it makes nabbing that second win easier. It’s almost like each win was a launching pad for the next one. This one could be a launching pad for a major. Side note: This guy had zero Tour wins on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday!

Michael Bamberger: The country-boy power of his swing (and yes I know he’s a Jersey boy by birth). Just so athletic, so sound, so simple. Sort of like Dustin Johnson without some of the unusual positions.

Really?  no argument on the demeanor, but that seems to me a rather idiosyncratic swing, especially the footwork.  A lot more exertion in it, to me he's much more Jim Furyk (albeit with far more pop) than Adam Scott.

James Colgan: I’m always amazed by his toughness. Scheffler’s best shot of the week — a near-albatross from 250 yards out — came just seconds after Dustin Johnson cut the deficit from five down to one down in the semifinal match. The match-cementing birdie was impressive, but for him to find that level of execution in that moment was, well, special.

Tim Reilly: Scheffler’s demeanor for a 25-year-old amazes me. Unlike fellow Texan Jordan Spieth who takes us on a rollercoaster ride with every round he plays, Scheffler remains cool, calm and collected in all circumstances. He has a presence about him well beyond his years and one that should keep him close to World No. 1 well beyond this week.

Now, for those that caught the semi-final vs. DJ, that club selection on No. 13 remains one of the more bone0headed moves I've seen lately, one that almost cost him terribly.  To his credit, he did not double-down on stupidity, and immediately pulled an iron in the final.

And about match-play savant runner-up:

2. Kevin Kisner continued his impressive play in the Match Play, reaching the final for the third time in his past four appearances. Is there anything weekend golfers can pick up from Kisner’s play to help them in their own matches?

Zak: Kisner talked about hitting every fairway, and hitting first from the fairway. He gives his opponents something to look at. Get inside this! It definitely plays tricks on the perception of an advantage.

Bamberger: Citing Churchill, in what is purported to be the shortest graduation remarks ever given: “Never give up, never give up, never give up. Never give up.” Like Tiger, talking about what he’s proudest of in his professional career: the cut streak. Do. Not. Quit.

Colgan: Mind games! They’re real! And they’re a part of golf! Good on Kis for mastering the art and maximizing his game in the process.

Reilly: Spend time on the practice greens. Kisner can’t bomb it like his peers but he sure can roll the rock. That’s something the average golfer has a better chance of obtaining than Bryson DeChambeau distance. He’s never out of a match because there’s never a putt Kisner doesn’t look confident in making. Nothing aggravates a match play opponent more than someone who continues to find the bottom of the cup.

Your humble blogger feels compelled to call out there journalistic ethics, because of the failure to cite even one advocate of the pro-quit position.  Although I've always found the hardest part of match play was being ahead, and the hardest shot to hit was the one after your opponent messes up.  Because then it's all downside...

But I think this will inevitably trigger support for Kiz for the two cup teams, beginning with Quail Hollow in September.  I've occasionally advocated for Kiz for the obvious reasons, mostly that putter.  But it very much should depend upon the nature of the golf course involved, as he's one of the shorter hitters making a living out there (he drives it pretty straight, which has interesting foursomes implications).  

I have no criticism of Stricker for not taking him last year, as Whistling Straits was a big ballpark for the guy.  Also, ironically, to take Kiz he likely would have left a guy named Scheffler at home, and that looks like he made the right call these days.  But looking forward, I believe Quail Hollow will again be a big yard, though I know exactly nothing about how Marco Simone will be set up.  But, and perhaps this is tad far out for a guy like Kiz, but let's not lose sight of his own comments about 2025:

Kisner can win anywhere. He just hasn’t yet. Right?

“Probably not,” he told reporters ahead of the Sony Open on Wednesday. “I’m not going to win at Bethpage Black or Torrey Pines.”

So why bother showing up? Kisner was surprisingly candid.

“Because they give away a lot of money for 20th,” he said with a laugh.

For second, as well.

Just a couple of quick comments and then we'll move on.

Scottie seems well down the path of winning every other time he tees it up.  As I saw in the promos, he apparently intends to play next week at San Antonio (don't ask me why), which means he'd be right on schedule for that certain little invitational in...well, you know where.  

This reinforced a point I've made ever since the event landed in Austin, which is that everything is good about it, including the course and its revised format, except the date.  It's just a brutal amount of golf, and because its match-play its intense golf, and that's gonna take it out of a soul.  If Cam Smith and Scottie are the two hottest golfers on the planet, I like the former far better than the latter at Augusta.

I think the week was interesting for other reasons as well.  I found the Wednesday Bryson-Richard Bland to be perhaps the worst played match I've had the pleasure of witnessing, and just felt that I should mention it.  Not exactly sure what's going on with Bryson, but while nursing his boo-boos he's committed to another long-drive event after the Masters, so I'm disinclined to tke the guy seriously any time soon.

Perhaps the more interesting subject would be to review who seemingly made progress this week.  It seemed to this observer that some alpha dogs, guys like DJ, Rahmbo and Koepka for example, showed actual proof of life.  If I took a look at the bracket I would undoubtedly add a name or two, but form in names like that heading down Magnolia Lane can't be a bad thing.

Though let me just confess that Brooks Koepka has always left me cold.  I know for sure I'm quick to dismiss those four majors, it's a bridge way too far to expect me to take an event at Bellerive seriously.  It also doesn't help that his last one, at Bethpage, featured a massive collapse getting to the clubhouse.  But my enduring memory of this most recent week is Brooks not sniffing the hole on short puts to win holes.  I'm sure I'm selling the guy short, but I always assume he'll miss.

But, on the flip side, can we officially ask what the heck is up with Justin Thomas?  Of course, the guy I want to ask is Bones, so not sure I'l get much of an answer....  But he certainly won't be my A-player in the Yale Stogel Masters pool.  Of course my performance in said pool has always been comically inept, so you always have to consider the source.

Time is of the essence, so let's use that TC panel to skim the surface on a couple of other subjects.

Dinah By Any Other Name... - This one they pretty much drop-kick:

4. This week, the year’s first LPGA major, the newly named Chevron Championship, tees off at Mission Hills, for what will be the last edition of the event in the Southern California desert; next year the tournament is moving to a yet-to-be announced venue in the Houston area. Chevron has already boosted the purse from $3.1 million to $5 million and, beginning in 2023, the event is slated to move to a later spring date so it doesn’t compete with the Masters. Any downside for the relocation?

Zak: Eh, biggest downside is that the finishing stretch at Mission Hills was pretty fun. We’ll miss the Poppy’s Pond treatment, but change is okay. I’m ready for something new.

Bamberger: I’m sorry to see the LPGA cut ties to Dinah Shore and Mission Hills and the fans that flocked there annually. What made it a major were those things: the Dinah heritage, the course, the fans. Now you’re starting over. Majors don’t start over. I hope it works for them and I expect Chevron will do things the right way, but you can’t buy history and loyalty and emotion. I asked Judy Rankin the other day what she calls the tournament in her mind. You can guess the answer. The Dinah. The Dinah Shore. Dinah.

Colgan: The tournament had such a rich history in its location, particularly thanks to its founding mother, Dinah Shore. I won’t miss the Blue Monster, but I’ll miss the tournament and what it represented.

Reilly: Good move to get away from the Masters, and I get where Michael is coming from in terms of relocation. You can’t just replicate history and carry over the championship’s legacy after so many years from one location to the next. But, the LPGA could use some fresh changes. The boosted purse is a start. Hopefully, the to-be-determined venue is the start to a new budding tradition … with the additional eye balls the LPGA deserves.

Reilly gets it exactly wrong.  The Dinah had a perfect date the week before the Masters, before ANGC intruded on their turf.  In all the credit that Mike Whan gets for hsi stewardship of the LPGA, he seems to not have understood the implications of Augusta big-footing the girls.  I love that Augusta chose to support the women's amateur game, but that they stuck a shiv in the back of Dinah Shore is simply reprehensible.

But what actual history does the LPGA have?  It's not a lot, so severing themselves from the biggest supporter of women's golf ever is really horribly tragic.

But what actually history do they have of creating new majors?  The friggin' Evian?  I'm sorry, I didn't realize that the LPGA biggest need was for more punch lines....  Oh, and Taking the event to the heart of the summer calendar in Houston?  Unless, of course, your mission statement including creating more wet golf shirt images....

A Token Wither Phil Query - Just proves that they know less than we do:

5. Phil Mickelson, Augusta National confirmed this week, will not be playing in the Masters. This comes on the heels of his controversial comments on the Saudi-funded league, and subsequent apology. But next up on the major calendar is the PGA Championship, of which Mickelson is the defending champion. Do you suspect Phil will play at Southern Hills, and, if he does, what are the chances he makes any public appearances before then?

Zak: I think he will play at Southern Hills. You cannot talk about that event without talking about him. He’s got another seven weeks to lick his wounds, and make another public statement or host a press conference. People will welcome him back with open arms.

Bamberger: You know, there’s a PGA dinner, too, for former champions, with the reigning champion picking the dessert course, the tab and everything else. I don’t think even the appetizer course has been selected. There’s more going on here than we know. Is Phil suspended? (Here on out is all conjecture. My guess is yes.) Can the PGA of America have in the field of the PGA Championship a player who is suspended by the PGA Tour? (Almost certainly yes.) Would it want such a player? (Likely no.) Would Phil push his way into a field where he is not wanted? (Owing to his deep ties to the PGA of America, I would say no.) Is he being considered as a potential assistant Ryder Cup captain for next year? (Not if he plays in these Saudi events.) Will he play in the Saudi events? (My guess is yes.) Did he tell Augusta that he wants to take a year off? My guess is Augusta suggested to Phil that this might be a good year to take a year off. Because Augusta is in lockstep with the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour, you know, doesn’t announce suspensions.

Colgan: There’s certainly more to the story here than we know, but as of right now, we’re being led to believe that Phil’s shadow ban is due entirely to his words with Alan Shipnuck. Don’t get me wrong, those words were inexcusable, in particularly poor taste, flat-out dumb … whatever you’d like to call them. But while the same rival league sets up camp next door, wooing plenty of players from the PGA Tour ranks, some of whom undoubtedly share Phil’s (woefully misguided) beliefs, were his comments alone really worth being publicly shunned from the majors? I think not. If I’m a betting man, we’ll see him at Southern Hills.

Reilly: I’d be shocked if Phil doesn’t play at Southern Hills. If he’s not there, then there’s far more to the Mickelson saga than we’re aware of. My guess is Phil sits down for an interview sometime between the Masters and PGA Championship to begin his reemergence. From there, he tees it up to defend his PGA Championship victory. I’m mostly intrigued to see fan reaction over how Phil might play in his eventual return.

Mike, there may be a PGA Champions' Dinner, but there's exactly zero chance that Tiger will be in Tulsa, so it's not at all the same thing.

Tim Reilly is striking me as especially clueless this a.m., because a month ago any of us could have written the following sentence, "If Phil is not at Augusta, there's far more t the Mickelson saga than we're aware of."  Tim, you're job is to be aware of such thing, so you're not exactly earning your keep.

Look, I've read Phil's fauxpology many times, and the two things that jumps out each and every time are the following:

1. He's not actually sorry about anything he did, he's just angry at Alan Shipnuck and probably others, and;
2. He's very concerned about some of his language, specifically that the Saudis might be offended.  Now, and here's where it gets a wee bit tricky, it's unclear whether that's because he still wants to cash a big check from them or, rather, because they buy bonesaws in bulk.

Though he rather made that last bed for himself, no?

I just don't know what the guy plans to do, though if his plan is to beg forgiveness from Jay and is mates, that fauxpology was a strange manner of implementing that strategy.   To me, that PGA Championship is one interesting date on the calendar, the second being the LIV event in London.  Not sure how this plays out, but I'm not discounting the fact that he could be the first guy in the field for that.

Off The Deep End - I've not done any Oakland Hills blogging, neither the tragic fire (which apparently was caused by a blow torch?) nor the gaggle of USGA events they've been awarded.  The TC gang goes an interesting direction with that news:

6. The USGA announced this week that Oakland Hills, following an unfortunate clubhouse fire, will be the host for the 2034 and 2051 U.S. Opens. When the latter rolls around, which now-20-something will have won the most majors: Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm … or other?

Zak: Fun question! I’ll take Rahm, who I’d guess wins a Masters and British Open. Maybe a couple of each!

Bamberger: Wow, Sean — you are bullish on the young Spaniard! I’m going to say Spieth. He has the three. By ‘51, I could see him having four.

Colgan: I see where you’re going with that, Michael. If I’m a betting man, I’ll take Morikawa, whose game seems tailor-made for major play. But I’m not sure any of the group above is getting to more than five.

Reilly: I’m with young James Colgan. Who might even hit 30 years old himself by 2051. Morikawa’s game translates so well for all conditions and I see him ultimately sitting atop this group in terms of major championships.

Am I the only one that finds it highly curious to include Spieth on that list but not Koepka or DJ?

Four is an epic haul in the modern game and, notwithstanding Collin's early double, I might be inclined to take the under and speculate that none of them get to (or maybe past) four.

 Of course, I'm pretty sure that Rose Zhang will blow by all of them.....

The Fortunate Five - Richard Bland's near miss was unfortunate, but here are the semi-last guys into the field at Augusta:

A hat tip then to Thomas Pieters (No. 34), Harold Varner III (40), Seamus Power (41), Russell Henley (42) and Cameron Young (47). Varner, Power and Young will be making their first starts at Augusta.

We'll be flooding the zone for sure, but the only way still in (I believe) will be to win the Valero.

 Well, is it possible, there's could be one more?  From Geoff's Quad:

For all of the surreality Sunday night at Dolby Theater, signs point to Tiger trying to purse an unthinkable sixth Green Jacket.

The Fried Egg reported sightings of Woods walking Medalist with Joe LaCava in tow. There have also been unconfirmed reports of Woods at Augusta National the weekend of March 20th to determine if the leg severely damaged in a February, 2021 single car accident can handle the course.

As of Sunday night just a week out from when he might just play a late nine after the Drive, Chip and Putt festivities have wrapped up, Woods is still listed in the field.

Maybe…yes sir?

A video of Woods playing Medalist was posted and later deleted before resurfacing on other Twitter accounts. It consists of Woods and another player, probably LaCava or confidante and swing whisperer Rob McNamara. Either way, this does not look like prep for the Medalist Father-Son.

Yanno, I hope so, because there's an unpleasant reminder of Tiger's dickishness here.  For his entire career, he's stubbornly refused to commit to events until the absolute last minute the prior Friday.  This despite the fact that his presence in the field has implications to the event organizers in terms of logistics and infrastructure, not to mention the general interest of the golfing public.

This stubbornness was more recntly on display during his Jim Nantz interview at Riviera. in which he admitted that he could walk the Par-3 course but refused to commit to teeing it up with Jack and Gary ( I for one can't wait to see what golf ball Gary plays this year... inside joke).  I've been reliably informed that the new and improved Tiger is less dickish, and I anxiously await confirmation of that fact.  

On that note we shall wrap with the hope that the Big Cat can play, as opposed to just playing with golf fans' hopes.

Match-Play Mania - Frenetic Friday Edition

Anyone know a proofreader who works cheap?  A little embarrassed, but my Wednesday post header referred to it as a Match Play Addition.  Meh, you say addition, I say edition.... Yeah, let's call the whole thing off.

We've got other stuff as well, so without further self-flagellation.

Who Ya Got? - Well, not him for sure:

"Billy, what would your Ryder Cup record be if you were European?"

"It would be winning, I'll say that."

That exchange came after Horschel's relatively stress-free 3-and-2 win over Tom Hoge on Thursday at the WGC-Dell Match Play, his seventh in a row at this event following last year's title run. It was easy enough to believe him. The irony in the question is that despite his match play success—he's now 10-4-1 lifetime in this event—he's never played in a single Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup. Even Kevin Kisner, America's other star-crossed match-play genius, got a Presidents Cup spot. But a combination of bad luck and poor play at the wrong time and sheer American depth has left Horschel on the outside looking in every time. But if he were, say, English instead of American? He might be the next Ian Poulter.

See, we put together a task force and they miss Billy Horchel....  I blame Phil.

To be clear, he's beaten Min Woo Lee and Tom Hoge, so by all means add him to a Ryder Cup team.  But why stop there, we suddenly have an opening for a captain in 2025.

 I went a CBS Sports page to review Wednesday results, which had this helpful tip:

1. Good match play golfers stay hot: Three names on this list stick out. Last year's finalists, Scottie Scheffler and Billy Horschel, both played strong golf on Wednesday and started 1-0 in their respective pools. Horschel won it all last year and is a menace in this format, and Scheffler has now defeated Jon Rahm and Ian Poulter twice each in his last six individual match play matches (including last year's event and the 2020 Ryder Cup last September where he downed Rahm). The other golfer that shined was Alex Noren, who ran his match play record at Austin Country Club to 13-3-0 (!!) with his 1 up win over Louis Oosthuizen.

My experience is slight more nuanced, in which they sat hot until they're not.

For instance, this is from Wednesday:

Group 14: Maverick McNealy 8 and 6 over Joaquin Niemann

And Thursday:

KEVIN NA (1-0-1) tied MAVERICK MCNEALY (1-0-1)

Wednesday:

Group 5: Scottie Scheffler 2 and 1 over Ian Poulter

And Thursday:

TOMMY FLEETWOOD (1-1-0) def. SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER (1-1-0), 2 and 1

Sorry about the differing type faces, but CBS appears not to have posted Thursday results.  perhaps they were too distraught over their trend line vaporizing.

My intention was to post here a list of all 32 matches, but our golfing press can't be bothered provided needed information.  I checked the listings at golf.com, Golf Digest and Goilfweek, each of which had a listing but none of which included won-lost records.  So, yeah, they pretty much suck at their jobs.  Same goes for PGATour.com.

So, that leaves us with this Golfweek item on the five best matches, which you'll agree starts with a barn-burner:

Corey Conners vs. Alex Noren, 2:44 p.m. ET

The only clash on Friday featuring a pair of 2-0 players (thanks to Paul Casey’s back problems). With Casey out of the mix and Oosthuizen with one lone win (Casey’s concession), this is a simple win-and-your-in scenario for Conners and Noren. Conners has yet to advance to the knockout stage while Noren advanced to the quarters in 2017 and finished third in 2018.

Yeah, that's quite the busted group, but so is Bryson's.  This is a huge weakness in the pool play format, which seems to have overly affected this year's event.

Billy Horschel vs. Thomas Pieters, 10:20 a.m. ET

The defending champion is 2-0 entering the final round of pool play and has his fate in his hands. Beat Thomas Pieters and he’s just a few more matches away from being the only player other than Tiger Woods to defend a WGC event (Woods accomplished that feat seven different times).

A loss would mean a playoff with at least Pieters and potentially Min Woo Lee if he’s able to defeat Tom Hoge, who’s 0-2 this week.

Don't even know why they're playing this match... Billy Ho owns this event.

Of course, asture redaers will note that this match will be mostly over before Golf Channel comes on at 2:00.  So, thanks, Jay.

This one starts to tickle my fancy, although again it's embargoed for the ESPN+ saps:

Scottie Scheffler vs. Matt Fitzpatrick, 10:42 a.m. ET

Scheffler, last year’s runner-up to Horschel, also needs to win to set up a playoff with the undefeated Fitzpatrick. Tommy Fleetwood could join that party, as well, if he’s victorious against fellow countryman and match-play maven Ian Poulter.

Matthew Fitzpatrick is a guy that could be a Poulter....

Speaking of Poulter wannabees...

Justin Thomas vs. Kevin Kisner, 1:38 p.m. ET

Kisner is going to be on this list until he loses, simple as that. The 38-year-old is undefeated this week, won here in 2019 and finished runner-up in 2018. After defeating Luke List, 1 up, Kisner has now won a record 18 matches since the WGC-Match Play moved to Austin Country Club in 2016. I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again: If there’s a player to watch dissect the Pete Dye design this week, it’s Kisner.

Using my fingers, I come up with four matches, whereas I was specifically promised five.

Groups 9, 11 and 15 are chaos

The scenarios are endless. In those three groups, there isn’t a player with two wins or two loses, meaning each are more than up for grabs. We’ve all heard the adage that “anything can happen in match play,” especially at a course designed by Pete Dye.

 Because you can't be bothered to explain the possibilities?

Remember 30 seconds ago when I was trashing the golf publications?  It's even worse than I realized at first, because I went back to that linked PGATour.com page to look up those three chaos groups.  Not only can the Tour not be bothered providing won-lost records, but they don't even break the tee times into group numbers.  I guess each individual match is two of God's children equally worthy of your attention...

Somewhere in that miasma there's a Jon Rahm - Shane Lowry match that looked kinda interesting, but no need to effectively promote your event, Jay.  as I've observed, the only contribution to our game made by Jay was to encourage heavy drinking and gambling at Tour events, though he's pushing me more towards the former.

Friday should be their big day but, while I'll watch if not on the golf course myself, I've lost interest for the time being.

Nelly, Interruptus - Sad news from the tour that can't shoot straight:

Nelly Korda will not compete in the year’s first major. The field for the Chevron Championship

closed on Tuesday at 5 p.m., and a tournament official confirmed that the No. 2-ranked player had not filed an entry.

Korda, 23, announced on social media on March 13 that she’d been diagnosed with a blood clot in her arm and that she was at home resting. She’s also not in the field for this week’s JTBC Classic in Carlsbad, California.

This marks the final year the Chevron Championship will be contested over the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. The event has been held there every year since 1972.

This is simply tragic in the sense that the LPGA has suddenly become a two-woman game, so it's crushing to lose the one.  The odds that Nelly and JY Ko would have both been in contention on Sunday is remote, that's our game love it or hate it, but the anticipation would have been delightful, especially for a tour that needs it so desperately.

But let's focus for a second on the other bit in the excerpt, the awkward sounding bit about the Last Dance of the Chevron.  Let me suggest that the LPGA losing their ties to Dinah Shore is all the fault of the misogynists at Augusta National Golf Club.  In a world in which we're overly concerned about race and gender, where is the hate for how they destroyed the most important week on the LPGA Tour?

Because while sponsors come and go, it's my guess that they lost ANA and were unable to find a replacement for that venue/week, because their finish competes with both the PGA Tour and the Augusta National Women's Amateur, a conflict I've been harping on since the ANWA was announced.  The date chosen was guaranteed to hurt this event, requiring the top-tier amateurs to choose between one round at ANGC and playing in a major, but more substantively crushing their meager TV ratings.

The good news?  I hear that Lia Thompson is taking up golf....

Today In Saudi Shenanigans - The gift that keeps on giving.  We'll lead with a curious Golfweek piece, that actually is bylined form an unknown writer at the Palm Beach Post.  I give you that because it seems rather suspiciously sourced:

Phil Mickelson won't play in the Masters, but it wasn't his choice

Do tell:

Mickelson did not as much withdraw from the Masters. Augusta National officials either told him or strongly encouraged him not to come, according to multiple sources. The last thing they want is Mickelson to drive down Magnolia Lane knowing the circus that was coming with him.

Multiple sources?  I'm not a national security expert, but this bears the distinctive markers of Russian disinformation, no?  That certainly could have happened, but notice that those "multiple sources" are not qualified in any manner, so Russian bots seems a logical guess.

But those mysterious sources are everywhere:

Moreover, the PGA Tour will never admit this, but according to those same sources, Mickelson has been suspended from the Tour for his “obnoxious greed” comments and for admitting he helped a rival tour gain traction. Why else would he miss the Players Championship, an event with the largest purse for a U.S. golf tournament?

If your sources are so knowledgeable, why do you need to justify your assertion by challenging the reader to otherwise explain his absence from Sawgrass?

All of that may well be true, but I just had to turn off my BS detector, as the constant buzzing was giving me a headache.  I've been taking the Tour to the woodshed over refusing to release details of disciplinary actions since 2014, so I can only assume that Phil isn't playing because of an unfortunate jet-ski accident.

having read Phil's fauxpology, I'm not exactly certain that Phil actually wants to come back to the PGA Tour.  And there I have great news for our hero:

They're now accepting applications, Phil.  All golf course are over-booked, so I wouldn't dawdle...

We have a couple of amusing cases of folks trying to hack out a path back for Phil, beginning with Joel Beall tapping some crisis management experts (for the record, this is a February item that was reposted earlier this week).  Yeah, should be good fun, no?

Phil Mickelson can survive his latest controversy, crisis management experts say. Here's how

Yeah, should be good fun, no?  Saving me work, they start with quite the impressive C.V.:

Mickelson has made a career of escaping the inescapable, and we’re not referring to punch shots through Augusta National’s pines. Be it an insider trading scandal or purposefully hitting a moving ball or gambling ties to a mobster, Mickelson has managed to endure as one of golf’s most popular figures—a status seemingly permanently ensconced last May with his PGA Championship triumph at Kiawah Island. But that status, thanks to incendiary comments and a reported insurgency against the PGA Tour, feels very much in doubt.

Don't forget insider trading, Joel.  Not to mention dissing two Ryder Cup captains....  Shall I go on?

We've just endured two years of so-called experts beclowning themselves, so why not some more:

Denise White is the CEO of EAG Sports Management and the go-to authority on athlete crisis management. Her work is so renowned that Netflix is working on a show about White’s life.

Lacking as Mickelson’s answer may seem, White thinks it’s a start.

Speaking Wednesday about Mickelson’s effort to explain himself, White said, “For the most part it's a good statement. He needed to apologize and take accountability, although he tries to explain too much and his accountability is a little lackluster. But he gets his point across. He contradicts himself a couple of times, but I'm not gonna hold that against him. If I had been counseling him I would've made that statement much shorter, to the point, take accountability a bit more and apologize.

The apology has been sent to a crime lab, which was unable to detect even trace levels of accountability.  Though they did find an actual apology contained therein, though awkwardly it was to the Saudis....  Of course, if I had called them scary MoFo's, I too would be apologizing.

Ideally, this time would be one of reflection for Mickelson, and not just for PR’s sake. When athletes find themselves in trouble, there’s a tendency for the figure in question to be defensive. To some level they acknowledge they made a mistake, yet there’s also a belief they are being treated unfairly or the situation is being blown out of proportion. This can be destructive as it lays the brick to go down a similar path in the future.

Ya think?

But now comes the laugh-out-loud part:

To an extent, Reisinger says there is a simple solution. “The greatest PR move he could make is to win tournaments,” Reisinger says. “Because when you start to play well in sports, it does wonders for your PR. When you play bad, the play is attributed to what you said.” But for Mickelson, who turns 52 this summer and has only one top-10 finish (the PGA win) in his last 27 starts, it may not be the most feasible option, and whatever window exists is closing fast.

Which leads to Mickelson’s road back. The best thing he can do is return to competition when the time is right. To be back in his comfort zone, inside the ropes.

Yeah, that's looking a tad problematic right this minute.  That alleged apology, which one expert liked, kind of screwed the pooch for his return, which runs directly through Jay.

Unless, of course, he's planning on going full Wahabi and is playing in London in June.

Here's an even funnier take on the Phil comeback tour:

How Phil Mickelson could use the Masters to begin mending his public image

You're not gonna believe this:

Here’s a thought: What if Mickelson could still make his presence felt at this Masters?

Not as a player. As an analyst.

Here’s the pitch: a Masters PhilCast, a distinct feed from CBS’s in which Mickelson would offer his commentary for a couple of hours each round. We’d suggest a complimentary feed to CBS’s — a la ESPN’s highly entertaining Monday Night Football ManningCast — but with the heat surrounding Phil, there’s no chance that CBS and/or Augusta National would bite.

So PhilCast would need to be carried by another network or streaming service. That’s admittedly limiting in that viewers would see only Phil and not the telecast, but there’d still be a considerable second-screen audience for his musings, especially in the early rounds. Simply mute the CBS broadcast and listen to Mickelson on your phone or laptop.

Yeah, that's the ticket!  At least is if you want Phil unwelcome at Augusta National in perpetuity....

Because the control freaks at ANGC, the guys that have kept CBS on one-year contracts forever, would embrace an alternative feed.  has anyone checked Gary McCord's availability?

But now let's circle back to that curious Golfweek/Palm Beach item, which did have one note of interest to me.  We're all well aware of the unauthorized Shipnuck biography dropping in May, but there's another book that's of interest, especially if you're thinking that perhaps Phil has been treated harshly:

Mickelson is the subject of two upcoming books, one a biography by Shipnuck that will come out in May. The other book, perhaps more revealingly, is co-written by former friend and legendary gambler Billy Walters, who was sentenced in 2017 to five years in jail for making more than $43 million from trades of Dean Foods through inside information.

At Walters’ urging, Mickelson made more than $931,000 trading Dean Foods stocks in 2012. The SEC named Mickelson a “relief defendant,” meaning the agency believed he profited from insider trading in Dean Foods, even if he didn’t engage in it himself. Mickelson agreed to surrender his trading profits, plus interest of more than $100,000, without admitting or denying the allegations.

Walters is co-writing his book with respected investigative journalist Armen Keteyian. The book, which is expected to be available in December, is not specifically about Mickelson, but will surely include information about their relationship. Mickelson once owed Walters almost $2 million in gambling losses.

One aspect of Phil's life that I've long wanted to see get more attention is his reluctance to pay his gambling debts.  December is a long way off, whereas Alan's book is timed to drop just as Phil should be taking a victory lap at Southern Hills.

I'm not going to do a deep dive on it, but my exit will be this Bob Harig column on player reactions to the latest LIV announcements.  They're hitting on a point I've made:

Pat Perez was more blunt.

“There’s going to be the wrong guy winning $4 million and some of these guys out here will go what the f--- is happening?’’ Perez said. “Who was that guy? And what if he wins again? Now he’s made $8 million in two events and most of the top guys out here aren’t even halfway there. They have to beat everybody and those guys over there don’t have to beat anybody, right? It’s going to be interesting.’’

The league has so far been set up so that players do not have join it, as was the original plan. For now, the events have been scheduled – the first is outside of London, June 9-11 – so that players can elect to play as few as one or as many as eight.

I'd hold off on that victory lap for now, Jay.  But will they hold the event without at least some plausibly top-tier players?  Will they pay some rando Asian Tour member $4 million large?

Stay tuned.

Have a great weekend and we'll wrap the Dell on Monday. 

Midweek Musings - Match Play Addition

We've got Wednesday golf for you, an Ask Alan and the latest edition of What Will Phil Do Next?  I don't know what you guys pay for this blog but, due to the increasing cost of raw materials, you should be budgeting and increase.

Match Play Madness - It's the upside-down tournament, where the best part is early (technically

Friday, though under the old format it was Wednesday) and from there it drags appreciably.  More golf than a human can watch, but also more golf than a human can play.

Here are your brackets:

Group 1: Jon Rahm, Patrick Reed, Cameron Young, Sebastian Munoz

Group 2: Collin Morikawa, Jason Kokrak, Sergio Garcia, Robert Macintyre

Group 3: Viktor Hovland, Will Zalatoris, Cameron Tringale, Sepp Straka

Group 4: Patrick Cantlay, Sungjae Im, Seamus Power, Keith Mitchell

Group 5: Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Ian Poulter

Group 6: Justin Thomas, Kevin Kisner, Marc Leishman, Luke List

Group 7: Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Lucas Herbert, Takumi Kanaya

Group 8: Dustin Johnson, Max Homa, Matthew Wolff, Mackenzie Hughes

Group 9: Bryson DeChambeau, Talor Gooch, Lee Westwood, Richard Bland

Group 10: Louis Oosthuizen, Paul Casey, Corey Conners, Alex Noren

Group 11: Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Keegan Bradley

Group 12: Billy Horschel, Thomas Pieters, Tom Hoge, Min Woo Lee

Group 13: Tyrrell Hatton, Daniel Berger, Si Woo Kim, Christiaan Bezuidenhout

Group 14: Joaquin Niemann, Kevin Na, Russell Henley, Mverick McNealy

Group 15: Abraham Ancer, Webb Simpson, Brian Harman, Bubba Watson

Group 16: Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry, Harold Varner III, Erik van Rooyen

Reactions?  I'm having a spot of difficulty seeing much of anything in them.... 

Scottie Scheffler vs. England is mildly curious, mitigated only by there being two Englishmen in another bracket.  I've heard analysts drooling over Group 11 being composed entirely of major champions, but those were in a galaxy far, far away.

For weakest bracket I'd nominate Group 9, where the alpha dog hasn't played since the Carter Administration (and didn't play all that well), and how the hell is Richard Bland even in this field?

Shall we see if we can find anything of interest in today's matches?

10:20 a.m. – Jordan Spieth vs. Keegan Bradley

10:31 a.m. – Adam Scott vs. Justin Rose

10:42 a.m. – Justin Thomas vs. Luke List

10:53 a.m. – Kevin Kisner vs. Marc Leishman

11:04 a.m. – Joaquin Niemann vs. Maverick McNealy

11:15 a.m. – Kevin Na vs. Russell Henley

11:26 a.m. – Viktor Hovland vs. Sepp Straka

11:37 a.m. – Will Zalatoris vs. Cameron Tringale

11:48 a.m. – Louis Oosthuizen vs. Alex Noren

11:59 a.m. – Paul Casey vs. Corey Conners

12:10 p.m. – Xander Schauffele vs. Takumi Kanaya

12:21 p.m. – Tony Finau vs. Lucas Herbert

12:32 p.m. – Abraham Ancer vs. Bubba Watson

12:43 p.m. – Webb Simpson vs. Brian Harman

12:54 p.m. – Collin Morikawa vs. Robert MacIntyre

1:05 p.m. – Jason Kokrak vs. Sergio Garcia

1:16 p.m. – Billy Horschel vs. Min Woo Lee

1:27 p.m. – Thomas Pieters vs. Tom Hoge

1:38 p.m. – Scottie Scheffler vs. Ian Poulter

1:49 p.m. – Matthew Fitzpatrick vs. Tommy Fleetwood

2:00 p.m. – Tyrrell Hatton vs. Christiaan Bezuidenhout

2:11 p.m. – Daniel Berger vs. Si Woo Kim

2:22 p.m. – Patrick Cantlay vs. Keith Mitchell

2:33 p.m. – Sungjae Im vs. Seamus Power

2:44 p.m. – Bryson DeChambeau vs. Richard Bland

2:55 p.m. – Talor Gooch vs. Lee Westwood

3:06 p.m. – Dustin Johnson vs. Mackenzie Hughes

3:17 p.m. – Max Homa vs. Matthew Wolff

3:28 p.m. – Brooks Koepka vs. Erik van Rooyen

3:39 p.m. – Shane Lowry vs. Harold Varner III

3:50 p.m. – Jon Rahm vs. Sebastian Muñoz

4:01 p.m. – Patrick Reed vs. Cameron Young

These are all No. 1's vs. No. 4's, and 2's vs. 3's .  Adam Scott Vs. Justin Rose is quite the match-up, assuming this is 2013.  I'm amused by that 3:28 p.m. match, only because it's the worst dye job on Tour vs. the best moustache.  For what it's worth, in the twenty minutes of Golf Channel commentary that I watched they spoke of the most over-rated top seeds with, ironically, last year's combatants Bryson and Brooksie splitting the vote.

It's a fun event but leaves many disappointed.  It's not team match play, a distinction that many folks don't appreciate...at least until Saturday.

Miss Otis Regrets - The most interesting bit is perhaps how the story broke:

Phil Mickelson will not play in this year’s Masters.

The embattled three-time winner of the event, and six-time major winner overall, notified the

club of his decision to withdraw, Augusta National confirmed to GOLF.com on Monday. As first reported by the Morning Read’s Bob Harig, Mickelson was listed on the Masters website on Monday under the “past champions not playing” for the tournament.

Augusta National directed further questions to Mickelson’s team.

Mickelson has not played since the Saudi International during the first week of February. A few weeks later, he put out a statement on his social media channels, saying he would be “taking some time away” following controversial comments on the new, Saudi Arabia-funded golf league.

The last competitive golf he played was at the Saudi Invitational, which seems appropriate.

Like most, I had assumed that Augusta would serve as his highly controlled return to the fold, but now we're left to wonder about his defense of that PGA Championship.  We're also left to wonder about whether he's allowed to play, to wit, whether he's been suspended and whether Fred is honoring said disciplinary action.

I'm also left to wonder about Jay's comments when asked whether he had spoken to Phil.  Is it conceivable that Phil was suspended indefinitely, told to give us a call when you want to come back?  I'm not even clear what the basis for such a suspension might be, but my first follow-up question would be whether it came before or after the fauxpology?  Because he really did violate the first rule of holes with that.... Making everything harder on him.

Geoff devotes a full Quadrilateral to this subject, oddly identifying winners and losers:

😁 The Masters - Mickelson would have been enormous distraction even if he showed decent judgement by getting the return-from-seclusion spectacle over with at the Valero. Mickelson’s erratic presence in Augusta would have thrown a wet blanket over the many positives heading into this Masters.

🥳 Fred Ridley - The Chairman now only has to prepare for a question or two about whether Mickelson was asked to stay away, or if the club was honoring a PGA Tour suspension. No sweat.

🍻 CBS, ESPN and Masters.com Announcers - Already on edge for fear of using the wrong surfing metaphor to describe green speeds, they would have been tap-dancing around Mickelson’s pre-tournament drama. Not now!

🎉 Playing partners - Whoever was grouped with Mickelson would have been subjected to heaps of unwarranted affection and several sides of “cancel culture”. Augusta National’s already tough enough to play without that nonsense.

OK, this feels like small ball to your humble blogger.  It's all true enough, but the Masters is the petri dish of golf tournaments, in which everything is tightly controlled.  He has to return somewhere, no? 

But I didn't think much about his hat and bag, though:

🤗 Former Sponsors - Since Callaway is in the “paused” category they could not have been excited about Mickelson showing up with a logo-free carry bag. But even free of him, KPMG and Workday must be thrilled Phil won’t be resurfacing in plain Mizzen+Main’s at the most-watched tournament of the year.

Speaking of Mizzen+Main, do you know what those terms mean?  I didn't, but in the aftermath of the recent news item on the subject(Shackleton, not Mickelson), this was my most recent completed book:

As they set sail from Tierra del Fuego, the book speaks of the mizzen, main and foresails all being set (is that the right term), and your humble blogger slaps his forehead while exclaiming, "So that's what it means"!  

For those of you who are readers, highly recommended.  An amazing story of survival and leadership.

Back to Phil...care for some losers?

😡 Tim Mickelson - He gave up taking a cut as Jon Rahm agent to caddie for big brother. I’ve heard of worse career moves. They’re just not coming to mind right now.

🤬 Steve Loy - Mickelson’s longtime agent will have a hard time pretending to be important while standing under the Big Oak. What a shame.

😋 Tiger Woods - Batman’s dreams of mentioning his PIP win along with any number of pithy Champions Dinner greetings now must wait until 2023.

😎 Vijay Singh - Phil’s old sparring partner must have been looking forward to the Champions Dinner and saying, “Hey Phillip, how’s your year going? Still wearing spikes?”

OK, I hadn't given a moment's thought to poor old Tim....  Though Tiger would probably think he's in the wrong column.

As noted above, we're blessed with a Shipnuck mailbag, so let's dispense with the bonesaw questions here:

At this point – to some extent based on his apology – everyone assumes Phil will re-appear at some point contrite and somewhat hat in hand to the PGA Tour. What chance is there he goes the other way? What, if any, obligation to the Tour does he actually have? @BriansullyMD

Well, the Tour was a platform for Phil to achieve fame and fortune, but he gave plenty back in return: endlessly entertaining golf; hundreds of thousands autographs; tens of millions of dollars to charity. So I’m not sure he owes the Tour anything. But after all he’s been through of late, I do think it will be a p.r. fiasco if he pledges fealty to the Saudis. He rightly called them scary mofos while callously acknowledging their atrocities, so to now get in bed with the Saudis would be a very bad look, opening up Mickelson to lots of criticism and burning up much of the goodwill he has banked through the years. But he’s always a wildcard so we shall see which way he goes.

Per my musing above, that's what continues to perplex me about that damn apology.  I don't know that Phil has obligations to the Tour, I actually was focused elsewhere.  If I look at Phil's recent past, that PGA Championship was obviously quite the accomplishment that perhaps makes us think that he's more competitive with the big boys than is likely the case.  But I w3as struck by how much he seemed to enjoy beating up on the round bellies, though perhaps he's unaware that those events are run by the same "obnoxiously greedy" folks.

On another tack:

Now that the details are beginning to take shape, what do you think of the SGL? @Kevinp613

I’m not overwhelmed, or underwhelmed. I guess I am whelmed. At least now we have an actual tournament slate to discuss after a year of guesswork. The SGL has very cleverly focused on U.S. markets that are underserved by the PGA Tour: Portland, Chicago, Boston (which, with the withering of the Deutsche Bank Championship, faces an uncertain future as a host town). None of the courses dazzle me, and Bangkok is a non-sequitur, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. It’s disappointing that a field list wasn’t announced and we will have to suffer more months of speculation about who is or is not playing. But the most interesting aspect of the announcement was that players don’t have to commit to all of the Saudi events and can instead just blow into town whenever they feel like it. If I’m a professional golfer—who, by definition, plays golf for money—would I rather languish in the Quad Cities competing for a $7.1 million purse or enjoy cosmopolitan Portland and play for $25 million? In a vacuum, this seems like a very easy decision, and no doubt some PGA Tour veterans will take the bait. It will fascinating to see how this plays out in the court of public opinion, and in various court cases.

Alan, if the answer is Portland, it's safe to assume you're asking the wrong question.... Remind me how that LPGA event went?

One last one:

I know their current situations are quite a bit different, and Phil has gotten justifiably fried over his miscalculated Saudi gambit. But, shouldn’t we be reserving our worst judgement for Greg Norman? Is his name not mud, or worse, in some circles? Talk about making your bed! @AriSlater1978

It’s amazing that even as he approaches 70 the Shark remains so polarizing. I have stated my objections to the Saudis many times, but I actually give Norman more of a pass here than Mickelson because Shark has been pushing for a world tour for 30+ years… he just finally found someone to buy in to his vision. Is Norman getting paid? Obviously. But I think for him it’s mostly about sticking to the Tour after decades of festering grievances, which I respect more than pure avarice.

Wow!  I mean, it's not exactly a Euclidian vision there, Alan.

But more to the point, Phil is guilty of using the Saudis for leverage (objectionable for sure).  Norman has put his good name (OK, strike that, he's put his name) behind the morality of the Saudis, that he's personally seen the profound changes and warrants that they're real.  You make the call, which is more effed up? 

We have an embarrassment of riches this morning, as we also have an Eamon Lynch column on this subject.  I'm not sure he ever adjudicates the legal issues, but he simply takes no prisoners (you'll understand that metaphor in the context of his cold open):

The true scale of a huckster’s toxicity is never apparent in the cost to his reputation—by definition, he has little to defend—but rather in how easily he imperils the honor of anyone who

associates with him. After two years of speculation and rumor-mongering, the day is near when we’ll finally learn who among the world’s best golfers is willing to sacrifice his standing on Greg Norman’s amoral altar.

Since he is clearly bereft of shame, let’s assume it was out of respect that Norman waited three days after Saudi Arabia executed 81 men for such crimes as “deviant beliefs” to unveil a schedule for LIV Golf Invitational, a tournament series financed by that same regime solely for the purpose of sportswashing things like summary mass executions at home and war crimes abroad.

And when I call it a cold open...well, you get it.

Imagine a housekeeper cleaning a hotel room that resembles a slaughterhouse without concern for how it reached that state. Norman may think heads rolling in the squares of Riyadh or a consulate in Istanbul are above his pay grade, but the stain of his association is undeniable and indelible. And he’s eager for other prominent players to assume the same mark.

June 9-11 in London will see the first event in the LIV Golf Invitational (decide for yourself if the name is a Roman numerical reference to its 54-hole formats or a ghoulish joke about what the regime doesn’t permit critics to do). The second tournament is planned for July 1-3 at Oregon’s Pumpkin Ridge, whose members were simultaneously hit with a dues increase to upgrade facilities and news that they’ve been conscripted into a sportswashing exercise.

That's not a key bit, but does make one wonder about how that decision was reached.

Here's just a taste of Eamon's legal reasoning:

In antitrust, public language matters. This is why Norman’s March 15 letter to players announcing the series and inviting their participation likely wasn’t authored by Norman. The intemperate screed he sent Monahan last month displayed an intellect so shallow it ought to have been scrawled in crayon. This letter was carefully crafted, stating that LIV Golf would complement the existing ecosystem while offering fans an enhanced product. The wording is noteworthy.

Antitrust law centers on what is best for the consumer, with three lynchpins of greater options, higher quality and lower costs. It’s easy to laugh off the letter describing the Saudi venture as a “start-up,” as though it’s a scrappy enterprise aiming for a conventional return on investment, but that framing is intended to suggest a fledgling outfit being stymied by Monahan’s monolith.

This highlights an issue I've been trying to emphasize for months now, that the Tour is profoundly fortunate that the threat comes backed by Saudi money.  I'm not an antitrust lawyer nor do I play one on TV, but it raises a fascinating issue that will be in play.  The money on offer dwarfs the underlying economic value of the game (don't believe me, here's Shack's latest ratings post), so I'm wondering whether the underlying objectives of the Saudis, sportswashing for lack of a better term, can be used to undermine their case.  Of course, this could take decades to play out in court....

But, who will show in London or Portland?  OK, besides Phil and Jason Kokrak?  

As hesitant as players must be to become the public faces of a Saudi hijacking of professional golf, there are office buildings full of lawyers salivating at the billable years ahead. Any player who does step up to demand the right to play with the Saudis and the PGA Tour simultaneously faces a long and lonely road as public sentiment, sponsors and peers turn against them, as Phil Mickelson can attest. PGA Tour pros often peddle a sentimental cliché that how they play the game reflects their integrity. There’s something to that. But in this particular time, it’s no less testimony to a man’s character for whom he plays the game.

That's why Jay looks so smug.

One last bit before moving on, this Bill Pennington Pravda item on the current youth movement in golf.  You might have heard crowing about the top five all being 25 or younger, and here's Kubla Jay taking a victory lap:

“It’s a reflection of the system at work,” said Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner. “The athleticism, the youth, the preparedness, the system is working. You can talk about the top five, but you can extend it past the top five and into the top 30.”

I have been seriously disappointed by Manahan, whose vision for the game of golf is truly effed up (it seems to consist of little besides drunk fans betting the rent money), and who failed his first stress test at that 2020 Players.

But I've also been trying to make an important point, that the PGL/SGL framework for the game is contrary to the nature of our sport and quite the horrible way to go forward.  Except for some offhand comments, such as Brooks noting that "Golf is about more than the top 48 players, it's not to be found in the golf press.  While Norman and the Brits have talked about cherry-picking the top 48 players or so and making them fabulously wealthy, there's never bene any indication of how in their model new talent rises.  

The PGA Tour I can be criticized in this area, I've long felt that in certain ways it's a closed shop that protects the entrenched players.  But my arguments are that it takes top players too long to make it but, as I understand Greg Norman's vision, it's Phil, Henrik and lee for now and forever.

All Alan, All The Time - We'll riff on Alan's silliness as we eye that exit sign:

In a fun hypothetical, if you combined superpowers of Viktor’s tee-to-green prowess and Cam’s short-game wizardry, how close is that player to Tiger circa 2000? #AskAlan@opinionsvary328

Don’t forget Collin Morikawa’s iron game, too. That would pretty much add up to peak Tiger. Even then I would take the actual Woods over the theoretical composite because the real thing had more dog in him than these three aforementioned players combined.

To me, the bigger difference is Tiger's consistency, that cut streak being the prime example.  But this is the modern game, where they play for a few good weeks a year.  But is Alan suggesting that there's a dog shortage in Collin?  Strange given this next one...

Top 5 Masters favorites right now? Thanks. @mstang1970

Rahm, Morikawa, DJ, Spieth, Na.

Alan, are you sure you answered the right question.  To me, that the answer to, "name five great players off their feed".  Seriously, have any of them shown any decent form lately (I know DJ played well on Sunday at Sawgrass when he was irrelevant, but still).

Is the Players Championship trophy the saddest on tour? Cam Smith looked almost

embarrassed holding that dweeby thing for photos. It’s so ugly that you don’t even see Cam’s scraggly mullet. @MichaelSmyth

I love unusual architecture and modern art and all manner of unconventional thinking…but when it comes to trophies I’m pretty old-school. I understand each tournament wants their trophy to be different and unique but so many are groaners. I don’t hate the Players bauble but it looks rather undersized, which may be part of what is bothering you. They can’t all be the Wannamaker but if I’m designing a trophy it’s going to be big and grand and old-fashioned.

 Heh!  the only thing worse than that trophy is this:

Yeah, this has been an open tab for a while, but a couple of Cam Smith items:

Did Cam Smith push that shot on 17? Yes or definitely yes? @jeffvalois

Of course he did! But that’s part of the rub of the green – if you’re gonna win a tournament sometimes your mediocre swings turn out great.

How good of a putter is Cameron Smith?@ESPN_SwingCoach

Here I will cede the floor to one Muhammed Ali: “I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail. Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick…I’m so mean I make medicine sick.”

On the first, he admitted that he pushed, but credit him for a sensible line that allowed him to push it and stay dry.  On the second, ten putts on the back nine?  Though I'll concede that Alan said it better...

This is a far bigger issue than it appears:

If you had God powers to summon any particular weather on any particular course at any particular time, what are your choices? @SNESdrunk

Cold, windy, 25 mile per hour gales at this year’s Open at the Old Course; the tomfoolery at the Players was just a taste of how fun that could be. Or, cut the wind in half for Saturday of the 2002 Open at Muirfield and give Tiger Woods a chance to keep chasing the Grand Slam.

We all understand Sawgrass' quirkiness, so think what you will about that Saturday.  But St. Andrews 2022 has profound issues for our game, and I don't know what to hope for.  If the wind is down and the track is soft, I simply can't imagine how low these guys can go.  Part of me wants to protect the Old Girl with heavy winds, but another part of me thinks a 58 would go a long way in our distance debate.

Team Berger or Team Hovland? @raydonovan613

I actually think both handled the situation well. Where a ball crosses a hazard 600 feet away, whilst traveling at 150 miles per hour, is rather subjective, and it can look very different depending on which side of the tee box you’re standing. Hovland and Berger had a difference in opinion, they talked it out like reasonable adults, and Berger took ownership of the decision, as the situation demanded. No harm, no foul?

As we've discussed, it fells like all parties did their job (including the rules official, unlike the Kang v. Dahmen cage match.  But I do hope there are genuinely no hard feelings, because there should be more like this.

What percentage of Tour players would take the guaranteed payday of winning the FedEx Cup over winning a major and the much smaller paycheck but additional prestige, exemptions, endorsement opportunities, etc. that come with that? #askalan @tombagjr

I’m gonna say 70% of players would take the FedEx Cup. Actually, probably 80%. It’s true that winning a major can lead to additional bonanzas but that’s hardly a sure thing; plenty of one-off major winners failed to build on the victory and their careers quickly petered out. The fact is, most guys on Tour play for money and only the most ambitious play for trophies.

I could have put this one up above:

Was the quality of the leaderboard indicative of Sawgrass’ shortcomings and penchant for randomness? No disrespect to Lahiri and Ghim, but does this finally settle the “fifth major” debate? #AskAlan @opinionsvary328

Sawgrass is a quirky, fiddly course with some very awkward shots. Power is always an advantage but less so there, which means everyone in the field has a chance. Ergo, what you call randomness. Some might consider that the greatness of the design. I could go either way but it produces golf that is undeniably entertaining.

He's ignoring one possible aggravating circumstance, my concern that the highest ranked players were unusually bunched together because of the longer TV window.

But you know what Sawgrass really is?  It's a course that's perfect for match play, where the impact of the quirkiness is mitigated by the format.  I'm over the moon at seeing match play on the Old Course, but how about a Ryder Cup at Sawgrass?  OK, that'll never happen because PGA vs. PGA of America, then how about that as a way to breathe some life into the Prez Cup?  Genius, right?

Lastly, this amusing twofer to go out on:

Sergio clearly dying his beard to ridiculously obvious lengths. Where do you stand on this very important golf issue? Consider this on the record and clearance as the jumping-off

point of your next bestseller. #AskAlan @RDeCards

Phil dyes? We want to know. @Chambersjscott

I love that these questions came in independent of each other. I agree Garcia’s beard is suspiciously dark and luscious. Various Twitter sleuths have pulled up photos of Mickelson from a decade ago and his hair was indeed much grayer then. He’d probably say the coffee has had a restorative effect. I don’t want to give away too many goodies from the book but I will say this topic is covered in those pages and in my reporting I discovered that some folks in Phil’s orbit refer to him as “Black Cherry” because that is the name of a certain hair dye.

Busted!  And amusingly so....

That's it for today.  Enjoy the golf and I'll likely see you on Friday.