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.