Friday, April 29, 2022

Late-Week Lamentations

I'm of a mind to try something radical this morning, leading with some non-Saudi items... I know, an idea so crazy it just might work.  But not to worry, we've got some juicy stuff as well.

This Week In Planespotting - Looks like this is going to happen:

I don't know about it being "official", but if the ultimate goal is nineteen, it makes snes ethat he'd be there.

Here's as much as has been released from the notoriously tight Tiger camp:

Tiger Woods’ private jet was spotted at an airport in Tulsa, Okla., on Thursday, ahead of a practice round at Southern Hills Country Club as he decides whether to play in the PGA Championship in three weeks. Woods plans to play in the year’s second major (May 19-22) barring a setback, according to a source in his camp, but is waiting to see how his body responds to an increased workload in the coming weeks before making any final decisions.

I guess the other point worth noting is that, while Tiger has won at Southern Hills, it's not the same place:

Woods, 46, won the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills by two shots, but course architect Gil Hanse oversaw an extensive restoration of the Perry Maxwell-designed layout that wrapped up in 2019. Hanse removed dozens of trees and reshaped the bunkers, ensuring the course will offer a vastly different test than when Woods won 15 years ago on a steamy week in August.

Not sure whether this was on the PGA of America's radar before they suddenly needed a venue for this year, but May in Tulsa is far preferable to August.  Alas, the opposite may well be the case next year in Rochester.

Centennial  Misses - Geoff breaks some venue news in his appropriately-titled newslestter:

Merion will host the 2030 U.S. Open on the 100th anniversary of Bobby Jones’s Grand Slam win in the U.S. Amateur there. (Almost as prestigious as hosting the USGA’s ESports Grand Slam, three lacerating hours of pandering to the coveted demo).

Anyhow, the 2030 U.S. Amateur has been awarded to Bobby Jones’ home club, Atlanta Athletic Club. The USGA also awarded AAC the 2025 U.S. Girls’ Junior and 2035 U.S. Women’s Amateur championships. Atlanta Athletic Club has hosted three PGA Championships (1981, 2001 and 2011), the 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship won by Nelly Korda and the 1963 Ryder Cup.

So 1930 will shape up as a celebration of Bobby Jones, and I hear you asking why it should be otherwise?  One reason is that the current AAC course is especially dreadful, but I seem a lone voice on that subject.  As you can tell from Geoff's cryptic account, AAC was originally at East Lake, but left when things got dicey in that 'hood as detailed here.

My own cryptic reference's background is that Geoff subscription newsletter is named The Quadrilateral, an homage to the felicitous term that I had always attributed to O.B. Keeler, though Wikipedia begs to differ:

The Atlanta Journal's O. B. Keeler dubbed it the "Grand Slam," borrowing a bridge term. George Trevor of the New York Sun wrote that Jones had "stormed the impregnable quadrilateral of golf." Keeler would later write the words that would forever be linked to one of the greatest individual accomplishments in the history of sports:

This victory, the fourth major title in the same season and in the space of four months, had now and for all time entrenched Bobby Jones safely within the 'Impregnable Quadrilateral of Golf,' that granite fortress that he alone could take by escalade, and that others may attack in vain, forever.

The other bit that continues to mystify is the USGA failing to do the same for Frances Ouimet in 2013....  Why take the U.S. Open to Merion in 2013 and to Brookline in 2022?  Really guys, do you not get this centennial thing?  

Golfers Behaving Badly - The random musing thing seemed a good call initially, but as my blogging has evolved, this really should have been the blog's tag line.  It explains my fascination with the Saudi story and its principals, and who doesn't love watching these pampered elites act out.

Grayson Murray has had his moment in our spotlight, limited only by the fact that he's not all that good at the golf thing.  But he's back, along with a Tour mainstay:

Grayson Murray says Kevin Na shouted obscenities at him before Murray confronted Na and
threatened to “drop his a**.” Na, meanwhile, says “that’s not exactly how it went down.” And Ricky Barnes says it all reminded him of “the normal NBA fight, where they act like they’re going to hit someone and no one’s going to hit someone.”

Because of a Twitter exchange in January, Murray and Na confronted each other Wednesday on the range at the Mexico Open. That much has been confirmed by all involved. But just how heated things got depends on whom you ask.

Murray himself, on an appearance on The Stripe Show podcast, revealed the encounter. The Mexico Open is the first event he and Na have played together this year, and Murray said that while he was walking to the chipping green at Vidanta Vallarta Golf Course, he heard Na “yelling and cussing at me.”

The bad blood dates back to January:

To which Na had this brilliant riposte:

to which Na replied: “U missing the cut is getting old!

Which I totally don't get, because to me Murray missing cuts never gets old... But that's why there's horse racing.

Murray is one of those guys that has created conflict at every step of his career, this being a perfect example of his M.O.  Murray is at best a Tour rabbit, and the swipe at Na seems an odd career move, regardless of the truth of his point.

I have no idea whether this solved his behavioral problems:

Murray, who revealed he was in treatment for alcohol abuse last summer, said the old him might have gone ahead and actually punched Na. Fortunately for all parties involved, it did not come to that.

In response to an earlier Murray provoked confrontation, I speculated that he just might not be sufficiently stable for the cutthroat, lonely existence of a professional golfer.  Not everyone is, though in the present instance Murray's version of events is that Na started it:

But my present query is about Kevin Na, from whom I've recently seen a bit of chipiness and an apparent thin skin.  That Januray Twitter-spat was pretty minor and it's not anything Na hasn't heard before, so watch this space.

Finally, The Juicy Stuff - Just a couple of bits, I think, unless I really get up a head of steam.... First and of greatest import, in that Quad post linked above Geoff posts on the Phil reentry plan, which isn't exactly getting rave reviews.  But he adds a detail that kinda changes everything, or at least it might:

Phil Can’t Quit The Saudis And Everyone Noticed

As I noted in Tuesday’s Quadrilateral on the preliminary PGA Championship field including Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, it was the first peep in months from Camp Mickelson tipped off his interest in a PGA Tour waiver to tee up at June’s LIV Golf Invitational outside London. News of his possible PGA Championship defense should have been the headline. But as more had a chance to digest agent Steve Loy’s statement, the headlines leaned heavily on Mickelson’s renewed desire to grab some scary m*&^$%@$%&er money. This one was a tad dramatic:

 


That headline came after the Telegraph’s James Corrigan reported Mickelson has signed an eight-event deal to play 2022’s LIV events. But even before that story, a couple of tough columns suggested Mickelson’s in for more heat than praise wherever he resurfaces.

 That Telegraph item is behind a paywall, but let's go the videotape.

As of my Wednesday post, the status quo ante was that LIV had for now abandoned their original model of having players sign with their new Tour, including a commitment to play in all events.  rather, their eight-tourney slate was an a la carte menu, allowing players to pick and choose events at their discretion.

Based on that, we had further reports that fifteen of the top one hundred players in the world wanted to play in London, which seemed a clever strategy to force Jay Monahan's hand.  As we've noted, the Tour has typically granted waivers for play overseas quite liberally, though I'm too lazy to worry about whether that's a legal right of the players or has just been the Tour's practice.

Obviously LIV created a nice little short squeeze for Jay in this conundrum.  For instance, King Louis, the fifteenth ranked player in the world, has reportedly request such a waiver.  On the one hand, it's

something that has always been approved.  the flip side, though is equally obvious, this waiver request is in support of an entity that has announced plans to hold events in the U.S, later in the year, in competition with PGA Tour events, and their publicly announced intentions to, checking notes, eat Jay's lunch.

Corrigan's reporting, though, is that Phil has committed to playing all eight of LIV's events, including those for which the Tour has never and simply cannot issue waivers.  Egads, an important lesson, kids, in going prematurely apocalyptic in blog posts.  I've been characterizing Phil's request for a waiver for the London event as a declaration of war, which I now deeply regret.  Because if applying for the first event is war mongering, then committing to all eight events is a Putinesque threat to go nuclear.

If true, how does this not go immediately thermonuclear?  Jay cannot ignore this with the red line he's drawn, though there are multiple level to the onion.  First, there's the obvious issue of verifying Corrigan's reporting.  the second obvious question is whether anyone else has so committed, and how exactly does one determine that?  the first two guys I'd want to get in an interrogation room would be Jon Rahm, given his ties to Phil's agent and recent public support of Phil, and King Louis, just because he's the most prominent player we have confirmed is involved.

But the other point I'd like to make, is what a lying piece of s**t Phil can be.  Again assuming the accuracy of Corrigan's reporting, remember Steve Loy's statement on behalf of his client:

“We have also filed a request on his behalf for a release to play in the first LIV Golf Invitational in London, June 9-11.”

Really?  That's all?  Are you sure there's nothing more that you might want to share with us?

I'll also share this item from Peter FitzSimons that Geoff linked to, not that's there anything new, it's just got Eamon Lynch-worthy metaphors:

What is the opposite of rats deserting a stinking ship?

The right metaphor escapes me but, whatever it is, I think you’ll find the golfer Phil Mickelson and his scurvy cohort now scrambling towards the stinking carcass of Greg Norman’s Saudi Arabian-backed golf tournament right in the middle of it. Come on you rats! Ignore the stench! Forget the torture chambers in the background, the public executions, the state-sponsored murders. Get into the rich offal!

Pretty sure that's the first offal reference in these pages, obviously an oversight on my part.

I don't know FitzSimons, but he has a pretty good call-and-response bit going, using Phil's own words:

“Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

Of course! Nothing to do with the millions of dollars on offer to sell out. It’s you and Greg, isn’t it, Phil? In there, fighting the good fight, to “help the game of golf”. And who can argue that it will help your remarkably genteel sport – which so values integrity that players still report their own misdemeanours and withdraw from lucrative tournaments even when they make inadvertent errors – to associate it with a murderous regime?

Readers have heard a long litany of criticisms of the PGA Tours operations, and I fear that Jay's reactions to this threat will only make matters worse.  But it needs to reinforced that while Phil might have some good arguments about Tour governance, he doesn't seem to have many allies among his fellow players.  You and I know that there were some leaners that Jay bought off, but Phil is out there alone right now.

The last question this new revelation poses relates to the PGA of America and the USGA.  I've read commentary that assumes that those organization will fall in line behind the Tour but, especially with Fred Ridley's comments denying that they asked Phil not to come, I don't the basis for that assumption.  

In that parsing of Phil's fauxpology, this closing sentence is not included, and I would have thought would be catnip to FitzSimons:

I know I have not been my best and desperately need some time away to prioritize the ones I love most and work on being the man I want to be.”

So, Phil, what kind of man do you want to be:

Changing gears,  at his blog Geoff has two amusing/interesting notes on LIV.  The first is catnip to both of us, another God-awful slogan in our game, one Geoff thinks makes Live Under Par more palatable:

Seriously?  You're going scatalogical?  

Let me quickly add that I can't find another reference to this anywhere else, but it's not April 1st to the best of my knowledge.

Geoff also has details on spectator options for those LIV events

But more importantly, you can now reserve Grounds passes in the $70-85 range for all but the LIV Golf series tournaments except the finale at Trump Doral. And I know, this sounds pricey for one day of golf where it’s a 4-hour shotgun start. But it’s a small price to pay when you get to see the likes of Garrigus!

Besides the general admission, there are some all-you-can-eat packages and Club 54 options for each event including a premium option that what looks like it goes for $13,000. Lee Westwood’s going to love when there are fans inside the ropes! And the post round Q&A…

Not especially interesting, except for one insight that is admittedly slow in coming to this observer.  Their planned shotgun format is especially dreadful for the on-sight fans, no?  Everyone will finish on different holes, so the 18th hole is somewhat irrelevant.  Obviously the leaders, what would be be the final group in a normal event, would logically start the final round o the first hole, and I think you'd logically start the next group on No.18, then 17 (as opposed to nos. 2 and 3), but good luck seeing the climactic shots that just got real.

There's still no real word on TV rights, although I have this browser tab open since God knows when:

Now there’s word that the rival start-up is talking with media companies about locking in
television and streaming rights. In a report by Front Office Sports, the circuit, headed up by Greg Norman, is hoping to land $500 million for its global media rights.

“Streaming platforms, particularly the Netflixes, the Amazons, the Apples, are truly global. That’s one path we could pursue,” said Sean Bratches, a former ESPN executive and LIV Golf’s chief commercial officer.

Seems to this observer about the only path they can pursue, but not an easy one at that.  The streaming is the easy part, it's the production that's difficult and extremely expensive, and here again their shotgun magnifies the issues because it logically requires coverage of all 18 holes.  That's a lot of cameras and, more importantly, camera operators, and the guys that know how to do this are previously committed.  

But, and here's what's important right now, your humble blogger can close a browser tab.

Have a great weekend and I'll catch you on Monday.

 

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Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Midweek Musings

The Wednesday Game has been moved to the afternoon again, so let's see what pleases your pallet today.

I know our fist subject, but that will consume so much oxygen we might not find a second...

It's On - The next few weeks will be lit, as per these recent headers:

Phil Mickelson requests release for LIV Golf Invitational event, registers for PGA and U.S. Open

I think you'll agree that his participation in a shotgun exhibition is more newsworthy than his attempt to complete the career Grand Slam.  More to the point, that seems consistent with his priorities.

Then there's this:

15 top-100 players signed up for the first LIV Golf event, full field announcement coming in May

Only fourteen of whom are anonymous at this point.

Steve Loy's name came up recently in these pages, given his involvement as agent for both Phil and a Certain portly Spaniard whose fealty has been oft discussed.  Kinda interesting how that Phil news was released, no?

Was there a death in the family?  All black seems a somber voice in which to announce his title defense at Southern Hills, although does anybody know why he's warning us that Phil might not actually play?

That first link above contains no additional information, other than a recitation of Phil's fauxpology.

The second includes this:

Fifteen of the top 100 players in the Official World Golf Ranking have signed up for the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series event at Centurion Golf Club outside London, set for June
9-11. The news, first reported by SI.com, has been confirmed by Golf Digest.

The deadline for PGA Tour members to apply for a conflicting-event release, which is necessary to play in any golf tournament held opposite a PGA Tour event, is Monday at 5 p.m. EDT. Only 48 players will compete in the breakaway series’ first event, which will feature a 54-hole no-cut format with shotgun starts and offer $20 million in individual prize money. A LIV Golf spokesman did not reveal any names of players but said the full field list will be released May 27.

The PGA Tour did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

No, I'll bet they didn't.   The ball is back in Jay's court, although it's hard to discern the logical response without some sense of who those fourteen might be.  But Jay has an event to protect, and it's a non-frivolous consideration given the event involved:

LIV Golf's Centurion event takes place the same week as the RBC Canadian Open, which is back on the PGA Tour schedule after COVID-19 issues forced the cancellation of the tournament for the last two years.

A national championship (well, technically) that's in rebound mode, with lots of Tour players sporting those RBC logos.  One assumes none of those guys are in the Fealty-Free Fourteen...

The underlying Telegraph article is behind a paywall, but I'm unclear whay this is presented as mere speculation:

Ya think?  

I'm reminded of that recent Mark Cannizzaro editorial in which he argue that Phil should be allowed to return from purgatory, whereas your humble blogger thought it more likely than not that Phil desired purgatory.  We now have his answer via Mr. Loy.

Circling back to that fauxpology, it was limited to say the least:

...but the bigger issue is that I used words I sincerely regret that do not reflect my true feelings or intentions. It was reckless, I offended people, and I am deeply sorry for my choice of words. I’m beyond disappointed and will make every effort to self-reflect and learn from this.”

The elipsis is that portion in which he half-heartedly accused Alan Shipnuck of using his words out of context, but the bottom line is that Phil might have chosen a wrong word or two.  "Scary MoFo's" pops to mind, but he speaks like a man that doesn't think he's done anything wrong except for a poorly chosen noun or two...

So, color me unsurprised that he hasn't given up the dream of playing for the bonecutters.... And perhaps he'll deign to defend his PGA and make a jet-lagged effort at the career slam, but his mission of growing the game by putting the PGA Tour out of business remains the mission.

Derek Lawrenson has some thoughts:

It is hard to think of anything more depressingly predictable than Phil Mickelson's request for a
release from the PGA Tour to join the inaugural Saudi cash grab at St Albans in June.

Once the organisers made it clear some weeks ago that he would be 'welcome any time' and that he had been forgiven for his unguarded description of the Saudis as 'scary motherf*****s', you knew that he would follow the money trail. He apparently can't help himself.

Mickelson has owned up to being one of the original architects of the proposed Super Golf League, now pushed down the road until 2024 at the earliest.

Maybe Derek didn't parse the apology with the same obsessiveness as your humble blogger, but this was the only actual apology contained therein:

“My experience with LIV Golf Investments has been very positive. I apologize for anything I said that was taken out of context. The specific people I have worked with are visionaries and have only been supportive. More importantly they passionately love golf and share my drive to make the game better. They have a clear plan to create an updated and positive experience for everyone including players, sponsors, networks, and fans.

They're bonecutters and golf visionaries, quite the well-rounded athletes.

Derek seems to know (or, more likely, thinks he knows) how this will play out in the short-term:

It won't cost him anything in terms of burning bridges back in America. The PGA Tour will grant him a release because the event is not taking place on US soil. When the LIV Series moves to America in July is when Mickelson will have a decision to make.

He will be banned from the PGA Tour if he plays in one of those, but it looks as if he's committed lock, stock and oil barrel to the Saudis.

Is that right?  I think the practice has been to approve waivers for overseas events on other associated tours, but I'm not sure anyone has had the temerity to hold a competitive event on U.S. Soil.  But this event is with a group that has announced dates for such events, so seems like there's no precedent upon which we can rely.

 Jay, on the other hand, has been clear that anyone "signing up" with these folks will be banned from the PGA Tour, a line that seems to this observer to be very, well, red.  Jay orchestrated quite the show of support the week of Riviera, teaching Jon Rahm new vocabulary and all.  But one assumes he's getting an earful from the folks at RBC, and myths of invulnerability can be punctured awfully quickly.

Derek's rousing coda seems a bit overwrought:

As for the Saudi event at the Centurion in St Albans, get ready for something far from gladiatorial.

There's a war going on, people are struggling everywhere to pay their bills, and yet 48 golfers, half of whom will be journeymen at best, will play a glorified exhibition 54-hole tournament for a $4million first prize, with even last place getting $120,000.

Is it possible to conceive a worse optic for golf than that?

Professional golfers have been raking it in for decades now, and this is just the WGC model on steroids.  I doubt the increased purses moves the needle, though the Saudi backing and opposition of most of Phil's peers does.    

But where this does hit hardest is in Europe D.P. Land:

All told, 15 of the world's top 100 have supposedly requested releases for the LIV opener, with the usual names bandied around. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer — if there's a European Ryder Cup hero coming to the end of his career, it seems, he will be down to play.

The interesting thing will be if the DP World Tour follow through with their threat to prevent anyone who signs up for a Saudi event from becoming a Ryder Cup captain in the future.

It looks as if Westwood, Poulter and Garcia — three shoo-ins for the job under normal circumstances — are ready to call their bluff and see who blinks first. It would certainly damage the credibility of the Ryder Cup if all three were overlooked for the post.

Irony alert:  Our great Ryder Cup Task Force, led by...checking notes...Phil, has modelled itself on that European model.

However else this plays out, the future of the Euro Tour seems plenty dismal.  They are nothing more than a feeder tour for the Korn Ferry at this point, with only the allure of Ryder Cup participation motivating players to absorb the extra travel and inconvenience to maintain membership.  If you're a young player of European lineage, watching your Ryder Heroes opt out of captaincies for a mess of pottage might be more than a little troubling....

Related Items - Given his treatment by the Tour and others, you knew he's be all in:

Meanwhile, the LIV Golf Invitational Series is set to announce Monday that the final event of its eight-tournament schedule will be played at Trump National Doral in Miami in October.

The correlation goes back six years, when the PGA Tour decided to leave Doral after a history of tournaments at the venue that dated to 1962.

Then a WGC event, it was moved to Mexico City for a four-year run that was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic last year and moved to Florida for a one-off event one by Collin Morikawa, with the WGC distinction being dropped this year.

There's some relevant context to the move from Doral, which is perfectly fair.  But amusingly left unsaid is that one of the earlier events is at Trump Bedminster, ironically where the PGA Championship was supposed to be.

Buried deep in this story is that LIV has apparently abandoned the team concept for the first seven events, but this final event at Doral is exclusively a team competition, though with no details on format.

The Book - To review the state of play, the PGA Championships begins on May 19th, whereas Alan Shipnuck's tome drops on May 17th.  Alan has previously noted that it's all in there, Phil in Phull, if you will.  Caught this in my Twitter feed:

Very similar to my own take, in which I bifurcate the world into Good Phil and Bad Phil, though I'm not sure where that first guy has been lately.

You Wouldn't Loy To Us, Would You? - Shockingly, there's a reason that I made sure to include that reference to Steve Loy above.  As agent for both Phil, who pheels no phealty, and Jon Rahm, he's at the epicenter for sure.  And now Jon puts in a good word for his buddy:

“That guy has given his life to golf,” Rahm said about Mickelson. “A lot of what we have, a lot of
people don’t know, a lot of what we have and what we are competing for right now is because of [Phil]. A lot of people focus on Tiger, but [Mickelson] is easily one of the top 10 best players of all time. He is a Hall of Famer, and we should recognize him as that. He has given his life to the public. No one has signed more autographs, no one has done more for the fans.

“I know he’s in a bit of a slump for whatever it may be. I don’t think his whole career or whole legacy should change because of a couple comments.”

As with the "fealty" comment, I'd need to see if he was blinking his eyelids to send us a message in Morse code.  But note how his comments mirror the Mickelson fauxpolgy, attempting to limit the crime to a couple of poorly chose words. 

Rahm’s ties to Mickelson run deep; Rahm played for Phil’s brother Tim at Arizona State with Phil serving as a mentor for Rahm when the Spaniard arrived on tour. Rahm is also represented by the aforementioned Loy. Moreover, Rahm is not the first to defend Mickelson, as Rory McIlroy asserted back in March that the players “want to see [Phil] back.”

Nevertheless, Rahm preached forgiveness for Mickelson while contending that the road to forgiveness starts with Phil.

“Everyone makes mistakes and everything can be rectified. I believe that can happen,” Rahm said, “but it has to come from him as well.”

Yes, out-of-work caddie Tim Mickelson was his college coach as well as his agent, until taking Phil's bag.

After The Fall - Or Phil gets results:

A future in which the main PGA Tour season runs from January to August is coming into focus. GOLF has learned that the Tour’s Player Advisory Council recently discussed a schedule shift for the second time this year, a change that could open the door for a new fall competition series.

As has become customary, the Player Advisory Council — made up of 16 players — met shortly after the Masters, at last week’s RBC Heritage. In the April 12 meeting, the PAC discussed a proposed new schedule format that will focus on the “core” FedEx Cup season and leave room in the fall months for top players to take leave — if they so wish — without losing out on FedEx Cup points and creating a deficit before the meat of the season. During those fall months, the top performers from the FedEx Cup season would be allowed to compete “in a series of newly created international events.”

The PGA Tour’s typical fall event schedule, which in 2021 included nine events, would exist on its own and would serve to “finalize eligibility” for players who didn’t finish as high in the FedEx Cup the previous season.

The difference between this and the LIV schedule?  That's simple, Jay controls it....

Quite the hot mess.  The PGA Tour is quite the hot mess, though Phil's diagnosis differs substantially from my own.  Mine starts with the dreary, life-sapping boredom of week-to-week events, the indifferent venues and the forced, suck the oxygen out of the room Fall schedule whose only purpose seems to be to not leave space for any other golf events around the world.

Phil, in contrast, seems to believe that all of golf's problems can be solved by giving Phillip Mickelson more power and money.  It's a credible position, and it's hard to understand why his peers left him holding the bag.  

The real problem is that Phil's antics will result in reactions that make positive change even harder.  I've unloaded her eon my thoughts about the PIP program, and this latest announcement is just another brick in the wall.  How crazy is this?  This new Fall series is not in lieu of the current calendar, but rather in competition with their own sponsors.  Sheesh, if I were the kind of guy to call people names, I might accuse Jay of obnoxious greed.

Gonna leave this sordid mess here, and we'll see how the near future plays out.  Catch you down the road.

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Monday, April 25, 2022

Weekend Wrap

Belated apologies for the lack of warning about removing the blogging ball-and-chain on Friday.  In a warmth-challenged Spring, it was simply too nice a day to miss....

Schaufflay In Full - Big deal, they were supposed to win, no?  Form always holds in our game, or so I've been reliably informed:

It all started with a 59, and it all ended with a record-setting victory. Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele each nabbed their first wins of 2022 Sunday, teaming up at the Zurich Classic to shoot 29 under, better than any pair in the young history of the team event.

The American Ryder Cup duo used a Sunday 72 in alternate shot to polish off a wire-to-wire finish at TPC Louisiana, but it was hardly the most impressive round of their week. The real fire from Team Cant-elle (or is it Schauff-lay?) came on Thursday and Saturday, during the best ball portions of the competition.

On Thursday, they grabbed hold of the tournament with the aforementioned 59, a tournament record that even they couldn’t get excited about. “We played really well, made a lot of putts today on a day that was a little tricky with the wind and didn’t birdie a lot of the same holes. When you do that in this format, that’s really the key.”

Pretty sure that Schaufflay is the accepted portmanteau here, as the other alternative sounds like a mushroom.  But while best-ball scores are crazy low, their 59-60 is a little hard to ignore...

I do prefer this year's format, when they played alternate shot in the final round, although the winners took most of the drama out of the proceedings.  Still, it wasn't much of an event before they settled on the team concept, so at least there's a reason for avid golf fans to tune in.

For instance, this doesn't happen in best-ball:

Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown, best buddies from Aiken, South Carolina, are playing in this
week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Their best finish at this event came back in 2017 when Kisner chipped in on 18 to force a playoff. They would go on to lose to Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith.

Today, the Aiken boys ran into quite the problem at the par-3 9th at TPC Louisiana. It started when Brown found the water off the tee. After taking a drop, Kisner also found the water. Then, after another drop, Brown chunked a wedge into the water again.

Not great.

Kisner would find the green with his second attempt and leave Brown with a 13-foot putt for an 8 which he made to save the team from having to write three times the par on their scorecard.

Good times.  

But am I the only curmudgeon that has a wee issue with how this was adjudicated?

Two shots back of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele with three holes to play at the Zurich
Classic of New Orleans, the team of Sam Burns and Billy Horschel decided to get aggressive on the drivable par-4 16th at TPC Louisiana. The reward of trying to convert a potential eagle putt was worth the risk of possibly hitting it into the water guarding the front and left side of the green on the 299-yard hole.

When Burns tugged his drive into said water, it created another decision of sorts: Where exactly did the ball cross into the penalty area?

The TV angle was inconclusive, but here are the dispositive provisions:

As you can hear, Horschel did not see precisely where the ball landed but felt that the ball likely hit outside the red line because he believed that he would not otherwise have been able to see the ball bounce from the tee box given the elevation difference from the teeing area. Day said he didn’t see the ball splash but didn’t pay attention to where the ball crossed.

So he's guessing what his angle might have been from well over 250 yards away?  Sounds legit to me...

“The ball was six inches into the water,” Burns interjected. “If it lands close to the edge, it's going to kick pretty hard in, but if it lands higher up it's going to kind of …”

So you're saying the science is settled?  

They had no idea where the ball landed, and in such circumstances I'd been led to believe that the assumption must be made that it landed in the hazard....which is exactly what happened to Harold Varner the prior week.

 So, earlier in the week Billy had this bit:

I certainly don't hate you, Billy, but not loving you either at the present moment.

Anchors Away -  I'll use this week's Tour Confidential Q&A's to cover a few stories that got left on the cutting room floor, though the most interesting aspect of this week's edition is the absence of a single question about the Zurich.  Combined with some seemingly flattering coverage of the Saudi efforts, one wonders if there's some friction between Golf Magazine and the Mothership.

First up, that Pebble announcement:

1. The USGA announced Pebble Beach as its third U.S Open anchor site, joining Pinehurst No. 2 and Oakmont Country Club. Pebble Beach Golf Links also received six more U.S.
Opens (three men’s, three women’s) and now has eight scheduled over the next 26 years. John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer, said there’s more “exciting things to come down the road.” Two questions: if there’s a fourth anchor site, what should it be? And what are your thoughts on the anchor-venue system now that future Open schedules are starting to take shape?

Dylan Dethier: I think /this is generally a good thing. There’s obviously a tradeoff here — one awesome thing about the major championships (non-Masters division) is the way they showcase the country’s best courses — but locking in a reliable set of top-tier courses will help fans get to know them better and appreciate them more. Pebble, Oakmont and Pinehurst each also provide distinctly different tests. They look different, feel different, play different. The fourth site? Chambers Bay, of course! (I’d love to see more of the country represented, too, if possible. And I welcome further discussion about whether Oakmont is in the Northeast or the Midwest.) 

Sean Zak: Shinnecock is the obvious choice here. Or just New York at large, bouncing between Shinny and Winged Foot. Much as I might be talking out both sides of my mouth here (see below question), I think it’s fine that the biggest Open championship in American golf goes to the very best, classical courses of American golf.

Josh Berhow: It’s fun to explore new courses and great for those states/communities, but we are programmed to like things that are familiar to us. The three anchor sites are all great and different kinds of tests, but I really like the idea of having these trusty options in our back pocket while spending some years exploring elsewhere, like what we did with an Erin Hills or Chambers Bay, for example. But this is a smart move. And, as Sean said, Shinnecock Hills or Winged Foot seem like the obvious next options if a fourth anchor course is added.

Luke Kerr-Dineen: Something in the northeast, because few things in golf are better than a rowdy New York crowd on a major championship Sunday. Shinnecock — an obviously good candidate — has been thrown around already, so how about Bethpage Black?

Before we get to the serious bits, wouldn't you have thought that some editor would help Luke avoid beclowning himself?  Obviously Bethpage got the "It's not you, it's me" speech from the USGA, and is now solidly in the PGA of America rota (Luke, you might have heard talk about a Ryder Cup there).

Obviously the Open will return to Pebble, exactly no one has argued otherwise.  But this idea of awarding U.S. Opens in 2049 seems at best fanciful, an overreaction one assumes to the Erin Hills/Chambers Bay pushback.  To assume you'd understand the requirements that far into the future is just hubris, but they allegedly know that they're doing....

As for a fourth anchor, Shinny and The Foot are the obvious choices, though if Merion and The Country Club are still in the rota, that's a pretty meaningful East Coast bias.  Especially since Oakmont is at the very least Eastern, if not Northeastern.

The follow-up, though, misses the boat by a wide margin:

2. Our Sean Zak wrote that with the U.S. Open’s new anchor system, some important/worthy courses and areas of the U.S. will be left out. That’s why, he says, returning to these under-visited areas could become the PGA Championship’s calling card. Agree? Is there a move or thought-process for the PGA here?

Dethier: Oh, I jumped the gun a bit with my previous answer. Yes! The PGA Championship should live on the cutting edge. You go where the U.S. Open won’t. That means new courses. It means different courses. It means showcasing styles of play and regions of the country traditionally underrepresented by the professional game. Take me to Wild Horse in Nebraska, PGA of America!

Zak: I totally agree with the column discussed above, 100 percent. Really, I just love the idea of players showing up to a course they don’t know that well and trying to see if their golf will be better than anyone else’s. That’s what took place all over this country in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Berhow: For sure. The Masters has Augusta. The Open has quirky links golf. The U.S. Open, we are now seeing, has some of America’s most iconic, classic courses. I’m not sure what the PGA of America’s niche should be, or if there should even be one, but it’s the perfect opportunity to think outside the box and throw some wild cards out there.

Kerr-Dineen: This could be a blessing in disguise for the PGA Championship, for all the reasons mentioned above. Of course, let’s not forget that PGA Championship venues are booked through 2034, so it’ll take a while for the PGA Championship’s newfound identity to take hold.

Do any of these guys actually follow golf?

Luke makes a good point about the schedule being full, but ignores that elephant in the corner....  Where are they going between now and 2034?  Well, let's see, Southern Hills, Oak Hill, Olympic, Baltusrol, Olympic and Congressional.  What do these venues have in common?  Yup, all U.S. Open hand-me-down sites.  So, good luck with that live on the edge argument...

The only exceptions to the above are their new digs in Frisco, talk about classic venues, and Aronimink, which is exactly the kind of place they should go to, but will nly do so on rare occasions.

Today in Gratuitous Saudi Bashing - Leading with the TC gang:

3. First reported by Golfweek, pro Robert Garrigus confirmed he requested a release from the PGA Tour to play in the first LIV Golf International Series event, which is June 9-11 in London. He’s the first player to be publicly named, but Garrigus, 44, who is outside the top 1,000 in the world ranking, isn’t much of a household name. Still, will this news make it easier for other interested pros to join, or will it have little impact on potential players on the fence?

Dethier: Does this make it easier? No, not really. It hardly caused a stir even within golf’s mini media ecosystem. What it did, though, is bring this thing one step closer to becoming real. The moment pros like Garrigus actually tee it up with unthinkable sums of money on the line is the moment PGA Tour pros are going to think harder about the entire system. What happens then will give us the clearest idea yet of what’s next.

Zak: The thought of Robert Garrigus cashing in should have all our respective attentions, at least for one tournament. Like Dylan said, the reaction to someone of lesser ilk raking in enough money to live fat and happy for a year will raise some eyebrows and cultivate some opinions. For that reason alone — all other details aside — it’ll be interesting. I think I’m more interested to see who will be playing in the fourth event than the first.

Berhow: It isn’t about to twist the arms of some of the world top 10 into playing, but it’s the latest domino to drop and it counts for something. I agree with Dylan that it makes it seem more real. We’ve been hearing for months that names are going to be announced soon, and while we still don’t have that, we have one real human who is looking to tee it up. That first tournament field might be really… interesting. But I’m still looking forward to seeing what it shakes out to be.

Kerr-Dineen: It’ll have a small and incremental effect on making it easier for other pros in the future, which is the entire point. This league is going to pick off players, slowly and surely, bit by bit. Each year it’ll get slightly higher-ranked ones until the exercise becomes normalized along the way. Garrigus isn’t a household name, but he doesn’t need to be. He just needs to serve as the first step in the process.

Hard to understand the logic of this question at this juncture, since Garrigus is quite obviously a stalking horse.  These naïfs seem to assume that Garrigus will show up and play as a single for that $25 million large,  which ain't about to happen.

We're waiting for at least two balls to drop, perhaps three as I think about it.  First, the Tour's reaction to the Garrigus waiver request, and simultaneously to see who else applies for such a waiver.  The third ball is obviously Phil....  

From here they segue to that 30-30:

4. ESPN’s latest 30 for 30 doc “Shark,” debuted last week, and it featured Greg Norman’s rollercoaster career and, specifically, heartbreaking Masters loss in 1996. Did the doc teach you anything you didn’t know about Norman, or instead remind you of something you might have forgotten?

Dethier: It taught me that Norman called CBS in the early morning hours of Masters Sunday in ‘96. Think about that. Think about Scheffler spending his Sunday morning on the phone with CBS this year. What a way to focus your energies! I was intrigued with Norman’s stated ability to come to peace with his near-misses. And wow, were there a lot of them.

Zak: It kinda should teach us that timing is everything. The timing of this doc, coming out after the Masters and not before. The timing of a doc on Norman at all, as he tries to maintain a level of relevancy in the game. It’s all a bit fishy to me, but I might just be wearing a tin-foil hat.

Berhow: I learned that the pain of a near-miss while at the doorstep of one of your biggest career aspirations never really goes away, which was evident watching Norman watch himself down the stretch. Could see it all in his eyes.

Kerr-Dineen: The doc cast a fascinating light on Greg Norman’s outlook on his own career. Good, bad or lucky, Norman resigned a lot of things to fate. When he was meant to win, he won. When he wasn’t, he didn’t. It’s unusual to hear a top player talk like this. The Tiger Woods’ or Jack Nicklaus’ of the world often talked of making their own fate through sheer force of will. Norman was a talent of a different ilk, and that laissez faire attitude is ultimately what allowed collapses like the 1996 Masters to happen.

I have exactly zero interest in anything related to Norman, though that's the first I've heard about a call to CBS.  I might need to watch it just to suss out what that was about...

But Norman can be quite delusional about his role in the golf ecosystem.  A while back we had him beating his bared chest and telling us that he would have beaten Tiger like he beat everyone else, having apparently forgotten his inability to handle Larry Mize, Robert Gamez and Bob Tway.

Witness the self-delusion in this minor little story:

Greg Norman has never seen a publicity stunt that didn’t catch his eye. Still, in many ways his latest was among the most outrageous. Late last week Norman, 67, spoke with News Corp. in
Australia about making a comeback to competitive golf after a 13-year absence, with an interest in participating in the Open Championship when it returns to the Old Course in July.

“I think I can still get in,” Norman said. “It’s the 150th. I’m a past Open champion. I love St. Andrews. If there’s a moment in time that I would consider going back and teeing off one last time, maybe this is it. I’m filling out my entry form now, I think I’m going. I think I can still get in.”

Never mind that Norman, twice a winner of the claret jug, hasn’t played in the event since 2009 at Turnberry. And that he’s not currently exempt into the 2022 field, given past champions maintain eligibility in the championship only up to their 60th birthday.

Sure, Greg.  I mean, how can they even consider holding an Open without you?

Not surprisingly, the R&A quickly had a response for Norman, albeit never using his name directly. A spokesman released the following statement over the weekend:

“The entry terms and conditions for The Open stipulate that a champion must be aged 60 or under or have won the championship in the previous 10 years to be exempt from qualifying. That remains the case for The 150th Open, and we have no plans for any additional exemptions.”

That's delusional if Norman hadn't been in the news lately....But these aren't normal times:

To think the response would have been anything other than this is a bit of fantasy give Norman’s involvement with LIV Golf Investments and the group’s overt attempt to establish a rival golf league to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. Shortly after LIV Golf Investments unveiled a partnership with the Asian Tour last fall, the R&A announced that it was pulling back its exemption to the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit winner. Similarly, the R&A made no direct reference to Norman or LIV Golf at that time, a spokesman noting: “We review and update our exemptions from time to time and any changes are considered carefully by our championships committee.”

The timing, however, seemed hardly coincidental.

It's also counter-productive, as it will remind of a Norman collapse that doesn't get much attention.  He was paired with Faldo in the final group of the third round of the 1990 Open Championship at the Old Course, with the two four shots clear of the field.   In an eerie preview of the more famous 1996 Masters, Faldo shot 67 and Norman ballooned to an ugly 76, so by all means let's revisit your St. Andrews history, Greg.

We also have an Eamon Lynch pile-on with which to amuse ourselves.  I'm not sure any new ground is covered, but scores are certainly settled:

Norman was announced as the CEO of LIV Golf in October and has beclowned himself with his
every public utterance since, cementing a reputation that will encompass not only his inability to finish big tournaments but his ineptitude in starting them too. What was promised as a seismic shake-up of global golf is looking more like a bonanza for washed-up also-rans. Consider what Norman has presided over since the Saudi ambitions in golf came into focus and all you’ll find is backtracking.

Those 12-18 events they touted? Not happening.

The league format? Same.

An elite team concept? Nope.

The best golfers in world? Let’s hear it for Robert Garrigus.

A fresh, engaging product for fans? See above.

Shouldn't a clown show be more, yanno, amusing?

The only entertainment guaranteed in this venture is an overdue comeuppance for the Great White Pilot Fish, whose tenure began with an interview in which he marveled at the sight of women dining in Saudi restaurants sans burkas. Later, he addressed the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “What happened to Khashoggi was reprehensible. There’s not a person on this planet who would not agree with me,” he said, perhaps forgetting that the Crown Prince who ordered Khashoggi’s dismemberment by bonesaw—the same man who pays Norman—might not agree with him. That he followed this declaration with “But…” is damning enough without it being necessary to recount the chicken-hearted prevarications he duly offered.

Norman has also shown the familiar maladroit touch with Augusta National that defined his playing career there. “We respect the Masters and we thought we’d let it go off before our announcements,” he said last week.

“…we thought we’d let it go off…”

Oh, to have been Fred Ridley’s watchful manservant when he read that over his morning coffee.

Not sure that they reciprocate on the respect thing... In fact, pretty sure they don't:

Augusta National invites all former major champions to the Masters as a courtesy, but somehow lost Norman’s address in 2022.

As long as we're piling on, this is pretty funny, if only for that fact check:

In this matter, I've always viewed Norman as a figurehead.  The Saudi's needed a public face, and the Shark was desperate for continuing relevance in the golf world, and would allow any of those pesky standards to get in the way.

But I feel compelled to add my usual note of perspective here.  Let's remember that as recently as 2021, the Saudi event was a legitimate Euro Tour event, and that all tours hold events in countries as noxious as the Saudis.  Can you say China?  I thought you could...

Hall of Lame - And I don't think we can pin this on Monty, at least not completely:


With a brand-new interchange off Interstate 95 and a location 20 miles south of Jacksonville, one million visitors were projected to pull off and attend the Hall and IMAX Theater, the 400,000 square feet of shops anchored by a 32,000-square-foot golf shop, golf-themed restaurants and two championship courses that would host a PGA Tour Champions event and episodes of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf.

LPGA Hall of Fame member Pat Bradley, who attended the first induction when Nick Faldo and Miller joined the exclusive membership, summed up what it meant to have a place where the greats of the game were celebrated: “It’s thrilling to know that long after I’ve left this world, people can gather and see the history of golf in this facility.”

Perhaps if they had contemplated failure, they might have summoned the urgency to make at least slightly interesting.... Because, failing is exactly what it's doing.  But this seems the ticket, no?

Florida Times-Union columnist Gene Frenette hopes if there is a shift, it means moving trucks will simply head south down I-95.

If the WGHOF moves after a quarter-century in St. John’s County, one logical destination could be a place that deserves consideration as the golf capital of the world – Palm Beach County.

Just Jupiter alone is home to five of the world’s top-10 golfers — Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa — as well as four-time major champion Brooks Koepka. Oh, yeah, and Jupiter Island is where the 757th-ranked player in the world, Tiger Woods, has a residence.

Yeah, because Patrick Cantlay's home is such a tourist attraction...Sheesh, hard to see why they're failing.

That's it for now, kids.  I expect that I'll see you all on Wednesday, if not sooner.

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Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Midweek Musings

Your humble blogger is happy for any media coverage, so even though this item isn't technically about me...
Man Shows Wife How To Close The 8,537 Browser Tabs She Has Open

 Hey, unlike your humble blogger, she at least has some rudimentary tech support.

“See honey, that 'X' in the upper right corner allows you to close that tab you are no longer using,” said Clarence to his wife, Clarice, as she nodded along while not really listening because she saw a tab showing a swimsuit she had been looking at a few months ago, but was now probably ready to buy. “All you need to do is is tap that 'X' with your finger, and it’s gone. Simple as an oil change.”

Good thing I got to it early, as Twitter will be shutting down the Babylon Bee in 3,2,1.  Nothing shows a genuine commitment to fighting disinformation on a non-partisan basis quite like suspending satirical sites.

Haven't We Suffered Enough? - I'm amused remembering Phil's whine about paying the Tour for the waiver for these.  Somehow, for this one, I'm betting there's no personal check from Phil made out to Jay Monahan.  But, it's back:

The only place you'll see four of the last five NFL MVPs competing at the same time and same place this year is on a golf course.

This year's version of Capital One's The Match will feature a foursome of Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. The 12-hole exhibition will take place on June 1 (6:30 p.m. ET on TNT) at Wynn Las Vegas, the only golf course on the Las Vegas Strip.

It will be the old guard against the youngsters with Brady and Rodgers versus Mahomes and Allen, Turner Sports announced on Monday.

Brady and Rodgers played in The Match last year but as opponents. They were paired with PGA Tour stars Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau last July in Big Sky, Montana. Rodgers and DeChambeau won the match, with Rodgers clinching the victory by making a 12-foot putt on the 16th hole.

There have been five previous editions of Capital One's The Match that have raised nearly $33 million for various charitable organizations, according to Turner Sports.

The single most dramatic moment in the prior installments was Tom Brady's pants splitting, so one can see where he was a shoo-in to return.  And since they seem to be going for active QBs, perhaps that explains the flip-flop about retirement.

Notable also is that, despite the last version being such a dud, they're sticking with the 12-hole match.  But with no actual professional golfers, I'm struggling to understand who might check in on this.  The amateurs were the most interesting part of earlier versions, but mostly limited to Phil's coaching thereof.  On their own?

It's on a Wednesday night, so doesn't compete with tournament golf, at least not directly.  Withoit the presence of Tour members, I'm not sure this requires a waiver from Ponte Vedra Beach, which is likely why it includes no actual professional golfers.  

Also no word on whether Phil will be in the booth.  I don't see why not, as he doesn't need to be in London until June 9th.

But I've Already Seen Titanic - The secret ingredient (the bride loves her Chopped) would seem to be golf too painful to watch... Think I'm kidding?

Color me skeptical, as I'm pretty sure that I can turn off Greg Norman AND Nick Faldo anytime I choose....  Though, why take chances, better never to turn it on.

There is a moment early on in “Shark,” ESPN’s latest 30 for 30 documentary film, when you hear
the soothing voice of CBS veteran broadcaster Verne Lundquist say, “This one might go down as one of the greatest final-round collapses in major tournament history.” The viewer has just been shown a highlight from the 1996 Masters, when Greg Norman nearly chips in at the 15th hole and then falls to the ground as the ball veers past the cup. The camera pulls back, and you see that Norman is hearing those words as he watches the highlight on a laptop. He rests his face on his hand, and then he lets a finger drop over his lips. He looks off in the distance. He doesn’t say a word.

It is an awkward few seconds that auger more uncomfortable moments to come. “Shark” is a montage of Norman’s playing career—his star turn as the charismatic actor who held the World No. 1 ranking for 331 weeks in the 1980 and ’90s, and, of course, his many star-crossed episodes in major championships. But throughout the one-hour program, which premieres at 8:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 19, there is the tenor of omnipresent funereal dread, because woven throughout the narrative is the crushing defeat Norman suffered at Augusta National Golf Club 26 years ago.

Norman at one point concedes that viewing his life and career through the prism of his Masters disappointments, particularly ’96, has some relevance. “I think my history there [at Augusta] is more entrenched than some guys who have won a green jacket, to be honest with you,” he says.

Hmmm, don't know about that, but you're very much up there with Ed Sneed and Scott Hoch.

This is more than a little ironic:

A line that resonates throughout this hour-long film comes near the beginning: “The tragedy is not that he loses, but that he almost wins. That’s the compelling nature of Greg.” Documenting those various “almost” incidents is the compelling nature of “Shark,” co-directed by Thomas Odelfelt and Jason Hehir, the latter who directed “The Last Dance,” the immensely captivating 10-part series on Michael Jordan that aired in 2020. The two offerings in the canon could not be more different in tone, however, owing largely to the climax. We know Jordan wins. We know Norman loses.

We’re watching an elegy.

For anyone that hasn't seen The Last Dance, it's really quite excellent.  But Greg Norman would clearly be the Bizarro World Michael Jordan...

It's getting favorable press, I just have no interest in spending any more time than is strictly necessary with Mr. Norman.  Also, I tend to avoid anything that might induce a sympathetic reaction to Nick Faldo...

Fact Checking Sir Mumbles - Did someone mention the artist formerly known as Nick Foldo?  We flooded the zone covering his spoiler of that Rory McIlroy bunker shot at Augusta, including his attempts to deflect blame.  It seems when he gest excited that we can no longer expect him to do his job, which ironically was also the case in his prior job.

I just have zero tolerance for the man.  One of these days I'll waste a few hours and make a transcript of his analyst work, just to put on paper the mindless drivel that comes out of his mouth.  Even allowing for the vast amounts of air that need filling, it's mindless drivel that emerges from his pie hole, and even that is such an obvious struggle to get out.

When I heard this on that Saturday broadcast, I turned to Employee No.2 and said, "Is that true?"

During Saturday’s third-round coverage at the Masters, Tiger Woods had just left a putt short on
10 when CBS lead analyst Nick Faldo said: “There are so many things to calculate. The greens will be cold, the grass will be cold. I can promise you it makes a difference.”

It was a passing comment, but it echoed in the ether. The implication seemed to be that cool temperatures at Augusta National — it was in the high-30s at 7 a.m. that day with temperatures topping out at only 54 degrees in the early-evening — had made Woods’ putt roll slower.

It seems I wasn't the only one asking that:

Anyone buying anything from NF?

Perhaps we should consult someone that knows something, which immediately excludes Sir Mumbles?  

And, so, the question: Does turf temperature affect the pace of putting surfaces, and, if so, how?

Bob Ranum is a turf consultant and the former longtime superintendent at Atlantic Golf Club, on Long Island. He was at Augusta on Saturday. In his opinion, it was “a good day for green speed.” If anything, he noted, “When you have these low temperatures, the bent grass will slow its growth down and in turn the greens will typically speed up.”

Low temperatures, Ranum said, only slow down putting surfaces when combined with humidity; when the air gets sticky, greens can turn sticky, too.

But on Saturday at Augusta, the humidity was negligible, Ranum says. (If it you’re keeping score at home, it was 42 percent, according to the National Weather Service.)

Just making crap up.  Want another opinion?

Another educated opinion comes from Jeremy Hreben, superintendent at Indian Spring Country Club, in New Jersey, and president of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New Jersey. Like Ranum, Hreben said that he couldn’t see how lower temperatures would slow down greens. On the flip side, he noted, when temperatures soar, turf sucks up more moisture from the soil, yielding firmer, drier conditions. In that respect, he said, he can see how higher temperatures would help yield faster, bouncier overall conditions.

But he promised!  Nick Faldo and the Mute button, perfect together.

Perfect Together? -  Admittedly it's a strange run of stories today, but we'll score this one as the NIL deal made in heaven:


John Daly II has played exactly one team tournament for the University of Arkansas and posted just a single round under par during that event, but that didn’t stop the freshman from signing a name, image, likeness deal with Hooters, an agreement that was announced on Tuesday.

The son of two-time major champ John Daly played in one tournament last fall for the Razorbacks, posting scores of 83-68-78 at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational in October. He also played in an individual event.

Your humble blogger is stilly trying to understand what it means to do a NIL deal, but to do it with a restaurant chain seems a bridge too far for this observer.  I assume it comes with a parking spot at the Washington Road branch for the second week of April, but other than that it's all just words.  

But the youngster seems committed to repeating all the mistakes of the father, so I'll not invest any further time.

First of Three - There's three books about Phil Mickelson due to drop, with Alan Shipnuck's unauthorized biography the most notable (it did garner some press, as you may have heard) and best-timed (due to drop on the Tuesday of PGA Championship week).

Geoff devotes a freebie Quadrilateral to a Q&A with author Bob Harig, and here's his intro:

Bob Harig’s Tiger & Phil takes us back to those Halcyon Days before “obnoxious greed” and “scary !@#$%^&*%$’s” joined the golf discourse.

Finished long before Mickelson’s recent troubles, the subtitled “Golf’s Most Fascinating Rivalry” adds fresh perspectives and important historical details. While that may not sound significant for such recent events, Harig’s effort to document this moment in golf history brings the rivalry into focus. Such a book is actually quite rare in the world of golf literature, making Tiger & Phil (St. Martin’s Press) an important addition to the historical record. It’s also a very satisfying read for serious or casual fans.

The book is a better journey without the most recent events since Harig focuses so much of detail to on-course play. He also does a sensational job of zoning in on the best and strangest episodes involving these two winners of 21 majors over 26 years.

A former Evans Scholar covering golf for Sports Illustrated/Morning Read, Harig answered The Quadrilateral’s questions about the Tiger & Phil, set for release Tuesday, April 26th and available now for pre-order.

Golf's most fascinating rivalry?   Hyperbolic much?  More so than Jack v. Arnie?  More so than Jones v. Hagen?  I'll save you the suspense, golf's most interesting rivalry was the Morrises of St. Andrews vs. the Parks of Musselburgh, but that's not important now...

Shall we get to the interesting bits?

GS: It seems like you talked to a lot of people. How many did you interview and did any in particular stand out?

BH: I don’t have the exact number, but it was in the neighborhood of 150 people. Coaches, caddies, players, tournament directors, volunteers, you name it. Lots of folks came in contact with them over the years. Hal Sutton stands out for sure.

The 2004 Ryder Cup captain is, to this day, haunted by what happened at Oakland Hills in 2004. It directly impacted his own career. He was emotional talking about it. Another would be Rick Smith, one of Phil’s coaches who was, ultimately, let go in the aftermath of the U.S. Open loss at Winged Foot. They remained great friends afterward, but Rick had great insight into the time leading up to Phil’s major win in 2004 as well as the aftermath of that defeat at Winged Foot. Another would be Steve Williams. Tiger’s former caddie has mellowed. He was terrific on many subjects, including Phil, some of Tiger’s various victories.

Hal Sutton, eh?  That would be the first Ryder Cup captain to receive a shiv from one of his players, though also the one that kinda, sorta asked for it.  I mean, really, what was he thinking?

GS: Was there anyone you wanted to speak to and rebuffed your requests?

BH: Ernie Els. And that was a bit of a surprise. I should have just approached him directly and started asking him questions. But I went through channels, and it became a bigger deal than it needed to be. Ernie was there for a lot of great stuff with both players. And while he had his share of tough defeats, he also had his share of wins. And a great Hall of Fame career. It seemed from his representative that he wondered why he wasn’t part of the book in a bigger way. Well, he could have been!

So, we can assume that he did talk to Tom Watson?  And Billy Walters?  And the Detroit mob

Feels like he pulled the trigger unfortunately early, no?

GS: You completed several years worth of work and then the rivalry has taken this latest bizarre turn. How has it been watching this latest chapter for Tiger and Phil?

BH: It makes me wish I had more time to add more to the book. I sort of tried to leave open the door for the possibility of more from them. Ryder Cup captaincies. Potentially contending in majors. I would have been difficult to see this coming, and as fast as it did. First, nobody would have ever put money on Tiger playing the Masters and Phil not playing it. And yet, that’s what happened. And then there is a sadness as it pertains to Phil.

No matter which side of the controversy you are on, it’s a shame it has played out this way. He cemented his legacy with that PGA win last year. The oldest major champion. A sixth major. 45 PGA Tour wins. He could have lived off that forever. Now he’s not playing and we’re not sure what is next. It has been an amazing turn.

This always seemed like the least promising and least interesting of the three books, and this doesn't add to my assessment:

GS: Watching you work over the years I know you’ve gotten to build a level of trust with both men, perhaps more than any golf writer. What’s been their attitude since they knew you were pairing them up for a book on their rivalry?

BH: This is difficult because I really don’t know! I have never had a direct discussion about it with Tiger. The circumstances were such that it became difficult to have that conversation. I began the project in the spring of 2020 during the pandemic. When golf returned, we could never get near the players. There was never an appropriate time to discuss it with him. I finally had to tell one of his representatives, which I did not want to do. I wanted to tell him directly. But the word was relayed to him. Then, of course, he was involved in the car crash and that understandably wiped out any opportunity to speak to him in 2021 prior to the book’s completion.

Phil and I spoke at the 2021 Players Championship. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but he also didn’t shut it down either. He seemed willing to discuss. We had two other times where I broached it with him and was put off. Once he won the PGA Championship, those opportunities really dried up. I finally had to move on without him. It was unfortunate because there were some aspects he could have cleaned up for me. But the gist of the book is those who were around both players going all the way back to their early years.

To me, the most interesting part was the most recent BFF stage, which always felt forced and insincere.  But even that seems unlikely to survive Phil's Saudi entanglement, as Tiger has curtly cut off any hint that he might be tempted.

Depending on whether he shows, I might just have to read the Shipnuck bio during PGA week.  I mean, who doesn't like a dumpster fire?

That's it for today, kids, I'll most likely see you next on Friday.

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