How did Augusta National come to find itself the heartbeat of the golf world? The short answer, it appears, is thanks to days like Saturday.The Augusta National Women’s Amateur has seen only three iterations in the four years since its inception, but three iterations are more than enough to know definitively that a women’s tournament at Alister Mackenzie’s famed design was several decades overdue.On Saturday, the tee boxes were just about the only difference between the tournament that resulted in 16-year-old Anna Davis’ victory and the tournament that will end in the same exact place in a little more than eight days’ time. Everything else at Augusta National was, well, like it always is.As with every final round at Augusta National, there was drama. Drama provided by a bucket-hatted teenager named Anna Davis. Davis, who is a high school sophomore, fearlessly charged through Augusta National en route to a final-round 69. At the time, it seemed 69 would be too little. On the 54th hole, Davis’ birdie try missed, and she thought her tournament chances went with it.“Anything can happen, but I felt like I needed to make that to have a pretty good chance at winning,” Davis said. “I was hoping it would drop, for sure.”
She's sweet sixteen, so there's no criticism inferred, but she provided none of the drama involved. She actually pulled what I call a Ben Curtis, which is to win a golf course without ever having to have a hit a golf shot while having the chance to win.
Yes, there was drama, but it was drama of the Scott Hoch and Ed Sneed ilk, not the birdie/eagle binge kind that sends roars reverberating across the property. We got that from Jennifer Kupcho (anyone know where she is this weekend? No, more on that in a sec) in the first installment, but less so in the two subsequent playings.
Geoff, in the teaser portion of a Quadrilateral post, has this on the precocious winner:
But the just-turned-16-year-old from Spring Valley, California has aspirations of becoming “the best player in the world” and looked the part Saturday, posting a bogey-free back-nine 34 to win the third playing of the annual 54-hole event. Davis’ one-stroke victory over a pair of LSU stars—Ingrid Lindblad and Latanna Stone—was aided by final hole bogeys from each. But Davis’ confidence and a nifty up-and-down from behind the 17th green carried her to victory on a course she called “pretty straightforward.”Said with all due respect, in case the Lords were not listening.Oh, to be young and only have one Masters memory of watching Tiger Woods putt out on the 18th. Way back in 2019.She admitted to also not knowing about the first playing of the ANWA and only becoming aware of the event when a few friends played the 2021 edition. She qualified for this week by winning last summer’s Girl’s PGA Junior Championship at Valhalla.
She also shares a birthday with Robert Tyre Jones, so karma.
Lantana Stone's collapse was hard to watch, but Geoff has this nice note about her. I also noticed that strange bit which I found completely bizarre, almost as if Beatrice Wallin was happy to ice her.
One more note on Stone: after taking a two-stroke lead only to go double bogey-bogey to lose by one, she still did a live interview with NBC’s Kathryn Tappen and discussed her “heartbreaking” finish. She also experienced an odd moment on 18 when preparing to hit her chip only to step back when the crowd applauded her playing partner’s arrival at the green.
Really strange.
A couple more notes, the first being a paragon of the genre of tweets that don't age well. In this case, the half-life was about sixteen seconds:
What a time to hit (probably) the most clutch shot of your life pic.twitter.com/erXUhuGwsf
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) April 2, 2022
Ouch! That birdie gave her a two-shot lead, which should have been enough, except it wasn't..... From there she goes double-bogey-bogey, and one can only hope she's got the cujones to recover from that. The NCAAs are in May, so we'll look for her then.
This is obviously a wonderful event, though one that I have trouble enjoying in full. I love that the Augusta power brokers finally acknowledged that women also play golf, and I love that they decided to put on an amateur event. I just detest that, in their self-absorbed ego trip, they couldn't do it in a manner that wouldn't simultaneously hurt the women's game. Christina Kim has thoughts on that as well:
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Masters treating the weekend of the ChevronChampionship as a de facto preview to the following week’s Masters has hurt the LPGA major.“Truth be told, I’m not gonna lie. I’m really upset with Augusta National. Because there’s no reason why we couldn’t continue to have this tournament be the first major in professional golf,” Kim said. “And I think it’s absolutely disgusting what they’re doing and I have no problem saying that. It’s bull hockey what they’re doing.”
Bull hockey is a technical term....
I'm not sure that this is exactly the model, but still:
“Maybe a big corporation will step up and see — like the American Express did for the men — that the women belong here in the desert,” Kim said. “The golf here is incredible, the people here are amazing, the culture here is fun, it’s artsy, it’s inclusive, it’s diverse and it fits right in with the ethos of the LPGA so there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have a tournament here. It’s just very bittersweet.
There's simply no bloody reason they couldn't have held the ANWA a week earlier, except for their stubbornness rooted in the patriarchy....I think Chruistina is correct here as well:
Even the way ANWA is run, where the amateurs are allowed one practice round at Augusta but then have to qualify to play a competitive round on the fabled course, irks Kim.“It barely qualifies as the bare minimum of allowing those girls one practice round and giving them a playoff to see who’s going to make the cut into the final round at that place,” she said.
The field is seventy-two players, but only thirty qualify for the competitive round at ANGC. Why? Again, they've always been this way since the time of Clifford Roberts, but where is Martha Burke when we need her?
It seems pretty simple, but if you think important enough to hold a women's event, can't you make it a real commitment and do it in a manner that doesn't take away other playing opportunities for the ladies? And where was Mike Whan as this was being done to the LPGA? Does he have anything to say, or was it more important to keep on good terms with the power structure to ensure his parachute landing into the USGA? Ladies, you were played.
Item Second, Phil's Phuture - We're not just dealing with the existential Phil dilemma, but we're doing so through the lens of the estimable Mike Bamberger, who has much to add.
Amusingly, this is part of the Bamberger in Brief series but, while it is Bams, it's not even the slightest bit brief. Even though there's a misfire or two, I don't mean to suggest that I'd cut a word of it. In fact, I might just excerpt it all:
15 pressing Phil Mickelson questions, and our best-guess answers
Q1. Did the PGA Tour suspend Phil?A. Short answer: My opinion is, yes, the Tour did.
Sit tight, there's much more, and we're still only on our first query.
But there’s a longer answer.On Feb. 17, Alan Shipnuck, author of a new biography of Mickelson, reported incendiary comments that Mickelson made to the writer. The comments themselves were made last November, as Mickelson talked about his interest in LIV Golf, a Saudi-funded golf company run by Greg Norman. LIV Golf was then seeking to start an ambitious world golf tour with massive payouts that would feature, its organizers hoped, the game’s biggest names.You likely have heard that Mickelson described certain members of the Saudi ruling class as “scary mother—-ers.” That would be an example of speaking truth to power. That comment would certainly not get Mickelson suspended by the PGA Tour, and likely not even fined. That remark was bad for Greg Norman and LIV, which meant it was actually good for Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, and the PGA Tour.
OK, not sure Mike quite gets this "Truth to power" thing. Saying that to Alan Shipnuck might be speaking truth to Alan Shipnuck, but unless he wants to drop a dime and call Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, it's kind of weaselly... But on the larger point, bullseye. Jay Monahan was incredibly lucky that the threat came with Saudi cash attached, and Phil did what Phil does when he tries to show how smart he is.
Then there is this comment that Mickelson made to Shipnuck, regarding PGA Tour officials:“They are sitting on an $800 million cash stockpile. How do you think they’re funding the PIP? Or investing $200 million in the European Tour? The Tour is supposed to be a nonprofit that distributes money to charity. How the f— is it legal for them to have that much cash on hand? The answer is, it’s not. But they always want more and more. They have to control everything.”That comment would likely result in a fine for Mickelson, for degrading the PGA Tour while being a member of the Tour. By long tradition, Tour members are supposed to support the Tour. But those are not comments that would get you suspended.
I think that's about right, though Mike elides the "obnoxious greed" bit, which was unnecessarily personal....
Then there is this seemingly less explosive sentence, written by Shipnuck and containing just one two-word quote from Mickelson:“Mickelson told me he had enlisted three other ‘top players’ he declined to name and that they paid for attorneys to write the [LIV Golf] operating agreement, codifying that the players would have control of all the details.“Now that surely gets you suspended. Not the sentence. The details and the actions behind it. Those actions are acts of rebellion and disloyalty and actions of rebellion and disloyalty could get you a long suspension, if not worse. LIV’s success could come at the expense of hundreds of current and future PGA Tour players. By that logic, any supporter, founder, backer or organizer of LIV Golf would be the sworn enemy of the PGA Tour, and by extension its supporters. That’s why Fred Ridley, the Augusta National chairman, has been unwilling to even talk to Greg Norman about LIV Golf and its plans. This is war. In war, you take sides.
Exactly! But even Mike understates the malfeasance, because Phil went to war alone. I think this guy put it best (and yes, I've quoted this previously):
I started out on burgundy but soon hit the harder stuffEverybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got roughBut the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff -Bob Dylan, Just Like Tom Thumb Blues
Of course, there's still that little issue of who those three guys were.....if there were three guys.
PGA Tour official:This was an act of conspiracy that undermines the PGA Tour. We are going to conduct an investigation and are considering a lifetime ban.Mickelson representative:We get it, we get it — this time you’re really mad. Phil will take a leave and he won’t come back until you guys say it’s OK to do so.
To be clear, that's Mike's speculation of how the conversations went, though it's unclear to me if there were, in fact, conversations.
Q2. Could Mickelson have played in the Masters?A. No.
I think that's right, though in his longer answer Mike has a pretty big misfire:
Let’s say I’m correct, that in the PGA Tour’s view, Mickelson is suspended. Fred Ridley, the chairman of Augusta National, is always going to back the PGA Tour, just as the PGA Tour has always backed the Masters and Augusta National. Ridley is always going to put institutional needs ahead of any individual player’s needs. The PGA Tour is going to do the same for Augusta, and has.For instance, Masters earnings and victories were official in the PGA Tour books even in the years when Augusta National had no women members, in violation of PGA Tour requirements for nondiscriminatory practices for its venues. The Tour said the Masters was an invitational and a private club event. In other words, it created a semantical loophole.
Egads, Mike, you know far better than this. The Masters is not a PGA Tour event, and you're making a hash of what is fairly simple. The Masters predates the modern PGA Tour, and they have absolutely no control over the venue or the club. The Masters is co-sanctioned by the Tour, but that's merely recognizing the reality that all your top players will be in Augusta the second weekend in April.
The relationship between the major golf organizations, what Shack calls The Five Families, is its own interesting subject. Augusta will certainly support the Tour where it's in its best interests to do so, in fact we could perhaps call that a default position.
This is intriguing, but only barely:
Q3. Could Mickelson show up at the Tuesday-night Champions Dinner?A. Stranger things have happened.
There wouldn't be a place setting with his name on it, so I would have gone with "hardly".
Q4. Will Mickelson play in the PGA Championship in mid-May at Southern Hills, the tournament he won last year at age 50?A. Highly unlikely. The PGA of America, like Augusta National, will back the PGA Tour. Best guess here is that Mickelson will not resurface on Tour until he repudiates all involvement with Greg Norman’s LIV series of eight invitational events, backed by an enormous Saudi investment fund. And Mickelson is unlikely to do that.
This I think is more complicated. We had commentary last week to the effect that Phil has his Southern Hills tee time, full stop. That likely seems true, not that I'm sure on the finer legal points, so perhaps the PGA of America would have to suspend him for "Conduct unbecoming" if he really wants to play.
But Mike tags on this horribly imprecise paragraph:
Norman, by the way, has said LIV had to reconfigure its world golf tour plans for 2022 after Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau announced their loyalty to the PGA Tour.
Say what? Did Norman actually mention those three names? I rather doubt it, but it's completely unclear whether those are names drawn at random by Mike, or whether those are known to be Phil's co-authors. I mean it was always passing strange that a native Spanish speaker uses a word like "fealty", but I think the plot just thickened...
More on that:
Q5. Isn’t Rahm, like Mickelson, represented by Steve Loy?A. He is.Q6. Isn’t that awkward for Loy?A. It’s not tea at Tiffany’s.
More awkward for Rahm, methinks.
Q7. So of the eight, big-bucks announced LIV events, how many do you think Rahm will play?A. Zero.
Mike, I have a follow-up:
Q8. How many do you think Mickelson will play?
A. Eight.
Yeah, that kinda explains the fauxpology, no?
Q9. Really? Why would Mickelson still want to be aligned with that tour after the nasty things he has said about the Saudis?A. Follow the money. Mickelson has lost huge amounts of income when he was dropped, temporarily or otherwise, by Callaway, KPMG, American Express and Workday. He can make a large sum over the course of 2022 with the LIV league — $10 million would be a conservative estimate. He leads an expensive life, even if he doesn’t have his own jet anymore.
Someone told me recently that Amy is a big gambler as well. So much for their being an adult in the home...
But Mike nails the biggest victim:
Q10. Right, right. Also, there’s got to be collateral damage in this whole thing, right?A. I assume you are thinking about Phil’s brother and caddie, Tim Mickelson. Yes, Phil needs to play for Tim to caddie. Another reason to think Mickelson will play these eight LIV events.
Who, just to connect a few loose dots, gave up being Jon Rahm's agent to take on his brothers baggage....
This one comes with an irony alert:
Q11. Even the LIV event at the Trump course in New Jersey?A. You mean Trump Bedminster, the course where the PGA was supposed to be in May? That one might give him some pause. Or not.
Where he was supposed to defend his title.
Q12. Will Mickelson play in the 2022 U.S. Open?A. It is hard to imagine Phil not playing in the U.S. Open, the missing piece in his quest for the career grand slam. If he could somehow recapture the magic from last year’s PGA, he could contend at Brookline. By its very nature — as an open event — it would be hard to keep Mickelson out of the field.
I'm not sure it's any different than the PGA, but time will tell. More importantly, that first Saudi-sponsored Bonesaw Open is the week before the U.S. Open.
Q13. How about the British Open in St. Andrews?A. I think he plays.
Now for the existential question:
Q14. Broadly, what is Phil’s path back to being Phil again?A. Phil, over time, will double-down on being Phil. Great talker. An expert in golf, the NFL, talking trash, talking period, telling stories, living large, being Phil. He has an enormous fanbase. That base will always support him. He’ll sell coffee. He’ll talk on TV, or on his own YouTube channel. He’ll have his own line of clubs, sunglasses. He’ll ink a huge sponsorship deal with DraftKings or bet365. He’ll be OK.
But Phil wants to be loved, and I'm not sure that fills his need. Also, I'd have thought he'd want to continue to commit elder abuse on the Senior Tour....
Q15. Will Phil ever be a Ryder Cup captain?A. Only if he forsakes, disavows, etc., etc. Or if the balance of power in the game undergoes a sea change.
So, the path back to Phil being Phil is for him to stop being Phil. Complicated.
Hope you enjoyed. I'll see you tomorrow to wrap up the Dinah (and I do mean to wrap up the Dinah forever) and start our Masters preview.
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