Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Weekend Wrap - A Day Late And A Dollar Short

If you feel that I've been ignoring this blog, it's only because I've been, yanno, ignoring the blog.  That's not going to improve much in this holiday-shortened week, so let's grab what little time we have.

Sam Burns Scottie - I didn't see any of Burns' round, but the guys behind him looked like the, as Jim Nantz put it, the D-flight:

Everyone was winning. Then no one wanted it.

And the guy who was sitting back and watching it all — for some two hours! — ended up on top.

Wild? You bet. In the end on Sunday at the Charles Schwab Challenge, Sam Burns dropped a 38-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole, Scottie Scheffler couldn’t match from 36 feet on the 18th at Colonial Country Club, and Burns is your winner for the fourth time on the PGA Tour, and third time this season.

Only, after starting the day a whopping seven shots out of the lead, no one, not even Burns, saw this coming.

No, Nantz really did call it the D-Flight, so I'd imagine he'll get some pushback from our pampered lads, but I had the H-Flight, for what it's worth.  But, while Harold Varner has shown trouble with the lead before, Sunday's reaction was positively biblical:

Scott Stallings and Harold Varner

We need to combine Stallings and Varner, who played together, because there may be some cause and effect here.

4 p.m. Stallings is trying to figure out where he can drop after hitting his ball 40 yards over the
12th green.

4:08 p.m.: Stallings drops — and, from 40 yards away, hits it 10 yards short.

4:11 p.m.: Varner, after waiting for Stallings, misses a 19-footer for par after hitting out of a greenside bunker — and misses from 3 feet for bogey and 3 feet for double bogey before making from 2 feet. That’s four putts. He falls out of the lead, which two now share.

“All that waiting,” analyst Ian Baker-Finch said on the CBS broadcast.

Later, Varner doubles 13, triples 14, birdies 15, pars 16, doubles 17 and bogeys 18 — for a back-nine 45.

4:13 p.m.: Stallings taps in for a bogey, and he falls out of the lead, which now only Scheffler holds.

Stallings bogeys 14 and 17, too.

Said Stallings afterward: “Man, I would like to see a video of my putt on 14. We read it kind of outside right, and just like the ball comes off the putter and just goes straight left. Everybody had to deal with it. The course was definitely very fair. But man, just kind of like I said yesterday, you kind of got some of those holes kind of up on top, some of the flat spots, and you could hear the tent — we were putting in that.”

I hate to be cruel, but the only reason to combine these two is to obscure that which befell Varner, one of the better-liked guys out there.  For instance, the rather dry account of this:

From there it got ugly...Though his scorecard is a rainbow coalition:


Hard to read, but Harold is just lucky they use the same color for doubles and triples... Don't want to heap on too much abuse, but that was a +10 back nine, something we don't see every day.

The Tour Confidential panel was more concerned about another's desultory play:

1. As it turns out, Scottie Scheffler’s “slump” lasted all of nine holes. One week after missing the cut at the PGA Championship, where he shot a back-nine 40 during his second round, Scheffler nearly won his fifth event of the season on Sunday, losing to Sam Burns in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge. What is it about Scheffler’s game, or headspace, that has made him such a consistent/reliable performer, and on such a variety of courses?

Josh Sens: He’s got all the shots, obviously. But he’s also got golf in perspective. At this point, at least, for all the expectations around him, he’s not putting excess pressure on himself. He’s got enough killer instinct to dominate without being the kind of guy who defines himself by golf. That’s how it comes across anyway. His third round at Colonial was, dare I say, Woodsian. He was all over the place and still didn’t make a bogey until the 17th.

Alan Bastable: As you’d expect, there are no real weaknesses in Scheffler’s game, statistically speaking, anyway. But one of the big keys to his success is that he rarely misses greens, hitting about 72 percent of them in regulation, which is third best on Tour. That takes a lot of pressure off his short game and instead lets him focus on jarring birdie putts. I also think the importance of Ted Scott’s role can’t be overstated. Scheffler and Scott share much in common: hard workers, family men, devout Christians, and each has a ton of respect for the other. The relationship just works, and I think it’s no coincidence that Scheffler’s run started soon after Scott took his bag.

Nick Piastowski: He’s an easy-going, aw-shucks’er who hates — hates — to lose. So ice and fire. That’s tough to beat.

Satisfying the two guys who were worried about Scheffler, after the one bad week.  But note that Golf.com is able to rustle up all of three writers for this weekly mainstay, consistent with the nature of their recent coverage.

This, however, does venture alarmingly close to a serious topic:

2. Colonial Country Club, the storied Schwab venue and a mighty mite at “only” 7,200 yards from the tips, held its own once again this week, with just zero players finishing the tournament double digits under par. Does the PGA Tour need more courses like Colonial — where accuracy trumps brawn — on the schedule, or would the players not have it?

Sens: The Tour could use more great designs as part of its regular rota. Great designs make for more interesting golf. If a few players gripe, so be it. It is, to use the parlance of the corporations that rule all professional sports, a better product.

Bastable: The lack of diversity in Tour setups is stunning. You would think the world’s best players would demand more interesting slate of tests, but sadly they seem content with bomb-and-gouging. Rory McIlroy summed up that sentiment last year when he said: “A lot of the golf courses we play are uniform and you get the same conditions each and every week, and players like that. I like that. I like that you don’t have to come and spend three or four days at a golf course learning it every week, and if you’re playing week to week, to have setups like this is a good thing.” Colonial, like Harbour Town, is such a breath of fresh air on the calendar, mostly because players can’t smash it into submission. So … yeah, I’d love to see more courses of its ilk in the mix.

Piastowski: More please! If you believe the players, most of them like the tracks that test the entire game, too. Though I can’t imagine after next week the mental shape of those who go Southern Hills-Colonial-Muirfield Village.

The Tour product is a pretty dreary thing, with precious few venues of actual historic interest.  But one of the tragedies of the Phil-Saudi axis of evil is that the needs that get addressed might be Phil's, but certainly won't be ours.

Dylan Dethier, in his Monday Finish feature, pens an Ode to Mito:

For a moment, Mito Pereira was the talk of the golfing world. He stood on the tee of the 72nd hole at the PGA Championship with a one-shot lead. Six strokes later he walked off that green
one shot outside a playoff. The golfing world ached at his heartbreaking finish. He spoke to reporters, opening up on the moment. And then that same golfing world moved on — to the Justin Thomas-Will Zalatoris playoff, and then to the Charles Schwab Challenge, and soon to the Memorial and LIV Golf announcements and various other shiny bits coming across our news feeds.

But how would Pereira respond? That was far less clear. It’s impossible to leave something like that immediately behind — right? I was particularly curious in his next move because I spent PGA week trailing Pereira (for this story) and was amazed how, at the end, he had to clean out his locker and pack for a flight and get ready to head to the next stop. The circus goes on.

Pereira spoke to Golf Channel ahead of the Charles Schwab, but his most meaningful response would ultimately come on the course. He opened with a steady 70, went low on Friday with 66, played his way into the edge of contention with a Saturday 68 and hung tough on Sunday with a round of one-over 71 in demanding conditions. He made nine consecutive pars to finish, including a 22-footer to save his 4 on No. 18.

He didn’t speak to reporters after the round (I wasn’t there but I don’t think anyone requested him) but he didn’t need to. His T7 finish spoke for itself. And the way he did it — methodically, patiently, leaning on superior ball-striking — suggests this isn’t the last we’ll see him.

Pereira hit the ball well enough to win, in fact. He gained 4.15 strokes off the tee, No. 1 in the field. He was third in strokes gained from tee to green. If his putter had gotten hot (he was 51st in SG: Putting, losing 0.71 strokes) it’s easy to imagine he’d have been on the edge of another playoff. His consolation prize? More points, more money, more confidence. He’s up to No. 44 in the world, a lock for the U.S. Open and well on his way into the Tour’s upper echelon.

Since that ill-fated drive on No. 18 at Southern Hills, he's given more interviews than Bryson has in two years.  So, yeah, hope the kid beaks through soon.

The Kida Are All Right -  Your humble blogger has become a big fan of the NCAAs, though I crashed before this playoff got started:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Twelve players were within four shots of the leaders as they made the
turn in the final round of stroke play at the 2022 NCAA Div. I Men’s Golf Championship on Monday, setting up for a frantic finish in the desert.

Five players were tied for the lead at even par, with two players in the clubhouse – Parker Coody (Texas) and Ryan Burnett (North Carolina) – and the final group of Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Oklahoma State), Chris Gotterup (Oklahoma) and Gordon Sargent (Vanderbilt) on the 18th tee. Chacarra and Sargent each made par to advance to a playoff with Coody and Burnett, with Gotterup making bogey to fall back into a tie for fifth at 1 over with Arizona State’s Cameron Sisk, Pepperdine’s William Mouw and North Carolina’s David Ford.

Sargent, a freshman from Birmingham, Alabama, made birdie on the first playoff hole to claim medalist honors and become the ninth freshman to win the individual national title since USC’s Jamie Lovemark in 2007. Sargent is the second freshman in the span of a week to claim medalist honors at the NCAAs, following Rose Zhang of Stanford.

But the real fun remains ahead of us:


 Need I say more?  Starts at noon today on Golf Channel.

To this observer, this is the match that jumps out at me:

No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 7 Arizona State 
9:20 a.m. ET – Patrick Welch vs. Mason Andersen
9:30 a.m. ET – Drew Goodman vs. Jose Luis Ballester
9:40 a.m. ET – Chris Gotterup vs. Preston Summerhays
9:50 a.m. ET – Logan McAllister vs. David Puig
10 a.m. ET – Stephen Campbell Jr. vs. Cameron Sisk

If you're looking for a train wreck, that middle match might be up your alley.  Gotterup should have won the individual yesterday, but missed at least three short putts down the stretch, and missed them badly.  The last, a 3-footer on No. 18 to join the playoff, never sniffed the cup.  Summerhays is, of course, a familiar name to you, son of Boyd Summerhays, Tony Finau's longtime coach.  Good match-up.

The Ladies - Their U.S. Open is this week, and the TC panel spared a couple of questions that relate:

3. The U.S. Women’s Open tees off this week at Pine Needles in North Carolina. Among the storylines to watch are the return of Nelly Korda and the defense of Yuka Saso. (We’ll tackle Michelle Wie West separately below.) What are you most looking forward to seeing play out?

Sens: Lydia Ko. Always Lydia Ko. The coolest professional golfer in the world.

Bastable: I’m excited to see Pine Needles in action. The Donald Ross gem has long taken a backseat to its storied Sandhills neighbor, Pinehurst, so it will be fun to see it in the spotlight. Pine Needles devotees will tell you it’s every bit as fun as any of Pinehurst’s offerings, No. 2 included.

Piastowski: Nelly. Let’s hope she’s good to go. She’s a star, the budding rivalry with Jin Young Ko is fantastic, and she’s must-watch golf. It’s great she’s back.

Don't know what kind of form she might be in, but most curious to know more about the blood clot, so atypical for such a young woman.   

Am I the only one that has found her continued presence tiresome?

4. On to Wie West. This week, she told Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols that she plans to play the U.S. Women’s Open, then step away from the LPGA Tour. How would you sum up Wie
West’s legacy?

Sens: I don’t have anything to say that hasn’t been said a million times before. There’s of course a woulda, coulda, shoulda element to her story. And yet, in the ways that matter most, she did.

Bastable: It’s easy to get fixated on the fact that she didn’t live up to the immense expectations that were placed on her, but what should never be forgotten is how much attention and excitement she brought to the game when she was literally just a kid. At 10, she played in the U.S. Women’s Am Public Links; at 12, she played in an LPGA event; at 14, she came a stroke shy of making the cut at a PGA Tour event, thanks to a second-round 68 (yes, at 14!!) That week sticks with me. It was truly captivating; I vividly remember being glued to the telecast not wanting to miss a single shot of hers. What a talent.

Piastowski: She’s a star. And will continue to be; according to our story this week, she’s not leaving the game; she’s just not playing it. That tells me something. She’s making an impact on the game. Not many can say that.

It's sad when anyone's life seemingly peaks at age 14, though I believe this says more about us than about her.  We just can't seem to quit her, but that's always seemed to be to the detriment of the women's game, ironic given that she's theoretically its biggest advocate.

There Are No Bad Ones, Only Misunderstood Pins -  Sadly, Payne Stewart was unavailable for comment:

If you recall that Olympic pin on No. 18 referenced above, you'll recall that the putts from directly below the hole did not roll back, unlike what these girls had to deal with.

It's not really explained where the pin was, but presumably it was in one of the red zones:


Strikes me from the graphic as a green that needs to be rebuilt, because I don't see many logical spots for a pin.

No doubt it's set-up malpractice, and we don't even know to what extent it affected the outcome.  But see if you react as I did to this comment:

On Saturday morning, Billy Horschel, never shy to express himself, joined in.

“Feel bad for these girls!” he wrote on his Instagram story. “Absolute joke by these officials to embarrass these young ladies. These officials should be banned from setting up a course in the future. This isn’t a accident … they knew what they were doing when they set up that hole location. I bet these young ladies handled it better than I would!”

This is high school event, and Billy wants a lifetime ban....  But he knows they did this intentionally!  However, the fact check of that final assertion has been issued, and it was found to be "Sadly true".

Your LIV Update: Were you sitting by your phone awaiting word?

Yes, they were supposed to release this on the Friday before Memorial Day, the Holy Grail of Friday news dumps.  How bad must it be?

Given that the event starts a week from Thursday, it wouldn't seem that they could keep us in suspense too much longer....

Eamon Lynch has pretty much owned this story, though his latest offering strikes me as somewhat dubious:

Lynch: PGA Tour's 'nanny' approach to players being exposed as a liability by looming Saudi event

Maybe, but Jon Rahm seems to have had a gun at his head when he pledged fealty to Kubla Jay...

The PGA Tour prides itself on its values and there is much to be proud of, like sportsmanship and charity. Yet the most enduring of its precepts isn’t one touted in public but rather practiced in
private: secrecy. In his more than two decades as commissioner, Tim Finchem created—and his successor, Jay Monahan, has not dismantled—a culture grounded in confidentiality and coddling. Players assume the Tour will circle wagons to protect them from scrutiny or criticism, and there’s a parallel determination at headquarters to never disappoint in that respect, regardless of whether the issue is profanity overheard by a handful or bunker misadventures witnessed by many.

Veterans of the Ponte Vedra politburo will tell you this is the nature of member-led organizations, which is fair. The PGA Tour is government of the players, for the players (not for fans, it scarcely needs pointing out). But next week’s LIV Golf Invitational near London—the first in a series of sportswashing events funded by the Saudi Arabian regime—will reveal if that protectionist mentality is so ingrained that the Tour will inadvertently assist its would-be rival. There’s already evidence to support such a suspicion.

How so, Eamon?

An aggressive response by Monahan would mean not just the immediate suspensions of those players, but the public announcement of such. Doing so would signal decisive action—support for which exists among a wide swath of his membership—but also delegitimize the Saudi tournament before any inflated checks are handed out. Yet it would also represent a seismic strategic shift for an organization long accustomed to acting as the sole judge in camera, not as a prosecutor in public.

Hewing to the norm—not announcing sanctions and conducting its disciplinary proceedings at a leisurely pace in private—serves only those players who want to act as knowing (or witless) apparatchiks for the Kingdom without having to face the public consequences of doing so, from either golf fans or their corporate partners. There is no reason the PGA Tour should enable them.

I basically agree with Eamon that the Tour's refusal to disclose disciplinary actions is objectionable, I'd even go further and call it counter-productive.  I'll save that argument for another time.

But it seems to me that Jay has made it clear that the gloves are off.  But the issue seems less the coddling than the issue of whether Jay will enforce that red line against defectors.  I think he will for the simple reason that he has to, otherwise all bets will be off.  I also think he will because he's pretty clearly winning, at least against Norman and the Saudis.

That will be it for now.  The remainder of the week has no shortage of scheduling issues, but I'll resurface at some point.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Tuesday Tidbits

Just a wee bit of low impact blogging, since I'll be on the course tomorrow morning.

A Rose By Any Other Name - Shame on your humble blogger for the absence of a heads up on the Women's NCAA Championships, the stroke play portion of which concluded yesterday on Golf Channel.  Now, you're likely golfed-out after the PGA, though the NCAA's nubile young wenches, carry bags and pushcarts and opponents tending the pin for each other is actually quite the pleasant palate cleanser.

The last day of medal play features the conclusion of the individual championship, as well as the teams jockeying for position in the team match play field.  First, that indy:

Rose Zhang is going to need a separate dorm room at Stanford for all her trophies.

The freshman phenom and No. 1 player in the nation proved worthy of her ranking by claiming medalist honors at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship by three shots at 6 under at Grayhawk Golf Club on Monday.

“To be a national champion in my first NCAA (Championship), I just can’t explain it,” said Zhang. It’s hard to describe in words, I feel like it hasn’t really settled in yet. I didn’t really know this date would come.”

Zhang struggled by her lofty standards, signing for a final-round 75 to finish as the second consecutive Cardinal to win the title following her teammate Rachel Heck’s win in 2021. Heck and Zhang are the only two Stanford women to win the individual national championship, and each did so as freshmen.

Zhang is the best player in women's amateur golf, though yesterday's struggles were interesting to watch.  The bride and I caught her at the U.S. Amateur last summer at Westchester Country Club, including a moment when she was amusingly and/or condescendingly dismissive of input from her caddie, who was also her father.  

This graph, more accurately one sentence within, made your humble blogger laugh:

“She’s amazing. She’s one of my closest friends and I feel like we share so much in common,” said Zhang of her teammate, Heck. “I’m rooming with her this week and last night even when I was in the same position as her as the previous year, she told me if there’s anything you kind of want to share, or any nerves that you want to talk about, I’m here because she went through it. Just being able to have that connection with her, I feel like it’s just so, so special. I am so inspired by her.”


But who's on second?  Tell me "Heck, I'm rooming with, checking notes, Heck" doesn't have an Abbott and Costello feel to it....

But maybe the bigger question is, heck, what's become of Rachel, whose score wasn't counted yesterday.  Will she be in their match-play lineup?  As it so happens, she'll bat leadoff:

No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 8 Georgia

Rachel Heck vs. Jenny Bae (10:10 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Sadie Englemann vs. Caterina Don (10:20 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Rose Zhang vs. Candice Mahe (10:30 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Aline Krauter vs. LoraLie Cowart (10:40 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Brooke Seay vs. Jo Hua Hung (10:50 a.m. ET, 1st tee)

Don't know what you might have on your calendar, but the team match play portion typically rocks.  The most intriguing match-up appears to be this one, though you'll not be familiar with the names:

No. 2 Oregon vs. No. 7 San Jose State

Ching-Tzu Chen vs. Antonia Malate (9:20 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Briana Chacon vs. Lucia Lopez-Ortega (9:30 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Tze-Han Lin vs. Kajsa Arwefjall (9:40 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Hsin-Yu Lu vs. Louisa Carlbom (9:50 a.m. ET, 1st tee)
Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen vs. Natasha Andrea Oon (10 a.m. ET, 1st tee)

San Jose State has never previously made it to match play, but they knocked off loaded Stanford twice during the Spring season, and falling to third late in the proceedings might have been a good move for Texas A&M.

 Coverage begins at noon, and it's good fun.

PGA Championship Leftovers - "Dis and 'dat, beginning with Geoff's signature Winners and Losers post.  We'll stay characteristically upbeat and focus on winners, if only because the losers are buried behind his paywall.

Champions

Justin Thomas. He becomes the sixth player since WW II with two majors and 15 PGA Tour before hitting 30, joining Nicklaus, Miller, Watson, Woods and McIlroy. So pencil in a 2038 World Golf Hall of Fame induction. The win comes after grinding all year on PGA Tour practice greens surrounded by as many as eight eyeballs. Dad’s body language sometimes seemed to say, go play with the beautiful stroke you have. But the fussing finally paid off at Southern Hills. Thomas gained six strokes with his mastery of Maxwell’s greens. Other than Saturday’s 32 putts on 11 greens hit, putting made the difference:

Raising the question of whether he benefitted from the uncharacteristically slower greens, or just found something (or, yanno, sample size).

Will Zalatoris. Ranking tenth in SG putting translates to an astounding putting week for a strong often compared to something you’d see on the Champions Tour. While he wasn’t as great over the weekend, Zalatoris dropped huge putts at 17 and 18 to get in the playoff. “Those are putts that you keep in the memory bank for the future,” he said after doing nothing wrong in the 3-hole playoff. Wild start to his major career: MC, T6, 2nd, T8, MC, WD, T6, 2nd.

Though he has to feel that he let this one get away, no?

Geoff, any final thoughts on that Miko dude?

Mito Pereira. A dynamite week for 71 holes despite a rough driving day Sunday. The Chilean also enjoyed above average putting week, finishing SG 3rd vs. SG 100th on the Tour season. He handled the final hole double bogey with such class that his agent undoubtedly had a busy Monday. And we’ve added another to confirm the Latin American upsurge in world class talent.

I'd like to think that his grace in the face of profound disappointment and embarrassment will be rewarded, but I'd also like to think that there's still time for me to play shortstop for the Yankees...

And red meat for architectural geeks, though what I really like is the wind graphic:

Southern Hills. Like a vintage wine decanted to expand long dormant flavors, this American classic is no longer buried in trees and rough. The sommelier’s at Hanse Design gave Perry Maxwell’s understated test a bright and airy vibe. Superintendent Russ Myers and his army of over 100 served up perfect conditions despite Mother Nature unfurling a few screwballs. Players hit more drivers than at past majors at Southern Hills. Distance off the tee proved to be just one necessary strength. Every skill was tested. And as with Kiawah last year, the Golf Gods offered different wind directions to make each day a new battle. No wonder the leaderboard included what little variety is left in playing styles: ballstrikers, short game wizards and a winner who grinds just to have a deep arsenal of shots for weeks like this.


Perry Maxwell. Not a household name beyond architecture circles, his vaunted rolls wreaked the expected havoc. But unlike the sharp and sometimes silly crowns at Pinehurst, Southern Hills demonstrated how subtle slopes maintained at a low height are more than enough to make things interesting. The pre-tournament hype about the importance of short game recoveries played out: the week’s scrambling rate ended up at 51.35%, down from the PGA Tour season average of 59.44%. Thomas was 14 of 23 around the greens.

And some last bits he liked:

May. That open 2030 date vacated by Southern Hills must look appealing for a return trip. Coupled with Kiawah last year, they have two reliably stellar May venues.

CBS. A lighter commercial load and shorter breaks only led to one or two unfortunate departures from key Sunday action. The production was terrific, especially at the end when it matters most. (More tomorrow in the Media Wrap.)

I agree that the lighter commercial load was apparent, though it inevitably leads to more Faldo, so we can call that one a halve.

I did sample the Joe Buck second screen experience, which didn't do much for this observer.  I had been reliably informed that they would be focusing on the golf, though perhaps they didn't get the memo.

Nick Piastowski does the notebook dump thing, with the usual mélange of hits and misses.  I'll admit that this one induced a wry smile:

2. Let’s stay with Tiger for a bit. One of the funniest things I read came from TJ Eckert, the sports director of the Tulsa ABC affiliate. As Woods warmed up on the range on Tuesday, he dinked a 6-iron about 80 yards. Why? To Woods’ left was a large screen tracking his distances, and 80 isn’t 200. Eckert said Woods and LaCava laughed afterward.

We sometimes forget that the scrutiny can be a bit all-encompassing.  Were I struggling to find it on the range, I wouldn't love the ball speed and carry distance numbers being broadcast to the world.

I agree these are a mixed blessing:

3. I like the super groups, of which Woods was a part of one during rounds one and two, with fellow stars Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth. And I don’t. They’re good for TV and hype. But it looked impossible to get a consistent view on the grounds. Of course, that did open up viewing of nearly everyone else.

Good for TV but kinda hell for on-site spectators.  But my mind works in funny ways, because is super-groups are hell on spectators, what does that make shotgun starts?  Asking for a friend

Yeah, we noticed:

11. On to Justin Thomas, your winner. It’s here where we’ll note that not one of our staffers picked him to win ahead of time. Let’s move on.

12. How could we not have? Every gambler says this, I know. But Southern Hills was asking creativity out of its champion more than anything. And JT, more than anyone, likes to paint outside of the lines. The 67 he shot on Friday, with the Oklahoma winds blowing his morning wave up, won him the tournament.

He hadn't played very well in some time, but he truly won it on Thursday-Friday, which isn't something we see all that often.  

So Nick on golf is moderately interesting, but this is the best of Nick's notebook:

16. Music break! CBS had tunes during their coverage, and I want to too. My mix will be better, though. A sound that was born in the area is called Red Dirt, and an author of its history is my friend Josh. (You can buy his book here!) He calls the sound “folk music with a hint of swampy blues.” I also asked him for a few of his favorite songs, and here’s one.


Perhaps a bit too country for your humble blogger's palate, but love the effort.  He's got more at the link, so by all means sample it.

Nick finishes with some thoughts on golf's prodigal son:

46. Some Phil Mickelson thoughts. At the start of the week, everyone was asked about the embattled, nowhere-to-be found star. By Saturday, he was brought up once, for about two minutes, toward the start of CBS’ first broadcast of the tournament, and then he wasn’t talked about again. Which I kind of think the week would have gone had he played. It’s wrong what he said. But, for better or worse, most people move on.

47. When does he play next? I wrote about that question here. I still think there’s a chance he never does. It may just come down to when he thinks his game is right. He’s not going to come back, answer the questions — and go home after two rounds.

Never?   That's certainly a minority opinion, as is the thought that his sabbatical is related to the state of is game.  But is there anyone that thinks he doesn't intend to be in London?  

48. Regardless, Mary Mickelson, Phil’s mom, says her boy is doing fine, according to USA Today.

Lots going on with her boy, though I'd prefer that we keep everyone's Mom out of it.

This hits on a point I neglected to make on Monday: 

49. Mickelson’s former caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, carrying the bag of this year’s champion was … a thing.

My thought on Sunday was that this was a worst case scenario for Phil.  Not only did his estranged caddie get a "w", but he did so looping for Tiger's a******e buddy.  That had to sting, right?

So, that Phil-Bones break-up?  We previously covered the fact that bookies weren't the only parties stiffed by Phil, that Bones actually fired him for non-payment.  I'm mostly through the Shipnuck biography, and this was more of an issue than you'd have thought:

As detailed in the new book, “Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and unauthorized) Biography of Golf’s Most Colorful Superstar,” Mickelson had a tradition where he gave his winning flag from 18 to
his grandfather, a former Pebble Beach caddie, who hung them on his kitchen wall. Mickelson’s first major flag from the 2004 Masters went there, four months after his death.

“Mackay understood and respected that gesture, but 19 more Tour victories would follow, including four majors and he never got to keep a single flag,” Shipnuck wrote.

“That’s a giant f— you to a caddie,” Shipnuck quotes someone very close to Mackay. “When Phil wins the Masters, he gets the green jacket, the trophy, the big check, all the glory. He had to take the flags, too?… For Phil not to follow the tradition was hugely disrespectful.”

During the week of the WM Phoenix Open, Bones hosted a dinner party for players and caddies at his home and without fail he would be asked, “Where are the flags?”

Phil did send him some selected flags after his grandfather's death, specifically the 2006 and 2010 Masters flags if I'm remembering correctly, but TLTL it seems.  Especially since they came with a typically Phil FU:

Shortly after their break-up in the summer of 2017, Mickelson overnighted to Bones the major flags they had won together.

“But Phil autographed them in comically large letters, which Mackay felt disfigured the keepsakes,” Shipnuck reported and noted that Bones never displayed them in his home.

Bones didn’t participate in Shipnuck’s book, and when asked to confirm these details from Shipnuck’s book this week, he declined. But he also didn’t refute them.

Because there's no reason to be respectful of a guy that helped you wind forty events.

We've got that Billy Walters tell-all coming, but don't you think Bones will write one as well?

Say It Ain't So, Jack - Last week Jack dropped news from nowhere that Greg Norman only got the LIV gig after he, an actual living legend, had spurned their offer of in excess of $100 million.  perhaps spurned isn't exactly the right word, as it turns out that Nicklaus is suing, well, Nicklaus:

On May 13, a complaint filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against the 82-year-
old golf legend alleged a breach of contract with the Nicklaus Companies as well as tortious interference and breach of fiduciary duty.

The complaint was filed by Nicklaus Companies. Its executive chairman is Howard Milstein, a New York businessman, chairman, president and CEO of New York Private Bank & Trust. The lawsuit is Nicklaus Companies, LLC v. GBI Investors Inc. and Jack W. Nicklaus. Nicklaus is the principal of GBI Investors Inc., an architectural services firm.

Jack Nicklaus II is vice Chairman of the Nicklaus Companies, according to their web site.

According to the complaint, Nicklaus was paid $145 million in 2007 to provide exclusive services and property to the Nicklaus Companies, which over time he has failed to live up to or has worked against the company directly.

Here's the juicy bits:

The complaint alleges three specific instances of Nicklaus’ breach including receiving a substantial cash payment for promoting the 2022 Soudal Open, a recently played DP World Tour event in Belgium, wrongful conduct involving a video game being developed with the Masters and PGA Tour, and wrongful conduct regarding negotiations with the PIF Saudi Investment Fund where Nicklaus was reportedly offered $100 million to join the startup LIV Golf Invitational Series.

"Fortunately for Nicklaus Companies — and Mr. Nicklaus — the Company was eventually able to convince Mr. Nicklaus to stop exploring a deal for the endorsement of the Saudi-backed league," reads a portion of the suit. "The Company essentially saved Mr. Nicklaus from himself by extricating him from a controversial project that could have not only tarnished his legacy and reputation, but severely damaged the Nicklaus Companies’ name, brands and business.

"Thanks to the intervention of Nicklaus Companies, the Company was able to minimize fallout from the situation and protect the goodwill and good name of both the Company and Mr. Nicklaus. The potential irreparable harm that Nicklaus Companies faced had Mr. Nicklaus’s unauthorized activities not been abandoned has been highlighted by the continued statements made by the PGA Tour and various leading Tour players and the substantial negative news coverage criticizing Phil Mickelson’s involvement as a paid endorser of the Saudi-backed golf league. If not for the efforts of Nicklaus Companies, Mr. Nicklaus could have been pilloried in the news media for accepting payment for what could be characterized as betraying the PGA Tour."

Which basically means that they're taking credit for saving Jack from being Phil.... Or Greg.

Nicklaus has issued a denial and Howard Milstein's ownership of the Nicklaus operations and Golf Magazine has had its own controversies, so stay tuned.  Here's Geoff's conclusion:

Was Nicklaus trying to get his side out before the suit hit? Or is Milstein just trying to distance himself from the Saudi’s after his operation flirted with the Kingdom for a little apparent sponcon?

No idea, though I have noted some surprisingly favorable coverage of the Saudi efforts at golf.com, so we'll see how this plays out.

On Majors - As we've noted previously, Mike Bamberger has taken his gravitas the The Fire Pit Collective, a great loss for the aforementioned Golf Magazine.

This is as good a time to note changes at the major golf websites, each (and here I mean Golf Magazine and Golf Digest) of which has in the last few days convete4d to a hybrid model, whereby part of their content is behind a paywall.  This is obviously bad news for my style of blogging, though it's logically worse news for them.  The free model presumably is not driving sufficient ad revenue, but color me skeptical that Joe Sixpack is going to pop to be a Golf Magazine Insider or to subscribe to Golf Digest+.  Smells like CNN+ to this observer, whereby unable to get even 1 million people to watch their nonsense for free, they convinced themselves that within a few years 15 million souls would subscribe.  How'd that work out for them?

Mike is up with a strange item, extremely interesting but through an equally odd filter.  Se eif you agree, as it begins with the header:

PGA Championship 2022: Rory McIlroy and the PGA Tour have a major problem

It's understandable if you're unclear as to where he's heading with this, though we give Mike as much latitude as any writers.  

Rory McIlroy is a two-time winner of the tournament that wrapped up here on Sunday night. You know, the PGA Championship. One of the four Grand Slam events. He’s one of the most beloved
players in the game and maybe its most insightful talker. He played one of the best rounds of the day on Sunday at Southern Hills. He made four straight birdies on the front nine and shot 68, 2 under.

And he was pissed.

That’s understandable. If he had played the back like he played the front (a huge if), he would have won the tournament. After running off those four straight birdies, he didn’t have another over the last 13 holes. You’d be shocked if he wasn’t pissed.

It’s what he did after signing his card that gives you some pause: He blew off all requests for interviews, TV and otherwise.

Bear with me for some long excerpts, but nobody rushes Mike:

For starters, it’s immature for a player of his stature. He can do as he pleases, of course, and McIlroy almost always does talk, certainly in good times but very often in bad too. But on Sunday, at a major that you’ve won twice, where you can give insight into where you are with your game and what the players still playing will face? As the Nike marketing department has been saying for years, Just do it.

You can say that Nike made McIlroy rich, but really you made him rich. He has the talent, but you provide the purses and the endorsement deals and all the rest. The money spigot begins with your credit card.

But there’s something else that gives you much more pause, and this is it: When did not winning a major become such a big deal, and is it healthy?

In 1997.

And no.

Huh?  Is he going where I think he's going?

Things are out of whack in professional men’s golf, and they have been for a while. Ever since Tiger Woods came on the scene a quarter-century ago, the elite player’s mindset can be captured in two mantras:

Majors, the majors, the majors;

Gotta win ’em, gotta win ’em, gotta win ’em.

And this is bad, why?  better to obsess over Hartford or Mayakoba?

We all know the names of the various prodigies who came up in Tiger’s wake, McIlroy (33, four majors) and Jon Rahm (27, one major) and Will Zalatoris (25, no majors) among them. By all available evidence, their notion of what constitutes a rich and full golfing life seems to come right out of the Tiger playbook. Woods would tell you he took a page from Jack Nicklaus. Tiger caught the tail end of Big Jack. The first tournament he watched on TV was Nicklaus winning the last of his 18 majors, the 1986 Masters. Rory was born three years later. So Jack didn’t beget Rory and Co. Tiger did.

Rory, engagingly, talks about his reading life now and again. For all we know, he’s reading the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, who teaches that happiness does not come when you are seeking it. Maybe you have found this in your own life: It sneaks up on you when you least expect it.

All this emphasis on the majors—and I am as guilty as anyone who watches from the wrong side of the rope line—has created a lot of emotional upheaval.

This is easy for me to say, but by putting so much emphasis on four weeks a year, the golfer’s life, at least his professional life, is out of balance. How much would any of us like to play 25 times a year, cash checks anytime we play half decently, contend now and again and win on some of those occasions?

Mike, I love you, but what is your point?  You seem to want to say that the majors are too important, but you also seem to want to avoid the implications of that opinion.  And one of those implications is that you're carrying water for Jay Monahan, and we know with mathematical certainty that he thinks the majors are too important, for the simple reason that they're not his.

But, having inched up to that controversial but interesting bit, he then reverts to this for his conclusions:

Part of the problem, of course, is Rory knows the drill: Since winning his fourth major at the 2014 PGA Championship, McIlroy has played 28 majors without getting his fifth. He has had top-10 finishes in 15 of those events. That’s a nice problem to have, right? But the Sunday night questions, some of them, would have been some form of what’s wrong. And Rory doesn’t want to talk about what’s wrong. And he doesn’t know the answer anyhow. So off he goes.

This is a vicious cycle. I certainly don’t have the answer. Jiddu Krishnamurti might have the answer. McIlroy is most likely searching for the answer.

One thing we can all see is this: As he has become stronger and stronger through the years, he has started swinging harder and harder. His shots are more erratic. His scores are more erratic. Still, he has won 11 times since that PGA victory eight years ago. Guys win majors at almost the exact same ratio they win non-majors. It’s all golf. Rory plays golf for a living. It’s all good. He knows it. Like any of us, he must just need a reminder, now and again.

By the way, his eighth-place finish here paid $436,000. A nice life, if you can get it.

I just don't know what to make of this mess.  Yeah, Rory has bulked up, but Mike seems to miss that the weakness that plague him are the shorter shots, the lack of distance control on his wedges and his dreadful putting (at least part of which I believe is caused by his inability to read greens).

But if the majors are too important, mike, you seem curiously unwilling to argue that point.  And if the majors aren't a high point of the golf calendar, that kind of leaves us with the PGA Tour's mind-numbing week-to-week sameness.  That's not an attractive vision for the game, is it?

On that curious note I shall wrap.  Not exactly sure when I'll blog next as it's a busy week for your humble blogger.  Don't be mad if I don't blog any more this week, but do yourself a favor and catch the girls. 

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Monday, May 23, 2022

Weekend Wrap - PGA Championship Edition

Wow, what a weird weekend, as  JT wasn't even on my radar after his Saturday hiccup.  But the strangest part is that Bobby D. and your humble blogger made it through two rounds of the Inglis Cup,, thanks to my partner being nails when I boarded the Double-Bogey Express.  

The Victor - From out of nowhere, is the golf.com lede:

Justin Thomas came from seven shots back at Southern Hills on Sunday, got some help from a late, tragic double bogey from Pereira and then fended off Will Zalatoris in a three-hole aggregate playoff to win his second career major championship in chaotic, dramatic, impressive fashion.

So how did he do it?

Smoke, mirrors and Mito....

Thomas won the PGA Championship on Thursday and Friday, when he fought through the tougher half of the draw to shoot 67-67 and dive into contention. His creativity was on full display in the wind and rain as he plotted his way around a formidable golf course with an impressive array of shotmaking. He has more shots now than he did in 2017; he can work the ball both ways, flight it high and low, ride the wind or hold it off the wind. Some of the inspiration for that sort of wizardry comes from close friend Tiger Woods. The credit, of course, goes to Thomas himself.

Yeah, though he seemed to drop-kick that away on Saturday.  In his freebie Quadrilateral post, Geoff has more on that wrong side of the draw bit:

Of the 22 players under par after 36-holes, only five came from Thomas’s late/early side of the draw. According to Justin Ray, the average scoring differential between the waves was 1.9 strokes.

Sounds on the low side to this observer....But maybe a guy should be judged against his peer group:

“JT got the worst of it” said CBS’s Jim Nantz of a tee time draw where Thomas faced high winds Thursday afternoon and again Friday morning. The 29-year-old still delivered controlled precision late into Friday morning as playing partners Patrick Cantlay and Dustin Johnson seemed overwhelmed by the conditions.

Amusingly, I've had this browser tab open since the year of the flood, assuming I'd work it in at some point:

Stevie Williams could not be reached for comment, though we know what he thought of Bones' long-time employer.  I'm a skeptic as to its premise, because their value comes in meeting the needs of individual players, so best caddie for whom?

That said, on Saturday night Bones earned his rep as best caddie of this era (as long as we define "era" to mean this week:

Justin Thomas was agitated. Check that, he was steaming. Maybe you saw the video on Golf Channel or CBS. But it was Saturday night and Thomas had just shot 74 in the third round of the
PGA Championship. He was seven shots off the lead and fuming on the Southern Hills range, trying to figure out how to get his game back on track before nightfall, so he wound’t have to wait until the morning for answers.

That’s when his caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay, had had enough.

“I’m fully confident in saying that I wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t give me that, wasn’t necessarily a speech, but a talk, if you will,” Thomas said on Sunday night, about an hour after he beat Will Zalatoris to win the PGA Championship and claim his second major title. “I just needed to let some steam out. I didn’t need to bring my frustration and anger home with me. I didn’t need to leave the golf course in a negative frame of mind.”

“I felt like I’d played terrible,” Thomas said. “And [Bones] was just like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to be stop being so hard on yourself. You’re in contention every single week we’re playing. I’ve had a lot of chances to win tournaments, and it’s a hard golf course; it’s a major championship. You don’t have to be perfect. Just don’t be hard on yourself. Just kind of let stuff happen, and everything is trending in the right direction. So just keep staying positive so that good stuff can happen.’ I left here in an awesome frame of mind.”

It doesn't sound all that profound, but it's what his guy needed to hear in that moment...

My attention was definitely drifting during yesterday's broadcast, the frequency of Sir Mumbles voice will do that to a fellow.  Unfortunately, I completely missed this of JT on No. 6:


Your humble blogger has been a tad shanky lately, although for me it's been with the wedges.  ShotLink apparently does a play-by-play, which is pretty amazing:


I'm as curious about the second shoat as about the actual shank (from that linked piece, the shank apparently put him on a part of the course that isn't mapped), but this was JT's reaction:

“It was the best bogey I’d ever made in my life, that’s for sure,” he said.

That may be, but it wasn't the best bogey of the day by far (ironically on the very same hole):

Zalatoris’ 4 on the par-3 6th had a little bit of everything: an airmailed iron off the tee, an impossibly long rules discussion, a chip shot off a cart path and, eventually, a 12-foot bogey make that kept his tournament hopes alive. One thing it did not have? A simple explanation. Fortunately, that’s where we come in. Here’s what happened.

I can't do it justice, but what most amazed your humble blogger is that his cart path drop seemed to find a crease...

These guys are good.

Shall we sample from the Tour Confidential panel?

Justin Thomas came from seven strokes back to win the PGA Championship on Sunday, ultimately beating Will Zalatoris in a three-hole playoff. The win was Thomas’s second major title and 15th PGA Tour victory. What most fueled his charge?

Ummmm....Mito going full Van de Velde? 

Sean Zak: It sounds like his caddie Jim Mackay did. JT said in his presser that he wouldn’t be
there, standing next to the Wanamaker Trophy, if it wasn’t for a kick in the pants that Bones gave him on the range Saturday night. He said he felt at peace leaving the property, despite shooting 74 Saturday, which says a lot.

Jessica Marksbury: As I was looking over the leaderboard on Saturday night, it struck me that Justin Thomas was one of only four other major winners — the only “experienced” guys on the leaderboard — who had a semi-realistic chance of making a run. (Bubba Watson, Webb Simpson and Stewart Cink were the others.) But seven shots seemed like an insurmountable tally! That’s the beauty of this sport, though. Anything can happen, and JT has been around long enough to know that if he kept grinding, he’d have a chance. Then, he made some clutch plays at exactly the right time.

Josh Sens: I’m not sure I would call it a charge in the classic sense. Thomas played a very solid round, hitting a number of clutch shots down the stretch. But what he didn’t do was beat himself, which some of the less experienced players did over those closing holes.

Zephyr Melton: Sens put it perfectly. Yes, JT played well, but what he did best was avoid beating himself. That’s all he needed on a wild Sunday in Tulsa.

James Colgan: I’d argue Mito Pereira fueled his charge, with an assist from Will Zalatoris. The tournament crumbled ahead of JT, and as Josh said, Thomas deserves credit for stepping through the opening.

This is a hard one to assess, because the it feels kind of cheap.  No doubt he deserves credit for his Thursday-Friday play, though he out-played his peer group Sunday as well (as per Shack):

Thomas was the only player in the last seven groups Sunday to break par.

I know the course was playing tough, but I was reminded most of Casey;s, "Can't anybody here play this game?" quip.

 As for that guy that came to the 18th tee needing a par to win?

Mito Pereira, the leader for much of the final round, had his own destiny in his hands when he stepped onto the 18th tee with a one-shot advantage. But then came a shocking swing
that led to his ball flying hard right into a creek; Pereira’s resulting double bogey dropped him into a tie for third. “I don’t know what happened,” Pereira said of the swing. How do you explain it?

Zak: It’s hard to explain. I can’t help but think he hit a pretty great shot, that was both too good and also not good enough. A bounding drive that could have gotten caught up in the rough, but didn’t. The kinda bad luck that comes from an imperfect shot that more experienced players might not have made.

Marksbury: Hindsight is always 20/20 on a shot like that. It’s easy to question why he didn’t go with a different club or a more conservative line. But he was confident in the shot he envisioned and it just didn’t work out. Super unfortunate, but something anyone who’s ever played the game can relate to.

Sens: Not trying to be glib here, but I think we can chalk it up to the withering pressure of trying to win. One last call to find the fairway, something he did so well all week. Pereira wasn’t the first to deliver a tight swing in those circumstances . . . and he won’t be the last.

Melton: Pressure is a funny thing, and it affects everyone differently. He felt the pressure, and the result was a bad swing at the worst time.

Colgan: I’m not sure Mito’s decision-making on the 18th tee with a one-shot lead is explainable. It was a no-brainer 3-wood, and he pulled driver instead. He paid for the decision with the tournament. I loved the way he played all week, but 18 was indefensible.

Sean Zak thinks he hit a pretty great shot?  Wow, that's a hot take, though this is more along the lines of what I saw:

Just a couple of other notes.  First and foremost, could not agree more:

Over to you, Bryson, who has not spoken to the media since, checking notes, the Carter administration.  I know you're "Going through things", but Mito just went through a "thing" as well...

Lastly, Geoff wants me to pay for his Quad newsletter, and I still may do so, but this is more than a little embarrassing:

Miko

Miko Pereira (T3) earned plenty of new fans with a willingness to do interviews moments after a disastrous conclusion to a round he led all the way. He spoke to CBS’s Amanda Balionis and delivered this gem: “On Monday I just wanted to make the cut. On Sunday I wanted to win.”

 That's a great quote that I wanted to get in but, his name is Mito, Geoff.  

As for the Big Cat?  I'm sitting there Friday as he makes double bogey on No. 11, and the blog post is forming in my mind, most notably a prediction that he will not be in Brookline.  Then, grinding his way in, he finds a couple of birdies and makes the cut.  Remember, kids, always go with your first instincts:

Outside of Sunday’s proceedings, the week’s biggest news came Saturday, when Tiger Woods withdrew after his third round. Now 15 months since his car crash, the 15-time major winner rallied to make the cut with a one-under 69 on Friday, only to shoot a 79 the next day, and call it a tournament soon after. What’s your Tiger takeaway from the week?

Zak: Thoroughly impressed he made the cut, but not surprised that it ended poorly. The Masters was just five weeks ago, and the same thing happened. I’d guess he doesn’t play at Brookline, and starts focusing on St. Andrews.

Marksbury: I’m still very surprised he elected to tee it up at all this week. It certainly didn’t seem like a course that would jibe with his current physical wheelhouse, despite his triumph in 2007. But, man, that was a lifetime ago! St. Andrews seems like a much friendlier and realistic place for us to see him next.

Sens: That the mind is as willing as ever but the body, for good reason, isn’t.

Melton: His body just isn’t ready for four rounds of high-level golf. We sort of knew this after the Masters (although there he was able to put four rounds together), and this week solidified that fact.

Colgan: Agreed, Jess! I thought there was no chance we’d see Tiger again until St. Andrews. I think this week was an important one in teaching Tiger about his limitations. For the first time in his life, playing in some events is simply a non-starter. He’ll get better at peaking when he needs to, which should only help him down the line.

Colgan has my head spinning with that bit.  the body doesn't yet seem able to enduring four tough days, so how exactly is he going to learn how to peak?

So, first more plane-spotting:

Geoff answers your obvious question:

Tiger Woods’ jet flew to Van Nuys Sunday. Perhaps to visit to his doctor at Cedars Sinai on Monday?

 And this, which seems like a foregone conclusion:

James Corrigan wrote what everyone but the USGA and NBC executives are thinking: it might be best to pass on Brookline to recover for the Old Course in July.

It was always a big ask, so let's not expect too much at The Old Course.

We'll wind down with the TC guys, who seem not to have watched any golf since, well, 2014:

Rory McIlroy conquered his major championship first-round demons with a 65, only to go 71-74-68 after that to finish 8th. He has now gone eight years without a major championship — and yet, he seems to always be in the conversation. We’ve debated this topic before, but this week it seems even more apropos to ponder: What is holding him back at golf’s biggest events?

That's an easy answer.  his wedge play and putting bot remain well below Tur standards.  

Zak: I’m not going to act like I know. It’s anyone’s guess, including Rory’s. I think he can do it and I think he will do it soon enough. But for some reason when that train starts wobbling on the tracks, he doesn’t have the means to settle it down.

Marksbury: As confounding as it is for us to ponder, I can only imagine what it’s like for McIlroy himself. But I agree with Sean. Rory will win another major, and I think it will be soon! He’s clearly physically able. Maybe it will just take another Sunday-at-Augusta-esque charge from behind to really open the floodgates again.

Sens: No doubt, Jess. It’s got to be in his head at this point. Invariably, it’s the short approaches and in. He gets on a heater, cuts the course down to size off the tee, and then either the wedges or the putter betray him. Today, it was the putter.

Melton: No clue, but the disappointing finishes are getting to him. After the round, the typically media-friendly Rory left as soon as he signed his card. It’s not like him to spurn the media, so you know this week weighed on him.

Colgan: I think Sean put it perfectly. The word here is composure. Rory doesn’t have a lot of it these days. That’s why his game comes and goes in spurts. I do think he puts it together soon, but he needs a catalyst mentally. Hopefully Southern Hills provides that.

I'm likely over-interpreting, but the childhood best friend on the bag has always struck me as a sign that Rory is not serious about his career, opting instead for comfort.  He might be the guy that needed Bones, or at least a strong hand on the till (what he might need more than anything is someone to read his putts).

And lastly:

Newly restored Southern Hills, which played host to the PGA on short notice after Trump Bedminster was stripped of the privilege, was generally well received by the players, and wild weather patterns meant we got see in a variety of conditions. What was your read on the course? Worthy major venue?

Zak: Southern Hills should host a PGA Championship once a decade, every decade. And maybe it should host a Ryder Cup, too. I’ve written about how the PGA Championship should lean in to Middle America, mostly for the fans and variety. But they should definitely lean in to Southern Hills from a quality-of-test basis. Not a single hole was too easy. Not a single hole was too hard. Each of them was an individual test, where birdie and double bogey was possible. It’s lovely.

Marksbury: I always enjoy watching the pros take on some good risk/reward opportunities, and the closing holes certainly produced some real drama this week. Count me among the fans!

Sens: It’s a remarkable course. And as someone said during the event, it did what great courses do: It punished mediocrity. A very tough test but also fair. And so much more fun to watch than the event would have been at Trump Bedminister.

Melton: Love Southern Hills. It’s a proper test of golf, and it seems to always identify a deserving champion. I can’t wait for the next event out here.

Colgan: The playoff was all you needed to watch to know it was brilliant. Risk/reward par-5; drivable par-4; monster two-shot par-4. Southern Hills had a piece of everything, and (most importantly) it was an actual TEST for the pros! We need MORE of that, not less. I can’t believe we saw people dog on the place throughout the weekend.

I thought it was pretty great, especially since the weather was so weird this week.  I'd have preferred to see it #firmandfast, of course, but the weather gods didn't offer up that kind of week.  And I think we can all agree that if you're Living on Tulsa Time, far better to do so in May than in August.

Catch you later in the week?

 

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