Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Tuesday Tidbits

Maybe a couple of other stories before we LIV it up?

Hail Keiser - Interesting doings in the world of high-end daily fee golf, this time of the linksy persuasion:

Just over a decade ago, the Cabot name burst upon the golf scene with its solitary, but widely acclaimed course on the Atlantic Ocean near the town of Inverness, Nova Scotia. Now, it’s only
fitting that perhaps the fastest-growing brand in the game is making its European foray in Inverness, Scotland.

Cabot, which already has high-end golf course projects in development in Canada, Saint Lucia, and Florida, has now added the esteemed Castle Stuart course designed by Gil Hanse to an impressive, and expanding, portfolio.

Just five minutes from the Inverness Airport, 20 minutes from Nairn, and within an hour or so of other famous courses in the Scottish Highlands like Brora, Royal Dornoch, and Skibo Castle, Castle Stuart has been tabbed as one of the Top 100 courses in the world, laid out over a rugged natural landscape with holes framed by the sea and dramatic bluffs. It now becomes the centerpiece of a property that will be known as Cabot Highlands, the latest extension of a brand that boasts Cabot Cape Breton (Nova Scotia), Cabot Revelstoke (British Columbia), Cabot Saint Lucia, and Cabot Citrus Farms (central Florida).

Castle Stuart, along with Kingsbarns in Fife, were developed by the now-deceased Mark Parsinen, with whom your humble blogger played Cypress Point back in the 1980's.  It's a wonderful links of the modern ilk, built to ensure views from virtually every hole of the Moray Forth.  But wait, there's more:

“It’s building on the foundation we started years ago,” says Cabot CEO Ben Cowan-Dewar, who partnered with Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser in establishing the Cabot brand. “These things, they take time. But the chance to build in an amazing location and continue to get to work with amazing people is what it’s all about.”

While Castle Stuart checks the Cabot boxes for world class golf and phenomenal surrounds, more is on the way. Cowan-Dewar and the Cabot team have brought in architect Tom Doak to build a second 18-hole championship course on a property that spans almost 500 acres. The new course, which will begin construction later this year and has a planned 2024 opening, will play around Castle Stuart’s 400-year-old castle, weaving through hillsides and expansive open land. There are also several holes dramatically set on the water further southwest of the current course.

That second course has been long rumored, though it always seemed that it would invariably be inland and necessarily less linksy.  But perhaps they were able to acquire some frontage property to sex it up a bit.

Also via Shack, Coul Links seems to have gotten a mulligan, with a planning hearing scheduled for next month.  We met Keiser père on our visit to Cabot, so perhaps we'll run into him yet again in the Highlands, where we'll be in a month (perhaps a look at the Coul Links site might be in order).

That's It, I Quite - Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column often fills in some B-roll background to the prior week's action, including an interesting common theme from the weekend's winners.  First, the latest Lexi beneficiary:

It’s fitting that In Gee Chun won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship after opening with
eight-under 64, fully five shots better than anyone else in the field. It’s fitting that she won after a second-round 69 left her six shot clear. It’s strange that she won after shooting 75-75 on the weekend, but that’s the luxury of playing the first two rounds on a different golf course than your competition. You get a little leeway on Sunday.

The victory marked the third major championship of her career. It also allowed Chun, who has spoken openly about struggling with depression, a moment to reflect on the highs and lows of her recent career.

“To be honest last week I talked to my older sister, and then I really cried,” Chun said. “I said, ‘It’s really hard to stay in the U.S., I don’t know what I want to do. I don’t have any goal because I can’t see the goal because I feel really hurt.’

“She said, ‘In Gee, just quit golf. You’re the important thing.'”

The freedom of her sister’s words made her realize she could quit. And for that reason she chose not to. You still want to play golf, she told herself.

We'll have a bit more on the Euro Tour later, but the winner of its weekend events is a name we've not head for some time:

Last year Haotong Li bottomed out at No. 542 in the world. He finished in the top 60 just once in 16 starts. He eventually decided this was it for his golf career.

“No one knows how much I have gone through over the last couple of years,” Li told the DP World Tour. “Ten months ago I nearly decided to not play golf. I thought I couldn’t play golf again.”

He added this: “If someone told me ten months ago I would win again, I wouldn’t believe that.”

There were plenty of opportunities for Li not to win on Sunday. He began the final round of the BMW International Open with a three-shot lead and birdied three of his first five holes to extend that lead to five. But he lost that lead with a string of bogeys midway through the round and needed birdies at 16 and 17 just to force a playoff against Thomas Pieters. That first playoff hole was hardly perfect either; Li’s eagle pitch skittered 40 feet past the hole. But then he canned it coming back and unleashed a celebration that showed exactly how much it all meant.

Here's that celebration of which Dylan speaks:

 

Last year Haotong Li bottomed out at No. 542 in the world. He finished in the top 60 just once in 16 starts. He eventually decided this was it for his golf career.

 Think we'll see this kind of emotion in Portland this week?  

LIV Nation - It's the calm before the storm in Portland, though it remains unclear whether the progressive Portlanders will take time out from producing Molotov cocktails to take in a little golf.

Sports Business Journal seems to indicate that Portlanders will remain on their default settings:

LIV Golf plays its first U.S. event starting Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in Portland, and law enforcement and government officials are bracing for “significant” protests during the tournament, according to Joe Freeman of the Portland OREGONIAN. The visit has "sparked both curiosity and outrage from area golfers, spurred outcry from local politicians and stimulated threats of protests, thrusting Portland into the crosshairs of controversy." Under normal circumstances, the event’s arrival "would be hailed as a coup for the local sports scene, as the LIV series will bring to town a smattering of the most high-profile golfers in the world, boost the local economy and cast an international spotlight on Portland." But the LIV series is "anything but normal." Eleven mayors from Washington Country, in a letter sent to Pumpkin Ridge owner Escalante Golf, "publicly denounced the event on moral grounds." Multiple Pumpkin Ridge members "left the club in protest." And Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has "decried LIV Golf as nothing more than a vehicle for Saudi 'sportswashing.'” The event has "not only sparked a moral dilemma for club members, but also for people who live in towns scattered across Washington County." On the one hand, the event will "bring tourists and golf enthusiasts to Washington County, providing a boon to the local economy. On the other hand, those ties to the Saudi government taint any potential positives" (Portland OREGONIAN, 6/27).

But the name Fallon Smart will be remembered, and appropriately so:

I don’t fault Dustin Johnson the $125 million. I don’t blame Brooks Koepka for cashing in. I don’t know Phil Mickelson well enough to pass judgment on his ethics, and I could care less about the future of the PGA Tour.

If the Saudis bought Augusta National, I wouldn’t lose much sleep. But an LIV Golf tournament, backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, at Pumpkin Ridge?

In Fallon Smart’s backyard?

That’s beyond the pale.

Oh, Phil's ethics are beyond the pale as well...but do tell:

In August 2016, Fallon was struck and killed on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard by a 21-year-old driving his gold Lexus at nearly 60 mph. She was 15, a rising sophomore at Franklin High.

Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, a Saudi national, swerved around the cars that had stopped so Fallon could cross the street at its intersection with 43rd Avenue.

Noorah had already racked up 17 parking tickets and a suspended drivers’ license in his two years at Portland Community College. Near graduation, he didn’t think the bills would ever come due.

The Saudis proved him right, spiriting him out of the country before he could stand trial on charges of manslaughter, felony hit-and-run and reckless driving.

He hopped into a black GMC Yukon XL two weeks before his June 2017 trial. He cut off his tracking monitor at a sand-and-gravel yard, then vanished. Inside a week, he was back in the kingdom, the Saudis would quietly inform Homeland Security … 13 months later.

I'll forward  to Greg and Phil's thoughtful commentary on this case, as I know they condemn any and all human rights violations.  

Before moving on, I'll just briefly revisit an issue I raised yesterday as to whether there's such a thing as bad publicity.  It seems to this observer that their attempt to buy the professional golf has merely resulted in an increased air play for their human rights greatest hits album.  As for Portland, well I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time...

Let's now turn our gaze to the formerly great continent of Europe, which will seemingly be the next front in the golf world war.  This browser tab was open when we left for our trip, indicating that your humble blogger has been a little slow to address it:


The battle for golf’s future has featured two main characters: the PGA Tour, fronted by
commissioner Jay Monahan, and LIV Golf, headed by CEO Greg Norman. Both men have portrayed confidence in their organizations and their respective paths forward. Their posturing has come in stark contrast to their counterpart at the DP World Tour, CEO Keith Pelley, who has stayed silent—conspicuously so given the DP World Tour’s “strategic alliance” with Ponte Vedra.

More than a dozen sources from across the DP World Tour and PGA Tour landscape have told Golf Digest that Pelley is mulling a rather impactful decision: a partnership of sorts between his tour and LIV Golf Investments, or a further integration with the PGA Tour. A spokesman for LIV declined to comment for this story, but a source intimately familiar with discussions between the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour says both sides see potential value in aligning more closely.

The author elides what seems an important fact, which is that Pelley is facing this dilemma for the second time.  At the height of the pandemic , as the Euros hit the wall, he faced a similar Sophie's Choice, opting at that time to take Jay's money.  As you might recall, I've speculated as to how that decision might look in the rearview mirror, and there's little doubt that his members are posing similar questions:

And yet, there is nothing resembling a consensus among DP World Tour players as to which path to take.

“[Pelley’s] getting serious pressure from his rank-and-file members to consider the Saudis,” says one high-profile player.

I'm sure he has.

A partnership with LIV Golf for the former European Tour could present benefits to both sides. According to sources closely connected to the tour, the DP World Tour could provide a safety net
to the start-up circuit, whose core vision involves only 48 players teeing it up on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, LIV would pump money into the DPWT to increase purses, and there would be some mechanism for players to move between tours. Any such partnership would surely face a number of legal and logistical hurdles given the PGA Tour’s investment into the DP World Tour as part of the alliance, first announced in November 2020 and widely seen as a pre-emptive response to LIV’s challenge.

“I heard on Sunday that Pelley might be thinking of a U-turn,” says one multiple-time DP World Tour winner. “I think that is very disappointing. But I’m not surprised. Pelley has never been very truthful in what he has told the players. I understand you have to make some decisions that are best kept behind closed doors. But I think this is something that went too far down that path. We should have been told what was going on right from the start. The motivation for this I think is coming from the pressure Pelley is feeling from tournament sponsors. They won’t be liking the fact that they are losing some of their star players. … Pelley is not coming out of this too well. I think it will be the end of his reign. How can you go into a strategic alliance with the PGA Tour then six months later—after they found sponsors for the Irish Open and the Scottish Open—backstab them like this? From a PR and image point of view, that is a s*** move.”

When you choices in life devolve down to a binary decision as to whether to be Jay Monahan's or Mohammed bin Dalman's bitch, you might want to have your C.V. up to date.

Then again, he might be using the Saudis for a once-in-a-lifetime leverage to cut a better deal with Jay, because I'm pretty sure I heard that strategy somewhere...

When last we visited with the Euro trash, Pelley was mulling his response to his defectors, and while I was on the road he dropped the hammer:

There was no mention of the DP World Tour’s on-going relationship with the PGA Tour, but chief executive Keith Pelley has come down hard on those members of the Old World circuit who participated at the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational event at the Centurion Club just north of London earlier this month.

In a statement released to media on Friday, Pelley revealed that the likes of Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Richard Bland, Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter, Bernd Wiesberger, Sam Horsfield, Adrian Otaegui, Oliver Fisher, Graeme McDowell, Wade Ormsby and Pablo Larrazabal will all be fined £100,000 ($125,000) and suspended from participating in three DP World Tour events next month: the Genesis Scottish Open, the Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship (all co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour). Participation in further conflicting tournaments without the required releases “may incur further sanctions.”

Excuse me, you think that's hard?  Ummm, then what were they doing here?

Those players who competed in the first LIV event and are currently in Munich for the BMW International Open were informed of their fate on Thursday in what a source told Golf Digest was a “sometimes heated” meeting. Wiesberger, the 2019 Scottish Open champion, is known to have been especially upset, according to the source.

That's because Bernd played poorly in London, where is winnings were a wash with that fine.  But notice that the only suspensions are for the co-sanctioned vents, so sounds like kid gloves to this observer.

Pelley has been conspicuous in his absence in recent weeks, but in a video message to his members went on a bit of an unhinged rant:

"There's been a lot of speculation, a lot of rumours swirling," Pelley said. "There’s been very
little fact and lots of fiction. Factually, I can tell you we're partners with the PGA Tour in our strategic alliance that has been very beneficial since we signed that back in November 2020.

"There is a tremendous amount of fiction and you have to be careful with what is transpiring right now across all media platforms and I encourage everyone to again deal with the fact.

"The one fact is that we will always concentrate on doing the best for our membership, our sponsors, and our stakeholders, and for our players and our members that is prize fund and playing opportunities."

Let's see, the last guy to blame the media for this mess was....wait for it, Brooks Koepka, so nothing to see here.

The question of the day would seem to be, does Jay have Keith's testicles in a jar?  Because it'll be close to lights out should the Euros support LIV's application for OWGR points?

I haven't read it all, but this is an interesting deep dive on the Euro Tour's declining fortunes.  I'll include just this one graphic that's quite the tell:


Yup, their measured strength of field just dipped below that of the Japanese Tour.  

One last amusing bit, then we'll get on with our days.  While away, the estimable Eamon Lynch took on the Koepka defection, the amusing bit jumping out from the header:

Lynch: The Saudis put a horse’s head in Brooks Koepka’s bed. He couldn’t refuse their offer

Eamon takes us through the about face to good effect:

Somewhere over the last few days — since back when he was telling friends that he was emphatically out on the LIV Golf series — Brooks Koepka found a metaphorical horse’s head in
his bed, an offer he couldn’t refuse from the Saudi dismemberment enthusiasts behind the breakaway circuit. Since Koepka does not suffer fools gladly and has been vocally contemptuous of LIV Golf’s leading figures — Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and Golf Saudi CEO Majed Al Sorour — we must assume the offer was sufficiently high for him to sleep soundly.

For those who know Koepka well, one brief moment at last week’s U.S. Open offered early and irrefutable evidence that he had cast his lot with LIV Golf. He walked up to Mickelson on the range to offer him a fist bump and exchange a few words. That will not be the only time he finds himself doing something that would until very recently have been found unpalatable. The Saudis expect loyalty among team members, whether golfers or murder squads in faraway consulates.

Yes.  And I'd also remind folks that after his clarion dismissal of the LIV competitive model, Jon Rahm played a practice round with Phil.  Jay should have ankle monitors on all these guys...

But here's where Eamon strikes paydirt:

Beyond now having to labor at the beck and call of people he dislikes (with good reason, to be fair), the decision to join LIV Golf represents a humiliation for Koepka, though he will be loath to admit it. He has always fancied himself more an athlete than a golfer, but this is an admission that he’s neither, that he’s just an entertainer doomed to play exhibitions against the washed-up veterans and no-name youngsters that he’s long considered unfit to sniff his jockstrap.

There’s a reason behind the tacit acknowledgment: Koepka’s body has been degrading for years and a nagging injury has him perilously close to surgery and a lengthy layoff. He might have committed to the Saudis, but they will be lucky to see him fulfill it.

The amusing bit being that he can compare notes with his equally competitively-impaired BFF Bryson.

And we've noticed this, but still good to remind us all:

The buying of critical voices, for example. It goes back to Paul Casey. As a UNICEF ambassador, he sat out the first Saudi International tournament in 2019 as an act of conscience. By the following year, Casey had been compensated enough to explain his presence as an act of engagement. It continues today. Pat Perez publicly stiff-armed LIV Golf months ago — not least because of his well-known dislike of Mickelson — but he too was bought off.

And finally, Koepka, who had several terse exchanges with Saudi representatives when rejecting their advances in 2021. Eventually, they found his price too.

You might think there's no personality disorder that the Saids won't take on, but Eamon has found that one outlier:

Another obvious trend is the heat map of player management agencies. Take GSE Worldwide, which has creamed off millions of dollars in fees for funneling its clients into the Saudi rat trap — DeChambeau, Abraham Ancer, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace, with plenty more of their assets among the rumored and imminent. And if you want evidence that Jay Monahan can’t catch a break: one GSE client who has not been offloaded to the Saudis is Grayson Murray.

Hard to blame them, but I was dreaming of that Grayson Murray - Kevin Na feature group.

Developing, as the kids like to say.  I'll be back later in the week, though most likely not until Friday.


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Monday, June 27, 2022

Weekend Wrap

So, how do we do this blogging thing?  Most definitely not like riding a bicycle....

But shall we start with some actual golf?

Hartford Heartbreak - Playing the role of Mito Pereira, Sahith Theegala had his first tour win in his sights, until it all unraveled in a fairway bunker.  Though this might be a candidate for worst game story ever:

Xander Schauffele delivered the knockout punch when it mattered.

His lob wedge from 105 yards to 3 feet at the final hole clinched his sixth career PGA Tour title and first individual stroke-play victory since the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions.

“It feels really good,” he said of converting his first 54-hole lead into victory. “Everyone talks about how hard it is and I only had the Olympics to sort of fall back on having a lead and kind of closing it. I’ve never done it on the PGA Tour.”

Schauffele made the short birdie putt at the last to close in 2-under 68 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut for a 72-hole total of 19-under 261 and a two-stroke victory over Sahith Theegala and J.T. Poston at the Travelers Championship.

Because apparently it mattered that the margin of victory was two instead of one?   

Even Shack, a fellow Pepperdine Wave, hasn't much to say about Theegala's heartbreak, just this:

Theegala doubled the 72nd hole after trying a fairway bunker shot very close to the lip. The lip won. He finished T2. Almost as impressive was 20-year-old amateur Michael Thorbjornsen finishing solo-fourth in a noble effort to become the first amateur to win since Phil Mickelson at the 1991 Northern Telecom.

To paraphrase Bobby Fuller, I Fought The Lip and The Lip Won..... (though, technically, that was originally a Crickets tune).  But credit the young man for going for it, and that lip-out was quite heartbreaking.

Still Lexi After All These Years -  Employee No. 2 and I actually watched the Hartford finish, then I started the recording of the ladies from Congressional.  Early on the back nine Lexi had a two-stroke lead with In Gee Chun still struggling, when the bride and I had this conversation:

Employee No. 2 - Do we want to watch the rest of this?

Your Humble Blogger - Well, train wrecks can be fun

Employee No. 2 - But everyone knows that she'll cough it up.

YHB - Maybe everyone except the announcers...

We did not watch it, but YHB was greeted by this header this morning:

The legend of Lexi is that growing up competing against her two brothers made her a steely competitor.  The reality is something else entirely.  Bet Ann Nichols had this:

In the shadow of the nation’s capital, the LPGA’s most tortured American star suffered heartbreak
once more. Lexi Thompson hadn’t won on the LPGA in her last 50 starts, and it looked like she might finally collect her second major at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship as the women competed at historic Congressional Country Club for the first time.

But once again, Thompson’s short game couldn’t withstand the pressure. She squandered a two-stroke lead with three to play and, after signing autographs, was too emotional to meet with the media and took off for the parking lot.

With the issue being that which it has always been:

But the ghosts of short misses that have haunted her in pressure-packed moments came to visit on the back nine. A two-foot par putt on the 14th hole that never had a chance was the most egregious.

She leaves other women smiling, so credit to her for that.  And the signing of autographs in the face of disappointment is a touch of class.... 

Just one last bit before we move on.  Congressional has always been another Medinah to this observer, a worthy major venue according to conventional wisdom.  Yet, every time we revisit it, they've changed everything.  So, if it's so obviously worthy, why do you keep bringing in the earth movers?

This time they went another direction and brought in Gil Hanse, so I think they can now stick with what Gil wrought.  It looked great from what I saw, and that Shack fellow agreed:

The PGA of America quietly moved Congressional from its previously announced 2031 PGA Championship date to 2030.

Thanks to some GolfCourseGurus images posted from the pre-renovation version of the course, we get an idea how radical the redo was. Just like we’ve seen in recent sweeping redos focused on reclaiming character at places like Inverness (Green) and Southern Hills (Hanse), Congo went from clunky looking stuff built in a hurry to timeless design touches that should only get better with age and super Pete Wendt’s care. They went from Gap to Tom Ford, Domino’s to Gino’s East, and cassette to Dolby Atmos. May the Golf Gods never let Rees Jones on a classic course again.

At that link he's got some before-and-after photos that make our point quite effectively, this being the Par-3 13th.  



Add some interesting contours to the bunkers, use some longer fescue for contrast and it's immediately a far more interesting look and feel.  

Of course the bigger issue is why Rees is allowed to touch any golf course.... the delicious irony being that he's the house architect at your humble blogger's club.  In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Bye-Bye - Before we get to our LIVisection, can you guess what golf story in the last ten days brought joy and comfort to your humble blogger?  I've been walking on air since the news broke, but we'll just briefly survey the Tour Confidential reaction:

5. Longtime lead analyst Nick Faldo announced his intention to retire from the CBS Golf booth upon the completion of the PGA Tour season in August, ending a 16-year run with the network. How would you sum up Faldo’s time in the role, and what do you think about the decision to replace him with Trevor Immelman?

Not Sir Mumbles?  But how do actual golf writers view the man? 

Zak: Faldo was a consistent voice, which is worth something. And he wasn’t too afraid to share an opinion. But in my opinion, he didn’t offer enough Tour-level nuance, and rarely seemed able to explain nitty gritty details in a well-packaged way. It felt like Nantz carried him along at times toward the end of his run. As for Immelman, he feels like a sufficient replacement for now, but I’m not totally wowed by the move. Perhaps I just have high standards! It’s a tough gig.

 Consistent voice?  That's the best you can say about the guy?  Don't even know what it means....but get ready for quite the passive-aggressive slam:

Bastable: I’d agree that he was consistently in the booth, but his analysis was markedly inconsistent. Occasionally he’d drop some nuggets of knowledge or insight that only a six-time major winner could deliver, but too often he struggled to articulate his points and relied too much on his gut versus what the statistics actually told us. Agree with Sean on Immelman. He’s likable and has a nice rapport with players and has already proven to be a capable analyst, but I’m not sure golf fans will race to the TV on Sunday afternoons to hear his takes. Remember when Phil Mickelson seemed primed for the job? Feels like a long time ago.

Even I'll concede that he was consistently in the booth, which I think we can all agree is a deliciously low bar.... and, yet, one he consistently struggled to get over.  The man simply couldn't convert thoughts into words, which both guys get. 

But hang on, because the snark level is about to ratchet up:

Dethier: There was an exchange at the end of the third round at Torrey Pines this January that summed it up for me:

Nick Faldo: “What do they call it, a sneak score, isn’t it, when the quarterback gets across the line?”

Jim Nantz: “The quarterback sneak, that would be, dear boy.”

Faldo: “Oh, I got it the wrong way — the English way. Ah, the quarterback sneak. So I’m predicting we’re going to have a ‘golfer sneak’ tomorrow. Somebody we’re not sure of is going to get across the line.”

Nantz: “What a call that is. You sound like quite the football expert, my friend.”

Faldo: “I want to be a ‘narrow’ receiver, then I wouldn’t have to run as far. You be a wide receiver, I’ll be narrow.”

That’s your Rorschach test for Faldo — your love-or-hate reaction to that signoff says it all. He was fun, goofy, made you shake your head. He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Was he anyone's cup of tea?  I defy any golf fan to give me one instance where Sir Mumbles added to your understanding of that which you were watching.  And that doesn't even touch on his lack of understand of his role as evidenced by his spoiler on Rory's bunker shot, which he excused becausehe was excited.... Or the crap he simply made up.

Sens: Faldo could be witty. He could also be rambling and digressive, failing to answer questions that were lobbed at him. In that way, I found him frustrating more often than not. Someone who knows more about the inside workings of the network than I do once told me that he grated on Nantz, who, in particular, really didn’t like having to call him ‘Sir.’ The quirky exchange Dylan cites wasn’t the only time Nantz called Faldo ‘dear boy.’ He also did it when Mickelson, during a guest appearance in the tower at the PGA Championship at Harding Park, made a PG-13 joke that Faldo didn’t get. “Leave that to your imagination, dear boy,” Nantz told Faldo. Maybe I’m reading into it, but that ‘dear boy’ British-ism always struck me as Nantz’s polite way of mocking his partner in the booth. Immelman? Jury’s out for me. I’ll wait and see. But if I were running a network today and looking to hire a full-time commentator, I’d try to land Justin Leonard.

I always wondered about that relationship, given that Faldo sucked up air time without adding any insights or humor.   Immelman seems inoffensive to me, almost interchangeable with Justin Leonard.  But at least when he opens his mouth, actual words emerge.

the good news is that we only have to get through the FedEx Cup, and your humble blogger will be away for most of that.  Better yet, the one event that matters, that little tourney in The Kingdom of Fife, is on NBC.

LIV Long and Prosper - So, anything happen while we were away?

Tough to cover all that ground, but hopefully the Tour Confidential Q&A will allow us to hit the high points.  First, The Empire Strikes Back:

1. The PGA Tour is fighting back against LIV Golf, as the Tour announced what amounts to be a $54 million purse increase spread across eight of its biggest events, including upping the Players Championship purse to $25 million and several others to $20 million. There’s also a new lucrative international series of up to three events for the top 50 players. What’s your biggest takeaway from Jay Monahan’s several announcements and, more importantly, will it be enough to keep PGA Tour talent happy?

Sean Zak: I think it will keep most of them happy! My biggest takeaway is that it will at least feel more obvious for non-diehard golf fans when they should tune in. Super Bowl is over? Okay, great. The next week on the PGA Tour is a mega-purse invitational. And there are a handful of others where we know the best players should be playing. Predictability and reliability in the schedule for the folks who will be watching that Netflix doc is going to be a good thing.

Alan Bastable: My biggest takeaway is that the “arms race,” to use Monahan’s parlance, is officially on. It’s all a bit off-putting but what’s the Tour gonna do — it had to act, and quickly. The return to a calendar-year season is welcome, but more WGC-style big-purse events don’t do much for me as a fan. Just feels like more of the same. The Premier Golf League’s proposal was far more compelling: sponsored teams, splashy events at new venues, promotion and relegation. It all felt fresh and different, two things the Tour has never done well. Also worth noting how quickly the Tour drummed up these funds. If you’re a player, you might be asking yourself, where was this cash 5-10 years ago?

That's a lazy comment at best.  It would be nice if a so-called journalist would actually do a deep dive into Tour finances, but Jay obviously was fortunate to have this happen as his new rights contracts were kicking in.   How the increase purses and PIP Program factor into the increased cash flow is something I'd like to know more about, but the existence of fresh money is no secret.

Dylan Dethier: Differentiating the A-list events was a step in the right direction. The next steps include making sure those events feel properly elevated, which is something money can only help buy. Different players want different things — some pros want financial guarantees for the Ryder Cup, some want to be able to accept more appearance fees, some want guaranteed income for being on Tour. To compete with LIV, though, the Tour will have to focus on ensuring its product is the best and then getting its top stars paid. Thus far the acceleration of the arms race is only going to ensure that both sides stay around for a while. Pace yourselves, LIV-news readers.

This to me starts down an interesting path, one the Tour has a checkered history of accommodating.  The problem with elevating those events, though, is that it will be at the expense of all their other events.  How ill you keep those sponsors happy, when you've incentivized the A-list players to play in the "elevated" events?

Josh Sens: Arms race is a good term for it, because it’s not a natural reflection of the marketplace — no matter how much faux populist cheering we might hear from the sidelines about healthy ‘competition’ and poor put-upon golfers finally getting the higher pay they deserve. Monahan said it himself: The Tour can’t keep up with Saudi spending. That’s because it’s an artificial market. Like Alan, I’m glad to see the Tour do away with the wrap-around season, and I understand the bump in purses. I’m sure it will help slow the defections somewhat. But do the schedule changes speak to a demand in the market? Are fans really crying out for another lucrative series of international events? They sound like a snooze to me.

More to the point, the defectors have s**t where they used to eat, inevitably damaging that economic ecosystem.  This will obviously play out over an extended period of time, but we should expect sponsors to protect their interests.  Those sponsoring these elevated events have apparently decided to further invest for the time being, but I suspect they're not excited about their options right now.

For the record, after hearing his Brookline BS, I called this defection:

2. One week after he grew annoyed with reporters’ questions about LIV Golf, Brooks Koepka has joined the breakaway circuit — the official announcement came during Monahan’s press conference — and will play in its next event beginning on Thursday. How surprised are you that Koepka decided to leave? And why would he?

Bastable: Surprised? Not at all. From the early days of LIV, Koepka felt like an obvious candidate to jump ship. He’s not a PGA Tour rah-rah legacy guy, and never has been. He’s all about the majors, which helps explain why he’s already won four of them. Why would he leave? LOL. That beeping you hear is his Brink’s truck backing up. LIV better hope he can stay healthy.

Zak: I was pretty surprised, if only because Brooks Koepka doesn’t normally like being told what to say. He thrives in bluntness. But there’s been nothing smooth about the press conferences LIV players have faced, and players have been media trained to answer in certain ways. Koepka could still just tell us the truth — that it’s mostly a money-grab with a lighter schedule — but he hasn’t really been super forthcoming lately.

Dethier: I’m with Zak. The fact he left wasn’t necessarily surprising, but the fact that he left now, after ensuring people behind the scenes that he was committed to the Tour? There’s a story there. I think Koepka is keenly aware that his body may not be in major championship shape forever, so he’s eager to play fewer events and happy to collect maximum money while he can, too.

Sens: From a bird’s eye, this would seem to be everything Koepka always wanted, provided he can keep playing in the majors. A lighter schedule, more money. But I agree with Dylan that there’s probably a deeper story. Koepka has always been such an openly prideful competitor, calling himself an athlete more than a golfer. Sure, the truckloads of money are tempting beyond what we can imagine. But is it also a tacit admission by Koepka that he no longer feels he can keep up?

Brooksie's little hissy fit at the Open was a tell, but could these guys be lazier?  Ironically, the one bit they get right is the bit about his injury history, ironic because it puts him in the same position as his BFF Bryson.

But the more significant comment from Brooks is this from March 2020:

Koepka, 29, told the Associated Press (h/t Sky Sports): "I am out of the PGL. I'm going with the PGA Tour. I have a hard time believing golf should be about just 48 players."

Unless, yanno, they meet my price.

This is the latest on defctions:

Matthew Wolff seems a perfect fit, having lost both his game and his mind.  So, what to expect in Portland?

3. The second LIV Golf event begins Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon with several new faces — Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed among them — teeing off. Now with a better field, will the second iteration draw more interest than the first, or has the initial curiosity waned?

Bastable: The new wrinkle in event two, beyond the beefed-up field, is the location: first Stateside LIV event. For that reason alone, I think there will be continued curiosity, especially from American fans. Presumably LIV officials drew many learnings from the debut event, so I’ll be interested to see how different this second event looks. The difficult-to-decipher leaderboard needs work, and they also need to figure out how to make the team element more compelling/followable for fans. The team monikers are meaningless. Really, the squads should carry their captains’ names.

Zak: Koepka and DeChambeau are interesting adds, for sure. I’m definitely more intrigued. But I think people will once again not care about the second round, will probably watch some of the first round, and will care about who contends over the final few holes. Other than that, they’ll be enjoying their 4th of July weekend.

Dethier: I’ll be there early in the week just to see how it looks and feels and what the players have to say. One thing I’m curious about — does Brooks vs. Bryson ramp back up? Or are they brothers in arms now?

Sens: Most often, I find myself nodding in agreement with Dylan, but I couldn’t have less interest in whether Brooks and Bryson rekindle their ‘rivalry’ or not. I’ll tune back in for that 15 years from now when they square off for the WWE championship. Since London, the story has expanded beyond the golf world and has gained more mainstream attention, to the point where many of my non-golf friends have been wanting to chat about it. That this next one is in the Portland area adds a bit of potential friction. Will we see anything in the way of serious protests? But I don’t think things are really going to heat up again until the end of July, when LIV shows up at Trump’s place in Bedminster. Talk about tabloid fodder.

OK, I agree that the confluence of Saudi blood money and Trump could be interesting, although things aren't exactly quiet in Portland these days.  Though I'm sure the community will roll out the red carper for the progressive Wahabis....or not.

I found these stories interesting.  First, the kid that said no:

Pierceson Coody, grandson of Masters champion Charles Coody, prepared for his third Korn Ferry start as a professional this week the same way he had prepared for the first two: by
spending 8 to 10 hours a day playing and practicing at the host site, in this case Falmouth (Maine) Country Club; bunking in a budget hotel; and dining at humble local establishments. (His culinary highlight in Falmouth: a lobster roll, which he devoured while overlooking the harbor.)

Call it no-frills mini-tour living, with one significant subplot: Coody recently passed on a golden opportunity to leave it all behind.

About a month ago, Coody, who was then wrapping up his senior year at the University of Texas, turned down what he and his father Kyle described as a “multi-million-dollar” offer from the Saudi-financed LIV Golf Series. The deal would have made Pierceson, who earned $31,125 in his first two KFT starts, an instant millionaire, with a chance to get even richer in LIV’s huge-purse, no-cut events.

But Coody, 22, who earned his Korn Ferry membership by finishing first in the 2022 PGA University Series, said that while signing with LIV would have given him financial security, it also would have taken something away: his lifelong dream of playing on the PGA Tour.

“I might be sitting on my couch with millions in my bank account watching my friends play on the PGA Tour, and that would have been devastating,” Coody said.

Versus:

Oklahoma State standout Eugenio Chacarra is turning professional and joining LIV Golf,
GolfChannel.com has confirmed.

The news was first reported by the Spanish newspaper, Marca, which spoke to Chacarra, the second-ranked amateur in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and a two-time reigning first-team All-American. Chacarra signed a three-year deal with the Saudi-backed league and will make his pro debut next week at LIV’s event in Portland, Oregon.

“My position is that of a player who is not a member of the PGA Tour or the DP World Tour, and I have not earned money while I have been an amateur, so I can play in this league without problems,” Chacarra told Marca (translated from Spanish). “This contract gives me peace of mind and ensures the future of my family. I had already achieved everything as an amateur, and now I will be able to gain experience as a professional.”

So, if it were your son, which path would you recommend?  I don't condemn the young man for taking the money, and it is important to note that he at least hasn't violated any contracts or turned his back on an organization from which he profited.   Yet, it seems to me obvious that the grind of a young golfer making his way on tour is a key ingredient for future success, so I know which player I'd bet on.

Beware the over-interpretation of early returns, but this story put a smile on your humble blogger's face:

So, you're saying that there is a God? 

The harder question, one the TC panel doesn't even hint at, is a battlefield assessment of who's winning.  Certainly the field this week is enhanced with all sorts of names of guys that have done things in this game.  Though each come with all sorts of baggage, so my own opinion is that they're still far short of credibility.

Mike Bamberger has an interesting piece up, though the header is more than a little curious:


As the PGA Tour throws more cash at the players in a desperate attempt to thwart the Saudis,
the timeless appeal of pro golf is being destroyed

Golf has a timeless appeal.  Professional golf?  Man, that's quite the stretch, Mike.

But he's got this killer anecdote (via John Feinstein), that sums up this mess perfectly:

John Feinstein wrote this the other day in The Washington Post:

“[Rory] McIlroy and Garcia are good friends; they were in each other’s weddings. But when Garcia told McIlroy the reason to join the LIV Tour was `so we can finally get paid what we deserve,’ McIlroy laughed out loud. `Sergio,’ he said, `We’re golfers. We don’t deserve to be paid anything.’”

Which leads to my biggest frustration with this story, which is that the LIV program is a horrible vision for the game of golf. 
 
The time appeal of golf lies in its difficulty and the struggles it imposes on those who play the game.  Professional golf can capture this at its highest level, but only when it means something.  Everything in the LIV model, from the field sizes to the indifferent venues to the self-satisfied air that results from guaranteed money, renders the actual golf meaningless.

As I've hinted at previously, the next front in this war of attrition is likely to be the issue of whether LIV events will award world ranking points.  Obviously the gamble right now for defectors is the issue o whether they will continue to be able to play in the four majors.  Many of the defectors, Phil, DJ, Bryson and Brooks, still have eligibility from their major victories.  But the larger number will need to replenish OWGR points, and that will inevitably be the next skirmish.

Dave Shedloski does a deep dive on this subject, including this on who controls the process:

Who runs the OWGR?

The OWGR operates out of the DP World Tour offices in London and is run by a governing board consisting of many of the founding tours and major championships. That means that among the board members are Jay Monahan (PGA Tour), Mike Whan (USGA), Seth Waugh (PGA of America), International Federation of PGA Tours official Keith Waters, Martin Slumbers (R&A), Keith Pelley (DP World Tour) and Buzzy Johnson (Augusta National). It is chaired by Peter Dawson, former chief executive of the R&A. In other words, stakeholders in the status quo are in control here.

And you'd think there would be sufficient grounds to exclude the LIV events, first this eponymous shortcoming:

It is believed that the OWGR would have trouble weighing results in LIV Golf’s 54-hole format that features a shotgun start. That alone could be reason enough to not include the series in the OWGR.

Yeah, and this as well:

Another could be its limited field of 48 players

Could be, except that the Tour has taken way to many shortcuts for its own cenvernience:

though PGA Tour events with fewer players—like the Tour Championship and the Sentry Tournament of Champions—award World Ranking points. Limited-field tournaments are approved by the governing board on an individual basis. Then there’s the all-invitational aspect of the LIV series. Critics of the current OWGR argue that players invited to an exclusive series of events are automatically rewarded with ranking points, which skews the system.

But how do you address this field size issue (which to me should be the primary logic of excluding the LIV exhibitions) without noticing that elephant in the corner?  To wit, that Nurse Ratched and Kubla Jay were perfectly happy to award OWGR points to an 18-man field at Albany...  I mean, 48 is way larger than 18, so good luck with that argument, Jay.  At least Tiger has so far stayed bought, but stay tuned...

I raised an issue yesterday at lunch that I'd like to throw out here with the benefit of further thought.  What triggers it is the expectation of further LIV press conferences, which I think you'll agree have been....well, painful.  

So, lets talk sportswashing for a second, shall we?  I've always been a skeptic on this, though I'm cynical on most things as well, including the value of golf sponsorships.  The logic seems to be that a country lie Saudi Arabia holds a golf tournament or Formula One race, and that conveys some measure of legitimacy.  I have trouble seeing all that much value in said legitimacy, but I can see that it makes them look lie other normal countries at least superficially.

But are the Saudis getting value for their $2 billion?  I'm having trouble seeing it, but perhaps it looks different to others.  I see a few things that can't be helpful, including the criticism of the Saudi regime form players such as Rory.  More specifically, this venture has given new life to the Kashoggi murder, which continues to be cited at virtually every press conference.

At a more subtle level, every player that has signed on has looked diminished in front of the press as they duck the easily anticipated questions about the Saudis.  Is MBS watching?  because he paid Phil nine figures to represent him, and got a sullen, evasive advocate who looked like he sold his soul to the devil.  Maybe I just don't understand how this sportswashing is supposed to work, but it's a lot of money for lifeless golf tournaments and self-centered egotists.  What am I missing?

Let's leave things there and we should have an interesting week for sure.

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Friday, June 24, 2022

Return Of The Blogger

OK, let me explain...

I've been reliably informed that they held a U.S. Open while I was away, though I saw precious little of it.  Which, from the reports, is a bit of a shame.  The Sunday final round was an amusing comedy of errors, trapped as I was on an Alaska Airways flight from Portland to Bozeman, MT.  No live TV available, so I popped for the GoGo WiFi, to stream coverage.  It was comically bad, freezing for everything but the endless parade of ads.  

Having seen none of the action after Thursday, I decided to give myself the week off from LIV, Brooksie and the fetid miasma of the current news cycle.  There will be plenty of time to catch up with that, though we ironically got out of Portland just in time....

Portland was cold and raw, though it didn't matter a lick as we were surrounded by these beautiful girls...

Lucy seems to have taken to her meditation:


Whereas Stella will not capitulate to the laws of gravity:


Forget monoclonal antibodies, this is the cure for our Covid hangover. at least for Employee No. 2 and your humble blogger.

Then it was off to Bozeman, MT, to see what Big Sky Country is all about.  We ventured to the Big Sky Resort first, where it was.....well, snowing.  

As you might know from my winter blogging, it simply refused to snow until the mountains were all closing, and then it started dumping, including a huge storm just a couple of weeks ago.  That factored into the closure of Yellowstone (more on that below) and accounts for snow on the lower mountain so late.  This was our view as we rode that blue bubble chair:

We did a whitewater excursion on the Gallatin River on our second day, though I don't have any pictures for obvious reasons.  But it looked something like this:

They're experiencing record volume of water flowing down the river, though the numbers they cited went in the one ear and out the other... Good fun and I'm pleased to report that circulation has returned to my feet.  

But the big news is that we did actually get into Yellowstone, by virtue of great planning luck.  We were in Bozeman Monday through Wednesday, and I wanted to tour Yellowstone on Tuesday but, as luck would have it, they were fully committed that day and we opted for Wednesday instead.  Which was the day they re-opened, to our delight.

Not to get too granular, but they reopened three of the five entrances, specifically the West Gate (but not the North, where most of the damage occurred).  It was quite the rugby scrum getting in, but way worth it in the end.  

We opted to skip Old Faithful, so after making it through the gate we turned left, while the massive stream of traffic went right.  We headed to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, a 23-mile canyon with a feature not found in the Arizona version:


That feature being this dramatic waterfall:


To this observer, the rock outcroppings were even more spectacular:


I had a longish chat with a park ranger about how they formed, not from glaciers as I would have assumed.  Something resulting from the geothermal activity, but you'll have to go for yourself if you want more detail.

We found a lovely spot for a picnic lunch, watching the bison through the geothermal steam:


We saw a grizzly in the wild, though at some considerable distance.  But, because we were exfiltrating through the West Gate, we stopped at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, where our guide also worked.  This is Sam, their oldest grizzly:


We all agreed that the wolves could use a shampoo and trim:


A great trip, but glad to be home (and it seems that Napoleon and Tate missed us, or at least are pretending that they did).  Thanks for your patience and understanding about the U.S. Open blackout, but regular blogging will resume on Monday.  What do you think we'll be talking about?
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Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Midweek Musings - Departure Edition

We're off at zero-dark-thirty tomorrow morning, so the musings will be brief today, as I'm sure you'll understand.  Still a game time decision whether the laptop makes the trip, so we'll make it up as we go along.  I mean it's not like there's a major golf event this week or anything...

Dateline: Brookline, MA - Jon Rahm gave the most impassioned defense of the status-quo-ante, a must-listen, though this piece frames it curiously:

Count Jon Rahm among those leading the charge for Team PGA Tour. He pledged his allegiance to the Tour back in February at the Genesis Invitational, and on Tuesday at the U.S. Open, he furthered his fealty to those in Ponte Vedra.

Not exactly.  In February Rahm pledged his fealty to Fortress Ponte Vedra Beach, a far more interesting word choice for several reasons.  First, just the oddity of a native Spanish speaker knowing the word (several Americans with whom I've spoken on this subject did not know it), virtually ensuring that it came from someone that has presumably passed the LSATs.  But, perhaps more importantly, it's a more nuanced concept, as per this Google result:

Is fealty same as loyalty?

Loyalty is the most perfect form of mutual respect. It is a bond that goes two ways, and that is why it endures. Fealty, on the other hand, must be endured. It is based on power, and ends the moment the one who commands it no longer has a grip on the one who is shackled by it.

So, don't get cocky Jay, as that loss of grip sounds like Jay's bad week....

But his words are encouraging:

“The PGA Tour has done an amazing job giving us the best platform for us to perform,” Rahm said. “I want to play against the best in the world in a format that’s been going on for hundreds of years. That’s what I want to see.”

So a format designed by dead white guys?  Doesn't sound promising...That's actually a direct rebuke of Mr. FIGJAM, so hold that thought.

Yeah, money is great, but when Kelley and I -- this first thing happened, we started talking about it, and we're like, will our lifestyle change if I got $400 million? No, it will not change one bit.

Truth be told, I could retire right now with what I've made and live a very happy life and not play golf again. So I've never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons.

I play for the love of the game, and I want to play against the best in the world. I've always been interested in history and legacy, and right now the PGA TOUR has that.

There's meaning when you win the Memorial Championship. There's meaning when you win Arnold Palmer's event at Bay Hill. There's a meaning when you win, LA, Torrey, some of the historic venues. That to me matters a lot.

I'm going to need a moment to get over the concept of Torrey Pines having historic significance, but whatev.  

More directly, when asked to justify their grow-the-game nonsense, all Phil could come up with was the progressive format.  Over to you, Jon:

To be honest, part of the format is not really appealing to me. Shotgun three days to me is not a golf tournament, no cut. It's that simple. I want to play against the best in the world in a format that's been going on for hundreds of years. That's what I want to see.

Geez, Jon, what do you have against Member-Guests?  But his point is clear, what Phil considers needed change would devolve professional golf to the competitive level of your average Thursday night league.

But here he centers his shot dispersion:

“For a lot of people, I’m not going to lie, those next three, four years are worth basically their retirement plan they’re giving them,” Rahm said. “It’s a very nice compensation to then retire and sail off into the sunset. If that’s what you want, that’s fine.”

That is exactly what they want, though I'd characterize it as far from fine...

A couple of words of caution here, as the Pat Perez one-eighty is still in my frontal lobe.  First, I had Rahm pegged as one of the likely three players that helped Phil write the operating agreement for LIV, mostly because he shares Steve Loy as an agent (more accurately, because Mike Bamberger made that connection and it seemed apt).  Secondly, he left the press center and played a practice round with, wait for it, Phil.

So, trust but verify....

So, who jumps next?  I'm not saying it's this guy, but in the category of Players That Came Across Worse Than Phil In Their Pressers, here's a nominee:

Brooks Koepka had no interest in the topic du jour.

He might have thought he’s be spared from commenting on Tuesday at the U.S. Open in
Brookline, Mass., but his take on all things Saudi golf league wasn’t getting past question No. 11. His brother, Chase, played in the first LIV Golf Invitational Series, a reporter pointed out, and what were his thoughts on the current landscape of professional golf?

“Obviously, LIV is trying to make a big push for golf,” Koepka said. “Look, I mean, I love my brother. I support him in anything he does. It’s family. I’ll always love and support him. Whatever he does, I’m cheering for him.”

Pressed on the issue, Koepka wasn’t interested in discussing it much further. He also accused the media (twice) of putting a “black cloud” over the U.S. Open by using player press conferences to ask them about the new Saudi-backed golf league, which completed its first event on Saturday in England.

“I’m here. I’m here at the U.S. Open,” said Koepka, who won the national championship twice. “I’m ready to play U.S. Open, and I think it kind of sucks, too, you are all throwing this black cloud over the U.S. Open. It’s one of my favorite events. I don’t know why you guys keep doing that. The more legs you give it, the more you keep talking about it.” (Collin Morikawa, who met with the media after Koepka, also called the LIV chatter a distraction.)

Coulda been worse, as they might have asked about the state of your game....

Just a strange pricklines sin his reaction, but what did he expect with his brother and old buddy Peter Uihlein in the field.  he's not wrong, it just seems his attribution is misplaced.  As Eamon Lynch noted, this is the second major (and not sure why he excluded The Masters) over which Phil, et. al. have cast a pall.

Amusingly, the biggest impediment to him jumping might be that they grabbed his bête noire first.  With a small field and shotgun start it gets harder to avoid the guy...

On more pleasant subjects, Luke Kerr-Dineen does a deep dive on the greens at TCC:

BROOKLINE, Mass. — It took me about five minutes of being on the ground at The Country Club to fall in love with the place. The course isn’t built for U.S. Opens, it’s the epitome of them. The fairways are tight, the rough is up, the shots required to navigate the terrain are awkward, and the greens are absolutely dastardly — but in the most brilliant kind of way.

It’s not just that literal size of the greens are small — 4,388 sq. ft. on average, which for reference is almost 1,000 sq. ft. smaller on average than Southern Hills. It’s that the greens themselves are wickedly undulating. Each has a series of falls fronts, funnels, and drop-offs which, combined, make the actual pinnacle surface of the greens truly tiny.

And on one green specifically:

The 11th hole — a par-3 that maxes-out at just over 130 yards — is perhaps the best example. The hole’s only defense is its green — and it’s a good one. Analyzing the 3D data of the green from Golf Logix (an affiliate company of GOLF.com and GOLF Magazine) reveals its challenge: There’s literally not a flat spot anywhere on the surface, with the entire green sloping back-to-front and guarded by a false front.

“I think every golf course should have a short, little hole that’s got a diabolical green,” Thomas said of the 11th. “You can make two or four in a heartbeat.”


Should be fun watching them deal with them, especially when they miss greens and have to chip across these contours.

A Palate Cleanser - Another St. Andrews dispatch from Sean Zak is just the thing for this moment, obviating the need for a shower.  Amusingly, I'm finding his misses more charming than damning.  But, first, his set-up:

Players are being asked about ‘legacy’. You can find it in St. Andrews

The most popular word emanating from the golf world this week is … legacy. And boy is it a complicated one.

Rory McIlroy says he’s still adding to his legacy. Jon Rahm believes the PGA Tour has the strongest legacy. Phil Mickelson’s legacy, well, he says he’s done all he can do. Someone should tell h—you know what, never mind.

Legacies these days, are clearly fluid. Which is why it was cathartic to get back to St. Andrews and The Old Course...

Perhaps that might have something to do with getting back to St. Andrews from that LIV event outside London.  But you might have noticed that ellipsis, because Sean throws in a clunker:

...where even Tom Morris’ 469-year-old masterpiece has a legacy that’s fluid.

Ummm, Sean, it's not Old Tom's course, and that's a distinction that has great importance to many of us.   here's a Google response to the question of who designed the Old Course:

The course evolved without the help of any one architect for many years, though notable contributions to its design were made by Daw Anderson in the 1850s and Old Tom Morris (1865–1908), who designed the 1st and 18th holes. Originally, it was played over the same set of fairways out and back to the same holes.

Alternative attributions include God and a bunch of sheep....  I'm sure in July we'll speak more on this subject and Daw Anderson is his own interesting figure in the game, the Keeper of the Green before Old Tom.  Also, purveyor of ginger beer and the harder stuff... 

As for that 469?  That's a bit off as well, tied to this event:

In 1552, Archbishop John Hamilton gave the townspeople of St Andrews the right to play on the links.

But golf on these links clearly predates that by more than a century:

The Old Course at St Andrews is considered by many to be the "home of golf" because the sport was first played on the Links at St Andrews in the early 15th century Golf was becoming increasingly popular in Scotland until James II of Scotland banned the game in 1457 because he felt that young men were playing too much golf instead of practicing their archery. The ban was upheld by James III, and remained in force until 1502, when James IV became a golfer himself and removed the ban.

Sean will hopefully learn the error of his ways, but we can still enjoy his process of discovery, including this on getting around the Auld Grey Toon:

St. Andrews Thing I’m Now Obsessed With: The pathways across town

Normally, getting lost is an unnerving feeling, particularly in a foreign country. But getting lost in
St. Andrews is such a delight, partly because of the tiny lanes and back-alleys you find, some of them runneth over by vines.

Outside the immediate bubble of the Old Course are your three main streets — North, South, and Market — without many cross streets. Getting through town in an efficient manner requires an understanding of those walkways — like Lade Braes or Louden’s Close, which weave between buildings and beneath apartments to connect the town in ways that tourists could never memorize.

 Surely some less-sober tourists have become trapped in these quarters before. They’re tempting — charming even, in the daylight — as the quickest route somewhere always is. Hopefully you’re going the right way.

For the record, that's Louden's Close, which we might need to find in August.

Sean also hits on this rather fierce looking club from the R&A Museum:

It’ll take just a handful of steps from the 1st tee to cross Golf Place and descend into golf history at the R&A World Golf Museum. What used to be the British Golf Museum has been refurbished in recent years to blend the storied history of the game into a modern and dynamic presentation. You want the details on how club equipment has changed? Here’s the hybrid that saved Spieth at Birkdale, not far from the 1904 Higgs Deliver Rake Iron that promised to save you from long grass, sand and water. (It’s no longer being manufactured.) When you’re done with that, try putting with with a hickory flat stick.

After a wet day on the links, I can see the benefit of its dual purpose as a comb....

That's all for now, folks.  I'll see you from the other side, just uncertain as to when.  Enjoy the Open.

 

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