Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Tuesday Tastings

With travel plans and blogging uncertainty ahead, I'm determined to flood the zone before our Wednesday departure.

Employee No. 2 and I are off to Portland, OR to visit her family, then to Bozeman, MT for R&R, including Big Sky and Yellowstone National Park.  So, this comes as little surprise:

Because, of course.  

Shall we discuss the Open?  It's actually hard to find much in the way of preview pieces, folks being obsessed by you-know-what.

Dateline: Brookline, MA - I assume you've read The Greatest Game Ever Played because, well, it was the greatest friggin' game ever played.  The movie wasn't terrible, but the best part of the book, one the movie could only scratch the surface of, was the schism between the amateur and professional games, which Mark Frost does a good job of explicating.

In the freebie portion of a Quad post, Shack files an interview with Mike Trostel, whose C.V includes the following:

Mike Trostel is the USGA’s Director of Championship Content and a former Ouimet Scholar

Shall we?

GS: Is Francis Ouimet the most important figure in the history of American golf?

MT: In terms of growing the game and broadening its reach, three individuals stand out: Francis
Ouimet, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods. Ouimet’s 1913 U.S. Open victory placed golf on the front page of many American newspapers for the first time and inspired a generation of golfers who would become the best in the country and eventually the world. He was America’s first golf hero. At the same time, his humility and working-class roots helped erode the perception that golf was an activity only for the elite. The win jump-started a national interest in the game of golf at a time when public courses didn't exist. Over the next decade, the number of American golf courses doubled and number of golfers increased from 350,000 in 1913 to over 2 million.

All that and more...  It put American golf on the map in a shocking and appealing manner.  I'm always amused when a more recant event is characterized as the greatest upset ever, because that title was retired more than a century ago.

But Ouimet wasn't just a guy that caught lightning in a bottle, he was himself quite the appealing character:

GS: Is he absurdly modest about the details of the 1913 U.S. Open playoff?

MT: Ha! Ouimet had a modest personality, which helps explain the understated way he describes
the 1913 U.S. Open and the playoff. There’s a reason that a movie was made based on The Greatest Game Ever Played, but not A Game of Golf, right? Ouimet let others chime in with accolades, but he didn’t want to be the one gloating about his own accomplishments. It’s pretty telling when you read his autobiography that he devotes just 10 pages to the 1913 U.S. Open – a championship we’re discussing as one of the most significant in American golf history more than a century later.

Those are the golf balls used by Ouimet, Vardon and Ray in the playoff, though it's unclear if they were Vardon Flyers.

But Francis Ouimet as gearhead?

GS: Ouimet talks about the golf ball a lot and hearing a story recently that he helped Perry Maxwell pick out his first full set of clubs, makes me think he was a gearhead before his time?

MT: Not only was he a caddie at The Country Club in his youth, getting an up-close look at all sorts of equipment, but the caddiemaster there was Dan McNamara, a strong amateur golfer whose brother, Tom, was a three-time runner-up in the U.S. Open. In Ouimet’s 20s he worked as a sales clerk at Wright & Ditson Sporting Goods, a store which imported and sold golf clubs. So he certainly had an opportunity to inspect and try out a lot of equipment when he was young.

And they touch on one of my favorite moments:

GS: What’s the story behind this video the USGA recently posted of Eddie Lowery and Ouimet reuniting?

MT: That video is from the 1963 U.S. Open highlight film. Not surprisingly, part of the reason The Country Club was awarded the 1963 championship was because it was the 50th anniversary of Ouimet’s win. Both Ouimet and Lowery were brought back as special guests and were honored throughout the week. Ouimet was part of the trophy presentation to Julius Boros as well. (Here’s the full version 38 minute version.)

I had to go into my photo archives for that one.... But Lowery created his own role in golf history through his sponsorship of amateur golfers in the Bay Area, and for the promotion of a certain exhibition match that captured our imagination, at least once we became aware of it long after the fact.

The strange (perhaps it should be Strange, given 1988) thing is that the USGA had seemingly abandoned The Country Club by the 21st century, hence the Open was at Merion in 2013, the hundredth anniversary.  They did bring the Amateur here that year, won by Matthew Fitzpatrick, but an unforced error in my book.

Does 246 Clyde Street ring any bells for you?  Perhaps the most famous address in golf history, or at least in American golf history:

When Francis Ouimet was starting grade school, his father moved the family from a thinly populated section of Brookline to a modest house he had bought across the street from The Country Club. Mr. Ouimet was a workingman with no interest in golf, and had it not been for the proximity of the course his sons might have emptied their childhood enthusiasm in other channels. HERBERT WARREN WIND

Shack has much in that post on how the Ouimet miracle came about, including a great section on the purchase of the house to preserve it as part of our game's history.  Well worth your time if the Ouimet story is of interest.

Shack also posts an interview with Fred Waterman, Club Historian, that deals with the issue most on your mind:

GS: Let’s get the most important question out the way: why is the clubhouse yellow, has it always been that color, and what do we call this shade of yellow?

FW: The Country Club’s colors are "Primrose Yellow" and green, so it’s appropriate that the clubhouse is yellow with green shutters. The color must have a certain appeal because when the film The Greatest Game Ever Played, about Francis Ouimet and the 1913 U.S. Open was filmed at Kanawaki Golf Club in Canada, the producers painted the clubhouse yellow for the filming, with the promise of returning it to its original afterward, but the club liked the yellow so much, it decided to keep it after the cameras stopped rolling (a Hollywood cliché; no longer true, but it sounds good).

 Fred throws a boatload of history into a couple of 'graphs:

GS: Few clubs have more to document and celebrate but TCC’s evolution might surprise some?

FW: History, if not cared for, becomes distorted, lost, and finally just assumptions of what might have been. No club in America has a richer history than The Country Club, and I’ve enjoyed learning about all the parts of the club’s history, from the name “country club” being from a social club in Shanghai, China, to the club being established primarily for horse racing and horse-riding, and with golf not arriving until 11 years later, in 1893, when three members who had never seen a true golf course laid out the first six holes.

And learning about the life-long humility and constant kindnesses of Francis Ouimet; about John Shippen having played in the 1913 Open, his sixth U.S. Open (a black man did not play in another U.S. Open until Ted Rhodes in 1948 at Riviera); how Jess Sweetser, winner of the 1922 Amateur at TCC hid from the officials at the 1926 British Amateur because his opponent in the final had been delayed by car trouble, and Sweetser didn’t want to be awarded the championship (when his opponent arrived, Sweetser emerged and won); and how Kelli Kuehne wore an insulin pump while winning the 1995 U.S. Women’s Amateur at TCC.

Lots of good stuff and nice to have golf news which doesn't leave us feeling like we need a shower....Don't worry, we've got some of that below.

The Tour Confidential panel had some thoughts on the week as well:

1. Well, that was a week. But let’s begin with the week ahead. The U.S. Open — you might remember! — begins Thursday at The Country Club, in Brookline, Mass. Of the storylines swirling around the event, which one most has your attention?

Nick Piastowski: The storyline is Phil and the LIVers, but I’m very interested in The Country Club. Olllld school. Blind shots. Ups and downs and lefts and rights. Trouble everywhere. Which Phil will no doubt find.

Josh Sens: I can’t argue with that. It’s been more than 30 years since the event was here. The course has been renovated to rave reviews. People I’ve talked to about it say the conditioning is pretty much perfect for the event — the rough especially juicy and the greens heading toward crusty. The better the course, the more interesting the golf. That rule should apply here

Claire Rogers: Phil vs. The Crowd. I’m extremely curious to see how Mickelson is received on home soil this week at our national championship! Will they cheer? Will they boo him? Will they put all the LIV stuff aside and just hope he hits bombs? This feels like a reality TV show unfolding right before our eyes, and I am here for it.

Dylan Dethier: Rory McIlroy (and Justin Thomas) have planted their PGA Tour flags. I’m fascinated to see the dynamics between players in their camp and pros who have made the jump to LIV. How will it be with McIlroy and Mickelson? Will they even see each other? Will they be paired together? And, of course, who is going to make the leap next?

Dylan, glad you asked, because the Thursday-Friday pairings have been released, and it seems that the USGA has gone to great lengths to keep the Bloods and the Crips away from each other.

Here's Geoff on that topic:

The USGA announced groupings Monday afternoon.

You can view them here and search for profound links or sadistic meaning. Sadly, the days of &^%$% pairings are supposedly over, so the natural inclination this week is to search for LIV groupings. I spotted a couple of maybes though, but that’s what happens when you go right to Billy Horschel’s name.

The traditional grouping of the reigning Open (Colin Morikawa), U.S. Amateur (James Piot) and U.S. Open champion (Jon Rahm) is again in place, with Piot expected to be sporting spoils of his new endorsement arrangement with LIV Golf.

Tellingly, Francis Ouimet did not turn up at the 1914 U.S. Open in the gear of a rogue tour bankrolled by sleazebags, sources say.

 Geoff includes this curated list:

Not exactly the names we're looking for... Phil was paired with fellow insurgent King Louis and Shane Lowry, though admittedly I don't know where the latter stands on the issues of the day.  DJ, who might also hear some things this week, is with noted nice guys Webb Simpson and Matthew Fitzpatrick.  Kevin Na is also coddled by being paired with Sergio, with Tyrell Hatton filling out the threesome.

Although Na might not be as pleased with his locke3r assignment:

Full history of that manspat can be found here.

 So, ready to turn to the dark side?

LIVing The Dream - I highly recommend viewing the tape of Phil's Monday presser at the Open, as neither a transcript nor my trenchant descriptions can capture the alternatively defensive and passive-aggressive nature of the manner in which Phil presented.  The obvious thought is that, having cashed a nine-figure check, you'd think he's be, yanno, happier.

Shack has the reviews, first from Kyle Porter of CBS:

Phil Mickelson -- one of the most decorated champions and greatest characters in the modern sports era and someone who has always treated pride and competitiveness as a currency in which he deals -- appeared ashamed of himself.

Yes, when he wasn't looking angry...

Joel Beall of Golf Digest:

It is truly jarring to see a golfer who has famously embraced the brazen be reduced to anything but.

Peter May of Pravda:

For someone with a reputation as a gambler, on and off the golf course, Phil Mickelson played it as straight as a Ben Hogan 1-iron on Monday.

I don't know about straight.  It was more an Ali rope-a-dope to me...

Peter Rosenberger of SI won't be getting any exclusives from Phil:

Monday was the first time he did so as an employee of the ruthless Saudi Arabian government. That is what he is. He can duck it, soften it, or change the topic, but that is what he is.

Lastly, Ryan Lavner:

The smartest guy in the room, the swashbuckler who never saw a shot he couldn’t take on, Mickelson on Monday wasn’t about to take on any unnecessary risks in this setting, the TV cameras rolling. He finally played it safe – and said nothing at all.

This did make me laugh, apparently Phil picked a bad week to give up boneaws:

To me, the telling moment was the look on his face when asked about the letter from the 9/11 families.  Shack had this on his fave:

Mickelson admirably turned up at 1 p.m. and wheeled out a mellow acoustic set of new material. Sure, he tried to play a few hits but the good times aren’t rolling when you’re having to reiterate pain for 9/11 victims, get easily irritated at multi-part questions, and use your wife to shield from even more awkwardness.

That sniping about multi-part questions was really awkward, but the seething hostility was there from start to finish.  Eamon Lynch, shockingly, had some criticisms:

BROOKLINE, Mass. – Over three decades, fans of Phil Mickelson have become accustomed to
his shortcomings at the U.S. Open. There’ve been three solo second-place finishes, a trio of ties for second, and a couple fourths, each failed tilt at the National Open—30, in all—making its own fibrous contribution to his scar tissue. Not since the rain-plagued 109th Open at Bethpage Black has Mickelson authored one of his disappointments on a Monday, but he got it out of the way at the 122nd Open before most fans were even on the grounds at The Country Club.


OK, but I'm not sure Phil himself was at all disappointed... 

When a reporter raised the highly critical letter sent to him and other Saudi-allied players by the families of victims of the September 11 attacks, Mickelson cut her short. “I’ve read all that. Is there a question in there?” he snapped.

There was: “How do you explain to them—not to us, to them—what you have decided to do?”

“I have deep, deep empathy for them,” was all he could muster.

Yes, and he expressed that "deep empathy" multiple times, each successive one less convincing than the prior lifeless version.   

I actually found him most unctuous when discussing the "grow the game" nonsense:

Twice Mickelson did offer rationales on how LIV will be “transformative.” One was the team format, which drew tens of (non-paying) spectators at the Centurion Club near London last week, and not many more to the livestream. The other was geographic. “I believe moving tournaments throughout the world and bringing that type of championship golf to different parts of the world is going to have a very positive effect globally on the sport,” he said.

In just the last 20 years, the PGA Tour staged 98 tournaments outside the domestic U.S. in 13 countries. Mickelson competed in barely a quarter of them. His unconvincing attempt to position himself as a missionary for the game merely exposed him as a mercenary.

Wow, transformative.  Quick, can anyone tell me who won that transformative team competition?

But, perhaps more importantly, who authorized Phil to transform our game?

 Eamon does make a good point that, much like the Clintons, there's quite a high body count involved:

Mickelson has now cheapened two consecutive majors—the PGA Championship, by not defending his title and instead using it as a tease to build anticipation for his eventual return a few weeks later for the Saudis, and now the U.S. Open, reduced to a platform for normalizing sportswashers. For him, the majors are just collateral damage, something his Saudi benefactors are familiar with as a cost of doing business, whether launching a hostile takeover of golf or missiles at Yemeni civilians. Mickelson is also clearly establishing himself as the most likely plaintiff in whatever future legal action the Saudis finance over his suspension from the Tour or any potential sanction by the majors. His lifetime Tour membership and exempt status into all majors for several more years explains his value to MBS and his minions.

But I've been reliably informed that he's doing it for the children....

I'm going to exit on an interesting John Huggan piece:

HUGGAN: LIV GOLF V THE PGA TOUR – THE BATTLE, PRO GOLF NEEDS TO HAVE

 Huggan, a Brit as far as I know, actually writes this piece from an Aussie perspective:

Then there is the treatment the PGA Tour routinely metes out to every other Tour in golf. Take Australia. Over the years, that wonderful country has produced any number of truly great players.
Peter Thomson, Greg Norman (yes, him) and Karrie Webb are merely the best on a long list of those who have travelled far from home to take on and beat the best. Which is no surprise given the training grounds available Down Under. Royal Melbourne is, of course, the best layout in the southern hemisphere. But the likes of Kingston Heath, Victoria, Barnbougle Dunes and Lost Farm are not far behind.

And yet, despite all of the above, the Australasian Tour is, at best, second-rate. Maybe even third-rate. There are a few reasons for that sorry state of affairs. The economy is one. But so is the callousness of a PGA Tour that insists on an almost year-long schedule that keeps many of the Aussies away from home in the month before Christmas. A kindly soul might see that as mere thoughtlessness, but the PGA Tour doesn’t do that. Behind the smiles and the boasts of charitable donations, there lurks a cold business brain. Despite the endless protestations of doing what is “good for golf,” almost without exception the PGA Tour – yet again – does what is best for the PGA Tour, the game be damned.

Yes, the PGA Tour has destroyed (or at least has contributed to it) the rather great Aussie Championship season, though that which they've done to the amateur game might be more objectionable.

I love that Huggan digs deeply enough to cite Bobby Locke's treatment, but I'm just not buying this:

While no right-thinking person is hailing the oil-rich Saudis as a force for good in the wider world, in the little part of the planet occupied by golf their elite power-grab might, at least in one way, actually turn out to be just what Old Tom’s game needs in the long run. For too long now, the PGA Tour has been golf’s Goliath, a selfish, insular bully whose every action betrayed a lack of desire to do what is best for the sport on a global basis.

I'm sure that if John and your humble blogger shared a beer, we'd find much common ground.   

But, and this is the crux of what I've been arguing since this issue presented, Phil's involvement with the Saudis makes the kind of positive change we desire less likely and harder to achieve.  Just look at Jay's reaction to the threat, notably the legalized bribery of the PIP program ( I think the current scorecard is that three of those ten did not stay bribed for very long).  has he expressed any need to improve the actual product?  

These guys have gotten their payday, but in doing so have weakened the underlying financials of the PGA Tour.  We don't know the ramifications of that, but that "grow the game" mantra should be challenged at every turn.

That's all for today.  I will hopefully see you tomorrow as well.

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