Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Tuesday Trifles

A little of this, a lot of LIV.... Just another day here at Unplayable Lies.

Golf With A Feeling* - The diminution of the Euro Tour is its own tragedy, but it's helpful to remind ourselves of what's actually compelling about our game.  My biggest frustration with the LIV story is that folks don't seem to grasp what an awful vision for golf that they have, though this isn't the time for that argument.

But there is nothing more compelling in our game than the struggle for professional survival, and those brief, infrequent moments of success.  Submitted for your approval, Richie Ramsay with his first win in eight year:

The win paying off a promise to his daughter:

Gee, I'm new at this stuff, but isn't that the kind of thing that could, yanno, grow the game.  Or better to watch a bunch of mid-forties players that have already banked hundreds of millions of dollars?

* A Little Walter reference for the especially savvy among you.

Golf With A History - From Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish feature, a brief shoutout over two warriors resuming their hostilities:

Karrie Webb, GOAT-beater

Over the years not many women have stared down an in-flow Annika Sorenstam and come out on top. But that’s what Aussie legend Karrie Webb did on Sunday, holding off Sorenstam by four strokes in the Senior LPGA Championship.

Didn't know there was a Senior LPGA Championship or that Karrie was still playing at any level (Annika we've seen some of recently), but I'd have watched a bit of it.

Golf With An Asterisk - I've never been able to warm u to the event or the winner, but perhaps that's a personal failing:

Brooke Henderson, national hero

This week’s undisputed champion: Brooke Henderson! The 24-year-old Canadian star gave away a two-shot lead with an early four-putt on Sunday at the Evian Championship. But then she bounced back with birdies at 14 and 15, setting up a walkoff birdie putt from just outside 10 feet at No. 18.

Remind me, is that girl's sixth or seventh major?  Really, only the five?  Sounds reasonable to me...

But the girls are headed to Muirfield, interesting because of the Honourable Company's longstanding support for women's golf (I kid), or just the fact that we haven't seen the joint since 2013.   

Math, Still Hard - You might remember last week's discussion of the Prez Cup points race, wherein your humble blogger was unclear of the PGA Tour's treatment of the LIVsters.  Some seemed conspicuous by their absence, most notably the South Africans, but others were listed.  Apparently they're guided by a legal protocol that is explained here:

Let me see if I have this right?  The Liv situation is affecting Rickie's FedEx Cup prospects, up until he jumps to LIV?   I mean, doesn't Rickie check all their boxes?

Normally deducting who is on the FedEx Cup Playoffs bubble is easy. Take a look at the players near the cutline of No. 125 and boom, there’s your bubble. But this year, like so many other
facets in professional golf, analyzing the confines of Who's In and Who's Out is far from simple.

The complexity lies in LIV Golf, for those who have defected to the fledgling Saudi-backed circuit are A) under indefinite suspension from the PGA Tour or B) have renounced their PGA Tour membership. The upshot from the latter group—which includes the likes of Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Kevin Na—has already been calculated, as they have been removed from the FedEx Cup standings. The former group, however, remains listed in the postseason race. While the PGA Tour has yet to officially state how these players will be handled, sources tell Golf Digest the LIV Golf members currently on the FedEx Cup list are expected to be skipped over and replaced. Currently, that means 10 players inside the top 125—Talor Gooch, Abraham Ancer, Charles Howell III, Matt Jones, Brooks Koepka, Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Hudson Swafford and Matthew Wolff—aren’t eligible for the playoffs, meaning the real FedEx Cup line is likely in the No. 134-136 range. (Perez, for example, is currently No. 121 but is in danger of falling outside No. 125).

Bring money, guns and lawyers, in the immortal words of Warren Zevon...

Though I suspect this pattern might change:

Wrinkles remain. Until now, the PGA Tour has not suspended LIV Golf members until they have teed it up in a LIV event. But LIV Golf also also used the first two events to announce future signees, with Reed and Bryson DeChambeau announced in London and Paul Casey announced in Portland. The reason this matters is that, should LIV Golf follow the same cadence at Trump Bedminster this week, more players will be announced in the following days, but the next LIV Golf event won’t be held until the first week of September … the week after the conclusion of the tour’s season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Meaning the PGA Tour would have to break from its precedent of waiting to suspend a player, or a future LIV Golf member would get to compete in the postseason.

I wouldn't expect that this week, since anyone that intends to but hasn't jumped yet is likely keeping their pie hole closed to ensure they can get a piece of the FedEx money grab before turning their back on their mates.  But, on the flip side, the mood in the FedEx boardroom can't be very pleasant these days....

Give Me LIVerty... - Scraping the bottom of the barrel on punny headers, but such are the times in which we live.  Geoff has an amusing Quad post up, at least the tease that's outside the paywall has some worthy sanrk:

But we also have to savor Greg Norman showing us his true colors and watching the PGA Tour squirm. Particularly given how much energy the Ponte Vedra gang devoted to gaining control of its media partners, attempting to discredit critics of their fading model, and all while ignoring a gaping thermal exhaust port hole in the Global Home. Still, the truly bad guys in this Jenkins-on-Addy novel also see golf as just a thing to sell. But the Saudis want to fund a disruptive league to get more people thinking they aren’t so awful.

This week, you have to laugh at what’s before us: LIV Golf arriving at Trump Bedminster armed with old blood in the form of Stenson, Kokrak and Howell III, hosted by a man 59% of Americans believe should be criminally charged.

Growing the game!

Geoff, keep the faith, I'm sure he'll actually be indicted any day now, but you were all in on Russia! Russia! Russia!, so perhaps we should skip the politics?

I did want to include that 'graph, though, because of the feebleness of the reinforcements.  Wow, Chucky Three-sticks, that'll really move those You Tube ratings.

Speaking of those YouTube ratings....

Contrary to the bleak assessments of those who also have skin in this grow the game effort, the coming months will not lead to a tragic implosion of the sport. As R&A Chief Martin Slumbers reminded us during The Open, the sport is defined by the 70 million who play golf, not the inner workings of professionals and the size of their newly established offshore accounts. A strong case could be made that LIV is doing the sport a favor by scooping up the worst of the worst, then burying them on YouTube where they’ll be the 496th most viewed item each day behind a Bad Bunny music video and just ahead of squabbling corgis.

My thought exactly.  The a*****es have self-identified and quarantined, so win-win, baby!

But on a more serious note, Slumbers was the first of the fine-families to actually make the case for why LIV is a horrible model for our game, something Jay and Seth might want to take notes on.

He's obvious taking a shotgun approach (pun intended), but that works in such a target-rich environment:

There should be joy in watching the greed, arrogance and waste of dirty money going to grown men who happen to play a ball-and-stick game decently during the right months in human history. And sure, the pro game will move to even greater niche status in a LIV world. But by not addressing their “product”, the PGA Tour has unknowingly been on a pro tennis trajectory by supporting entitlement, the dreary power game and an incoherent schedule vision that will Grand Slam events the only meaningful weeks.

None of this is funny if you are the television executives who sold the bosses on nine years and dreams of raking in millions from live betting. Nor is this funny for the charities relying on tournament proceeds. Otherwise?

You just have to laugh…

The pampering and protectiveness of the Tour is a rich vein, most notably the failure to disclose disciplinary actions.  We were assured that these guys are all gentlemen, so it comes as quite the shock that they're (at least some of them) money-grubbing turncoats.  Noted.

But, like your humble blogger, Geoff can't help but laugh at the signing of Charles Howell, because....well, he's a perfect fit:

At the players LIV gives millions to. You could see some wisdom at throwing huge advances toward U.S. Amateur champions and promising young players even if the dollar amounts were absurd. Or, hiring journeyman who will be good in a pro-am and somewhat recognizable to fans. But as LIV gained some name major winners, they have not grown discerning. Just laugh at this spectacular waste of oligarch riches on players just riding out their careers a little longer.

Yeah, mediocrity has paid well on the PGA Tour, but they've been offered more.... All well and good, although they don't seem an especially happy lot.  But your humble blogger still struggled to understand why they'd even want Chucky Three-Sticks, as there isn't a single additional viewer who would tune in to see him.

 Just a bit more bashing from Shack before we move on:

At David Feherty moving to LIV Golf. Needing go-fers to get you to your mark and relentlessly mailing it in? LIV’s most on-brand hire yet!

At Phil Mickelson’s cameo in the Feherty welcome video where he’s speaking from a gorilla pen in Rwanda. FIGJAM’s really on an optics roll!

It's pretty much the bar scene from Star Wars.

Bob Harig takes a shot at peace in our time, though with some curious premises:

But it’s clear that LIV Golf is not going away, as many expected. And as the LIV Golf Invitational gears up for its third event this week at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey, the rhetoric only will seemingly get worse, as the prospect exists for more players to defect.

There's a logic that seems to imply that, since LIV has made it this far, they'll never go away....  I happen to think that the Saudis are generating nothing useful except bad publicity, they're producing a God-awful product and  they continue to throw money at stiffs like Charles Howell.  Does that scream sustainable business model to you?

I'm not arguing that anyone should assume they won't continue to waste their billions, especially Jay, but if they don't land some actual front-line talent soon, I just don't see them as getting much for their largess.  

Remember the Patrick Cantlay-Bryson DeChambeau duel at last year’s BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup playoffs? The six-hole sudden-death playoff won by Cantlay that helped propel him to the FedEx Cup title? Something like that can’t happen outside of the major championships now.

Why does he say this?  OK, the one guys is gone, but he's pretty much damaged goods at this point.  We'll see how the faux playoffs come off, but the Tour has been a mixed bag.  It's put on a pretty good show at its major stops, I thought the Canadian and Jack's place came off well, but the soft sports on the schedule looked dreadful, most notably last week.

So, here's his basic premise:

1. Allow PGA Tour players (and DP World Tour) to complete in LIV events

Compromise is key and without it there is no chance for any of this to work. But for there to be a way forward between the two entities, there can’t be suspensions of PGA Tour players. They need to be able to compete on both circuits. The question: how?

Norman has said he believes that LIV Golf is “additive.’’ He continually has stated he’s not looking to replace the PGA Tour or even thwart players from players doing both. But if you are going to play 14 LIV events – the League concept going forward – it’s impossible to meet the PGA Tour’s minimum of 15 events for membership.

So here’s the compromise: LIV reduces its number of events to 10, and the PGA Tour lowers its minimum for those competing in LIV events to 10. That’s 20 events total, including the major championships, with obviously the ability to play more on the PGA Tour if desired.

Norman has said a lot of things, none of which any of us should take seriously.  But the top players don't want to play twenty events, and the PGA Tour ecosystem kind of collapses without the alpha dogs committed to a sufficient number of events.  Which Harig admits here:

2. LIV Golf would help subsidize PGA Tour purses

If you pass that first hurdle, those who compete in LIV events could still be PGA Tour members. And in exchange for the rights to get any PGA Tour member to sign on, LIV in turn could subsidize purses for the events played opposite LIV events. Let’s say $5 million per event, or a total of $50 million if there are 10 LIV events. If Saudi’s Public Investment Fund can afford huge signing bonuses to players, it can afford this rather paltry sum when the end game will help make LIV money in the long run. So this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, in theory, would get a $5 million boost, which would go a long way toward helping the rest of the membership not able to play in LIV events.

Right.  Shouldn't there be unicorns involved, given the extent to which we've departed from reality?

4. How is the PGA Tour helped by this arrangement?

It beats seeing a slow trickle of players – which is bound to happen the longer this plays out – head to LIV. And while you’d possibly be losing a majority of the top 50 players in the world to 10 LIV events, at least you’d have them for 10 of your own with the possibility of more. No matter what you think of this concept, it's not great that Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, among others, won’t be playing in the Players Championship in March.

Not great?  but you're saying that Jay should capitulate over Bryson?  Obviously this is quite the mess, but that slow trickle has to date been marginal players.  If they start grabbing top ten players it's be Armageddon, but we're not there yet (Cam, keep us posted).  

But Harig is also misinterpreting quite a bit:

5. The Schedule

The way LIV is set up now, five of its eight events this year are scheduled for after the FedEx Cup playoffs. That was not done randomly. LIV saw September and October as a good time to play a majority of its tournaments. There’s nothing to keep that from happening with a PGA Tour collaboration.

The reason for that is mostly that it got cobbled together in reaction to Jay's moves last spring.  They're holding events in the U.S. that conflict with longstanding PGA Tour events, yet Harig takes Norman's words about co-existing at face value....  maybe I could interest him in some swampland.

I actually think the Saudis have made a huge blunder in over-reaching.  Yes the Tour is weak in the Fall and the Saudis could perhaps have worked out something on a mutual basis if they were content to hold events then outside the U.S., but they thought they could buy supremacy.  Perhaps they can, but it's not like Jay is going to roll over and hand them the keys to the Global Home.

Have you bene following the existential torment of Sergio?  He believes he should be able to live in a world without consequences, and we'll have to wait to see how that plays out:

When Sergio Garcia wrapped up his T-68 finish at the Open Championship at St. Andrews, he
was just about ready to resign his membership from the DP World Tour, which would make him ineligible for the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy.

A couple weeks later, Garcia has changed his mind on his DP World Tour membership future.

“But thanks to the things that Jon Rahm said, and I had a couple of good conversations with guys on the (DP World) Tour, I’m going to hold off on that. I want to at least see what’s happening when the Ryder Cup qualification starts. See what kind of rules and eligibilities they have in there,” Garcia said to ESPN. “If I agree with what they (are), I’ll definitely keep playing whatever I can on the tour and try to qualify for that Ryder Cup team. And if not, then we’ll move on. But it is definitely something that is in my mind.”

“I told (DP World Tour CEO) Keith Pelley, ‘I want to keep being a member of the DP World Tour. I want to play my minimum, still support the tour, still have my eligibilities to make Ryder Cup teams,'” Garcia explained. “He said, ‘That’s great, but we got to do what’s best for us. We’ll see what that is.'”

That's great, Sergio, but do any responsibilities come with all these rights you think you have?  Or you just think you should be free to spit in the cups of any tour or event you choose?

But the reek of entitlement is a little off-putting:

“Now it’s gotten a little bit sadder with fines and bans,” Garcia said of the rift between LIV, the PGA and DP World tours. “What they did to Henrik. It’s a little bit sad.”

Henrik Stenson was stripped of his Ryder Cup captaincy last week after he joined the upstart circuit. The 46-year-old Swede will make his LIV debut at Bedminster.

What they did to Henrik?  Gee, Sergio, did Henrik do anything to them?  Did he maybe lie just a little bit... did he maybe violate the terms of a contract he signed in March?

But have you been wondering about the shear number of has-been golfers now and prospectively under contract?  It's all been forseen:

The Saudi-backed upstart organization confirmed at its first U.S.-based event outside Portland, Ore., last month that it would transition from the LIV Golf Invitational Series to a league schedule with 14 events and 48 players beginning in 2023, one year earlier than previously scheduled. Under the new format, each player will participate in all 14 events, and the 12 four-man teams will be set for the entire season.

It was not immediately clear how those 48 players would be determined, and the vast majority of those spots are expected to be filled by players with multi-year commitments to LIV. But, according to the Si.com report, the bottom four finishers in the 2023 year-long LIV standings will be relegated from the league, with three spots filled by a qualifying tournament called a "Promotions" event and the fourth going to the winner of the money list for the LIV International Series, which will be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and LIV Golf. The report says details for the inaugural qualifying tournament will be shared before the end of the current LIV season, which wraps up with the tour championship at Trump Doral on Oct. 27-30.

Be still my foolish heart, as I'll now have the opportunity to root for Sergio to face relegation... Or Bryson.  or Brooksie.  I'm flexible....

Relegation to where, though?  Never mind, of course the fix is in:

...but some players and team captains may be exempt from relegation depending on their individual contract with LIV Golf. Other players outside the top 24 finishers could lose their playing privileges should their team decide against renewing their deals.

 Can you say Micky Mouse league?  I thought you could....

Food For Thought - Mike Bamberger with a depressing, but timely question:

Does the Ryder Cup matter anymore?

I thought it did, but it's a fair question given how those whose reputations were burnished in the event seem especially eager to spurn it:

The sudden influx of $1 billion (or $2 billion or $3 billion) from the House of Saud is proving to be the single-most disruptive force professional golf has ever felt. We’ve seen the hand-wringing from PGA Tour and DP World officials. But what’s obvious now is that this Saudi money will have a devastating impact on Ryder Cup golf. If one of the goals of this golf investment by Saudi Arabia’s national investment fund, overseen by its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, is to appear more Western, that part is already backfiring.

The greatness of the Ryder Cup has been the many years the event has been a nail-biter, and how the pendulum has swung between Europe and the U.S. But the root of the greatness has been how Ryder Cup passion has been handed down. In this regard, there’s a straight line from Seve Ballesteros to Jose Maria Olazabal to Sergio Garcia to Jon Rahm. The U.S. equivalent to that would be Ben Crenshaw to Payne Stewart to Phil Mickelson to Dustin Johnson. That’s all in jeopardy now.

It took sixty years or so for the Ryder Cup to become important, though we seem to be trashing it on a more expedited basis. 

You could say the Ryder Cup, one of the great spectacles in all of sport over the past 40 years, is in jeopardy. Over all those years, the event has been viewed, accurately or not, as a civil war between scrappy European Tour players and coddled PGA Tour stars. All the Europeans made their first marks in the game abroad. The path to the U.S. team was the American country club, followed by a short stint at an American university, followed by success on the American tour, the gold standard for professional golf.

The Ryder Cup was king-of-the-jungle stuff, which is why so many people who aren’t avid golfers watch it. As a sporting event in North America, the Ryder Cup had a secure perch, south of the Super Bowl, of course, but north of the Stanley Cup finals.

I'm not sure this is one of Mike's better efforts, as this events prominence is quite the happy accident, an unplanned melding of natural rivalries, a dollop of bad blood and an epic team match play format.  

The other point that Mike misses are the pre-existing conditions, that the LIV threat hits at a time when the Ryder Cup prospects appear to be at low ebb, because of what seems to be an historically weak talent pool of Euro players and a corresponding weakness in the Euro Tour itself.

Mike also misses perhaps the largest and saddest point of all.  Many of these players have acknowledged that, in cashing the LIV check, they have assumed the risk that they will not be able to play in future majors, and went ahead and jumped.  If you're willing to forego future Masters and Opens, you're not gonna fret a silly Ryder Cup.

These are our modern touring professionals, men we've been long told are all gentlemen.  Feel free to reassess.....

I went long today because I won't be with you again until Friday.  Until then LIV long and prsper.

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Monday, July 25, 2022

Weekend Wrap

We'll wrap the weekend, but in a superficial sort of way as the more relevant bits happened out of the frame....

3M, 0 Stars - I guess it's as good as it could get for Jay, as seemingly the only player in the field anyone has heard of won:

Tony Finau spent a portion of a six-hour weather delay on Saturday fishing with his kids, catching mostly bluegill in the pond by his rental home off the 10th fairway at TPC Twin Cities. When the
tournament eventually resumed, he finished off a 65, which he hoped was enough to get him in the mix come Sunday.

Boy was it ever.

Finau’s family was here to greet him, too. His wife and five kids have been traveling with him nearly everywhere this summer, but they weren’t there when he won his other two PGA Tour starts, at the 2016 Puerto Rico Open and, most recently, the Northern Trust last fall. The latter ended a lengthy winless drought.

“To get a win with them here just means everything. It’s an amazing feeling to walk off a green knowing you won the tournament and walk right into your family, your kids’ arms,” Finau said. “It’s quite a special feeling. It’s something I’ve thought about and dreamed about for a long time. For that to come to fruition for me and my family today is pretty amazing. I’m humbled by it and hopefully my kids will remember this for a long time.”

To be fair, there were two bits of great optics at the end of this event, Tony with his family being the most obvious.  The second was the CBS  cameras catching Scott Piercy congratulating Finau graciously in the aftermath of his rather epic collapse, with its devastating implications for Piercy's playing status.  Of course, Piercy's meltdown alone would have required the Tour to discontinue that "These Guys are Good! promo, were it still in efffect...

Alas, weeks like this are exposing the Emperor as having barely a loin cloth, as the field strength seemed worthy of  Hooters.com event, and perhaps not even a strong Hooters.

Since LIV held their inaugural tourney, the Tour's weekly stops have been subject to additional scrutiny.  The good news is that, in their stronger weeks, they've put on a pretty good show.  But the over-exposure resulting from holding events 49 weeks of the year has also become evident, and the disparity between the haves and have nots has seemingly widened.

We'll have ratings in a day or two, but what are the odds this even drew a measurable audience?

All Hail the King - Limited only by the all-encompassing technological failures of Optimum, I had a great weekend watching the Senior Open Championship from James Braid's King's Course at Gleneagles.  

Unplayable Lies Dead Enders will know my contempt foe the powers that be in our little fishbowl, and their contempt for architectural interest has long been documented.  As I noted last week, I had assumed that the Senior Open would inevitably be played on the mundane Ryder Cup course, only to be shocked to learn that somebody in charge had actually heard of James Braid.  That architectural pedigree was sufficient to get your humble blogger to the TV, not that I'm promising Golf Channel there are enough like me to support the business model.

It remains to be seen what Darren Clarke will come up with to celebrate the year 2033. For now,
though, it is enough to know that the burly Northern Irishman has added the 2022 Senior British Open title to his 2011 Open Championship victory. Closely challenged by a sizeable squad of regular and senior major winners, Clarke’s closing 69 over the endlessly picturesque King’s Course at Gleneagles was just enough to see off all-comers and claim the $432,080 first-place check.

Another Irishman, Padraig Harrington’s 67 pushed Clarke all the way but was both one-shot shy and one-shot clear of a six-strong pack, one including Ernie Els, Steve Alker and Paul Broadhurst, in third place.

It took a bit longer to than normal to sort out all of the above though. Clarke’s 72-hole aggregate of 10-under 270 was achieved only after a two-hour delay caused by torrential rain late on Sunday evening. Nine under par and standing on the 14th fairway when play was halted, Clarke (eventually) failed to birdie the almost-drivable par 4 and gave fresh hope to the pushing pack. And soon enough, they took advantage. Within minutes, Alker (at the 15th), Thongchai Jaidee (16th), Els (18th) and Harrington (17th), the recent U.S. Senior Open champion, all made birdies to advance their respective causes.

Just profoundly more interesting than that dreadful TPC track they played in Minneapolis, at least for as long as Optimum's technology didn't pull a Piercy.  On Thursday, at the ninety-minute mark my tape went into error mode and could not be retrieved.  Yesterday was far more subtle and annoying, with the leaders on the 14th hole the tape simply retraced itself to when the leaders were on the third hole, so you could do a front nine Groundhog Day thing for as long as you wanted.  Well played, Cablevision!

Shall we get to the interesting stuff?

Bedminster v. Detroit - It's gonna be lit, as the LIVsters head to Donald's place.  Before we do our deep dive on that, has the Euro Tour hired Indeed.com?

Europe needs a new 2023 Ryder Cup captain ASAP. Here are the four leading candidates

They're basically the usual suspects, those passed over with a retread thrown in for good measure:

Luke Donald

By all accounts, the former World No. 1 was more than a little miffed that he did not get the job first time round. And, to an extent, Donald had a point. Even in March this year Stenson’s
appointment was seen as a little “iffy,” his name having cropped up often enough whenever LIV Golf was mentioned.

By that measure alone, Donald must be seen as a favorite. The 44-year-old Englishman has played in four (winning) Ryder Cups with some distinction, his 10-4-1 record an obvious reason for pride. And he has twice served as an assistant, to Bjorn in 2018 at Le Golf National and again under Padraig Harrington in 2021 at Whistling Straits. Perhaps the only slight knock on his candidacy is that he has hardly been an avid supporter of his home circuit. Over the course of his 21-year professional career, Donald has played in only a relatively paltry 183 European/DP World Tour events.

I guess, but he's got that American wife and family, so the ties to the old sod are a bit tentative, and he was publicly shunned when they gave it to Stenson.  This has the feel of a poisoned chalice, with the Euro roster looking historically, an indifferent venue and the LIV threat continuing to diminish the prospects of the Euro Tour.  Is Luke still inclined to take one for the team?

The other three candidates are equally unsurprising and unremarkable....  I do however get the sense that folks are waking up to how imperiled the Ryder Cup is, and not exclusively due to the LIV threat.  The Tour Confidential panel led with this conundrum:

1. Ryder Cup Europe removed Henrik Stenson as its 2023 captain after Stenson was among
the latest batch of pros to join LIV Golf. At this point, how worried should the governing bodies of the U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams be that their premier event could be watered down? What’s the solution?

Dylan Dethier: I think their biggest worry should be the fact that the players whose careers have been most defined by the Ryder Cup — think Sergio and Poulter — were so willing to give it up, and now Stenson was willing to go back on his word and give up the captaincy, too. The European core of Rory and Rahm are still eligible, and most of its top young pros are, too. But it’s worrisome that the Ryder Cup’s cache doesn’t stand up to a bucket of gold bricks. It’ll be interesting to see if they hold that line.

Josh Sens: Losing Stenson, Poulter and the like doesn’t significantly water down the Ryder Cup since those players’ Ryder Cup careers are largely behind them. But the balance feels very precarious. If bigger and younger names continue to jump to LIV, the Ryder Cup as we know it will feel radically changed.

Yes, though they could perhaps go further with their thoughts.  If Lee, Poults and Sergio place no value on the captaincies, then why should young talent like Rahm and Viktor go to the extensive effort of maintaining their Euro Tour memberships?   It requires them to play more events and events that require extensive travel, and if Sergio is showing his middle finger to Keith Pelley, how you gonna keep the kids on the farm?

James Colgan: Agreed, Dylan! I saw someone ask the other day who was left among the Europeans to captain a Ryder Cup team … and I don’t know the answer! And on the American side, who, if not Phil, is going to captain them at Bethpage in ‘25? What a hornet’s nest the powers-that-be have wandered into.

It's important to note that this decision doesn't have to be made for a while, but doesn't it have to be Tiger?  The only other name I could even conjure would be Freddie...

Josh Berhow: They should be worried. The Ryder Cup always seemed untouchable to me. When LIV defections started, I didn’t think those players would be key Ryder Cuppers — at least not the ones who have several good years left in the event. But as LIV picks up steam, I’m starting to think the Ryder Cup might take more of a hit. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future. A watered-down Ryder Cup stings a bit, but I don’t see the PGA of America giving in.

The implications are profound, for sure.  Obviously the Prez Cup is just around the corner, and there the defections are already affecting projected rosters. although there also may be a Cam/Hideki/Leishman/Scott tsunami ahead right after the FedEx Cup.   

This might actually have a sliver of good news for Jay, as it could help keep Seth Waugh, which has OWGR ranking and PGA Championship implications.

But a word of praise for Greg Norman and the LIVsters, who seem to be implementing a carefully constructed business model.  If you were executing on your plan to present a series of golf tournaments featuring elderly and competitively-irrelevant players, how would you want that event presented?  It seems logical to this observer that you'd want over the hill, analytically-irrelevant commentators, no?

David Feherty Is Leaving NBC For LIV Golf, and That's No Laughing Matter

I enjoyed Feherty for many years, but it's he himself who hasn't been a laughing mater for some time now, so I'm thinking NBC was happy to have that problem taken off their hands.  

I don't know about this guys, the issue likely being whether he can LIV to broadcast another NBA game:

And right on cue:

Broadcaster Gary McCord is in job talks with LIV, says it'd be fun to join Feherty, Barkley in 'clown car'

 Well, it is pretty much a clown show....

A couple of amusing tweets, first this from geoff:

Pretty much, though at least he's bene keeping his shirt on, so we've got that going for us...

But, is this some massive  troll of Jay?  I milked this band's name for quite a while after Jay's disgraceful leadership at the 2020 Players Championship, but is this intentional? 

I just don't think Greg is bright enough to dream up that epic troll, so perhaps it came directly from MBS?

One last bit on this, from the estimable Eamon Lynch.  Color me highly skeptical, but let's give him a hearing, especially since he tends to frame his arguments with amusing historical precedents, today being Winnie:

There must surely be days when Jay Monahan can empathize with Winston Churchill’s wry observation that the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the
average voter. As commissioner of a “member-led” organization, Monahan is bound by the political reality that the PGA Tour’s lower orders—many of whom couldn’t be identified in a line-up by fans—wield power equal to its upper echelon, upon whom the success of his product depends.

Those are some awfully tight handcuffs when you’re fighting an outfit fueled by personal animus and financed by Saudi Arabian oil money, with no apparent accountability on either. Which raises the question of whether the PGA Tour’s very business model may one day be a sacred cow that Monahan and his board are forced to slaughter.

That strikes me as quite the bizarre argument, given that the Tour is not an electorate, but an organization formed to serve the interest of its members.  That's not to minimize that it's a diverse membership and that reconciling the interests of the haves and have-nots is easy...

But where is he going with this?  

The negatives associated with LIV Golf are almost as plentiful as the social media bots it employs to “whatabout” critics and otherwise rally those whose susceptibility to automated arguments is painfully evident in the body politic. There’s the sportswashing on behalf of a loathsome regime, the questionable competitive standards, the laughable shotgun starts, the shallow fields, the ever-changing teams component. But LIV also may have gotten one thing right that its rivals face an uphill battle to copy: contracting its talent.

It has long been the self-congratulatory gospel of golf professionals that they only eat what they kill, that they don’t get paid if they don’t perform. That isn’t true in most major sports, where guaranteed contracts are the norm. LIV has brought that concept to golf, but predictably bastardized it. Contracts don’t assure athletes of a place in the game nor protect them from being benched in big moments, but the washed-up beneficiaries of LIV contracts will remain in tournaments no matter how lousy their performances. They are required to continue soiling themselves publicly with execrable scorecards.

Yowser, that's a pretty effed up argument, methinks.

Ensuring that remains so means ring-fencing talent for the future, and the success thus far of the LIV model means the PGA Tour may need to consider offering guarantees too. As with every sport, contracts would be scaled to stature. Most player guarantees would be nominal, only enough to cover expenses, with the potential of fresh deals for fast-rising talent. Stars who drive the product would be rewarded commensurate with their contribution. Members sacrifice some control of their schedules, tours gain the ability to deliver elite fields to key sponsors and broadcast partners.

I asked one top player if he would give up his much-ballyhooed independent contractor status for a guaranteed contract. “Yes,” he replied quickly, saying that LIV is exploiting a weakness in the existing model.

If you wanted to destroy our professional game, what would you do differently?

What Eamon seems to miss completely, is that team sports have these things called, well, teams, and it's the teams (not the league) that contract with the players.  Eamon seems to be arguing that Jay should be offering Rory and Jon Rahm a long-term contract, which sounds like as bad an idea as I've ever heard.

He also seems to ignore the importance of sponsorships in golf, the logos on clothing and golf bags, which fills the role of guaranteed contracts in baseball and football.

Don't get me wrong, the Tour had this comeuppance coming, as Eamon hits on the obvious flaw in their business model:

“Fans don’t know where PGA Tour stars are going to play week in and week out, sponsors don’t know what they are buying, and ditto for NBC/CBS. [Full disclosure: I am a contributor to Golf Channel, which is owned by NBC Sports.] If you can create 12-14 ‘big’ events where the stars have to sign up for a majority of them, say 10 of 12 or 12 of 14, plus majors and a couple more then that starts to look more attractive to sponsors, TV and fans. The era of maximum playing opportunities needs to go and the era of the best against the best more often needs to start.”

PGA Tour insiders would likely dismiss concerns about fans or partners not knowing who is playing any given week since that has never been reflected in commercial terms, like broadcast rights, sponsorship deals or prize money, all of which have grown through recessions and tough times. But these times demand new thinking, even if the hurdles are many and obvious.

For decades your humble blogger has been railing against the Tour's overexposure and dreadful treatment of its sponsors, for reasons Eamon hints at.  In expanding to fill 49 weeks a year, the Tour can't possibly deliver elite fields to that many sponsors, and their continued willingness to pay up for crap has puzzled me.  

Trip Preview - Are you excited about our trip yet?  Yeah, I get it, but this part isn't necessarily about you... Geoff is home from his trip to Scotland for the Open, and does something amusing and helpful, he blogs about his travel experience.

As you might recall, Employee No. 2 and I are connecting through Heathrow and traveling with our golf bags, so what would you estimate our chances of surviving the post-apocalyptic air travel industry are?  Higher than Joe Biden's approval  ratings?

Triple check on your car rental booking details. From two random conversations I learned I was not alone in getting a rental car counter surprise. We all booked a standard sedan and when checking in, were asked if we really wanted that van or SUV we’d requested. We reserved no such thing. I can’t help but wonder if there was something more going on here to justify the price-gouging and shortage of certain vehicles. So please call and ensure you are getting the right car at the appropriate price.

Indeed.  With all the focus on air travel, the rental car companies might be even worse, given that they took advantage of the bubble in used car prices and sold off major portions of their fleets during the pandemic.  

Our plan is to pick up our car on arrival, even though we won't really need it for three days or so thanks to Elsie and John.  But I called hertz when I couldn't find the reservation my Hertz account and found that my Gold Number isn't with the reservation.  When I asked the agent to add it, she told me that would require cancelling the reservation, not advisable since they have exactly zero cars.  We're in the best of hands... apparently their technology is every bit as good as Optimum's.

In terms of golf, I have nothing booked except at Crail:

Try to play late. The Scots play less evening golf than you’d expect. There is little after-dinner golf on the longest and nicest days of the year (and often when the wind lays down. There is nothing quite like walking off dinner with a late nine or 18 in the glorious late light. So when booking or looking for places to play, ask about playing after 5. They may accommodate singles and twosomes more readily, especially if you are not renting a trolley or clubs requiring someone to be around when you finish.

Cancellations. Whether COVID or a British Airways-related thing, or just the overall uncertainty of UK travel in a post-Brexit world, I heard several stories of tee times opening up due to cancellations. Don’t hesitate to keep checking in at places that rejected you leading into your trip. Or, once you arrive and are in the vicinity of a course, stop in at the shop if you really want to play there (just not Muirfield unless you’re staying at Greywalls). Talk to the staff. Maybe buy a yardage book and see if they’ll take pity on you. The pros might at least make a call to another course of note. But be sane. I was at one famous course where a player/broadcaster had stopped in the day prior and asked about getting out at 8 am on a summer Saturday. Don’t be that person.

I've assumed that there have to be some level of cancellations, and that we'll find somewhere we can get out if we want to fill in more....

But this was Geoff's note that had me springing into action:

When Flying

Air tags. David Jones, aka UKGolfGuy, first suggested we all invest in a four-pack of Apple Air Tags when traveling with clubs (Android users, consider Tile.) Given Edinburgh and Heathrow’s mounting baggage issues (detailed here by Sean Zak), I empathize with everyone whose clubs are piled up and unable to be located.

(Ominously, the Edinburgh piles appear 4x larger than just two weeks ago when I was through there.)

Not to be that person, but if these people had Air Tags they’d at least know where their precious clubs are collecting dust. A few things to know about Apple’s small, battery-operated trackers that go for $29 a piece or four for $99.

I immediately purchased that 4-pack which will go in our golf bags and luggage, assuming I can master the technology.  I can see where this would be comforting:

4.) Be patient when opening up “Find My” on the iPhone and waiting for location data. I had a few stressful moments at Heathrow waiting for a ping to be documented. But the drama was worth knowing the bags made it on the plane.

Apparently the location data is quite specific: 


Good to know where Geoff's wallet is, although I don't think I need an Air Tag for that.

I can picture myself boarding my connection at Heathrow comforted to know that all four bags had made it onto our flight.  However, I tend to be more of a glass half-empty type, so I have a sense that I'll be sitting in Heathrow and finding out that my golf bag is headed to Madagascar, so stay tuned.

Have a great week.

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Friday, July 22, 2022

Your Friday Frisson

Lots to talk about, beginning with a significant omission from my most recent post.

Mea Culpa - I was vaguely aware that the Senior Open Championship was being taken to Gleneagles, the spectacular Perthshire resort that hosted the 2014 Ryder Cup, most famous for it's post-match presser.  That's not important now, but you might have noticed that I tend toward cynicism, so I naturally assumed that the round bellies would play the generic Ryder Cup course.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that the powers that be acknowledge golf history and architectural merit, and the event is being played on the delightful Kings Course, a 1919 James Braid design that looked spectacular in the hour I was able to watch yesterday.

It's one of only two inland courses I've played in Scotland, although so long ago that I barely remember anything.  TV airing times aren't convenient for the U.S. audience, but it's worth a look if you love timeless design and great vistas.  You'll not often hear me touting inland golf in Scotland, in fact this one of only two inland courses I've played in our many trips.  But it's a special place, and I'm delighted they're using it for this event.

LIVid The Eighth Stage of Grief - If anyone can think of any other words using the sequence "LIV" for punny headers, please forward to your humble blogger.  In actual news, more names have dropped:

More PGA Tour winners are taking their talents to LIV Golf.

Tuesday the series announced 45 of the 48 players who will tee it up at its upcoming event at Trump
National Golf Club Bedminster on July 29-31, but three spots were left to be filled “in the coming days.” A day later the Greg Norman-led, Saudi Arabia-funded circuit announced Jason Kokrak and Charles Howell III would be making their debuts alongside Henrik Stenson, who broke the news himself earlier in the day after he was relieved of his captaincy of the European Ryder Cup team.

Kokrak, 37, is a three-time winner on Tour, all in the last two years. Howell, 43, also has three wins, most recently in 2018 and previously in 2007 and 2002. Stenson, meanwhile, boasts six PGA Tour and 11 DP World Tour wins over his career.

Calling Chucky Three-Sticks a PGA Tour winner is a good one, technically true but ignoring the pesky fact that his career is defined by his inability to win.  But isn't the bigger surprise their continued demand for washed-up has beens?  It seems like they've signed one hundred of those guys, weird given that some big fish are allegedly on the way and that only 48 can peg it each week.

The Stenson bit can use some additional explication, but we'll begin with Henrik's own prevarications, in which he is found to be trying to jam that square peg into a round hole:

“As many of you have already seen, unfortunately my decision to play in LIV events has
triggered Ryder Cup Europe to communicate that it is not possible for me to continue in my role as Ryder Cup captain,” the statement says. “While I disagree with the decision, for now it is a decision that I have to accept.”

Stenson explains in the statement that he had made prior arrangements with LIV Golf so that he could continue to fulfill his duties as Ryder Cup captain. However, according to Ryder Cup Europe, Stenson’s newfound allegiance to LIV Golf will make it impossible to fulfill his contractual obligations.

“I have huge respect and admiration for the Ryder Cup and those individuals behind it who I know are doing their utmost to act in the best interests of the historic event,” Stenson said. “I want to thank everyone I have worked with to date to prepare for Rome 2023. I am hugely disappointed to not be allowed to continue in my role but wish you all the best in your ongoing preparations.”

Gee, Henrik, for twenty-five years I had the impression you were a pretty good guy, but I've noted your clarification.   Forgive me for being a stickler, but you were told in March that you could do the one or the other, but not both.  You decided to be a Ryder Cup captain and signed a contract precluding your act of treason, but now you can't understand why they won't let you do both?

This was Henrik in March, putting aside the controversy:

“I am fully committed to the captaincy and to Ryder Cup Europe and the job at hand,” he said.

He added that “The Ryder Cup is golf, and sport, at its very best. I got goosebumps every time I pulled on a European shirt as a player and that will be magnified in the role of Captain.”

He noted that the captain signs a contract with Ryder Cup Europe.

Don't fret, he's still getting those goosebumps, only now it's from the number of zeros on the wire transfer.  But that solemn photo will not age well.

Forget my biting commentary, Henrik's former mates seem to get it.  I mean, you think I'm cynical?

Not sure that, if tested, they'd find more than trace levels of the H-word:

This did cross my mind:

The guy passed over for Henrik was Luke Donald, who would now seem the obvious choice.  But that assume he'll do it, as it would be hard to construct a worse scenario for taking on this job.  Not to mention the pesky detail that the Euro Tour is in implosion mode, and the roster didn't exactly overwhelm  even before players defected.

But, as it so happens....

 Like Phil, Henrik is the one guy that perhaps has some level of need for the money:

From the beginning, he was an easy target for LIV Golf, which provided a sudden chance for Stenson to regain much of his personal fortune. First, he was a victim in a ponzi scheme in 2009 by his sponsor Stanford Financial. Golfers rejoiced when Stenson won the 2013 Tour Championship and FedEx Cup and was financially secure once more, but then he got bamboozled again and so one of the most fascinating elements of the Saudis showering obscene amounts of money for over-the-hill golfers came down to what did Stenson value more: money or the chance to be Ryder Cup candidate?

Adam Schupak, whom I've been excerpting, has this premise:

Schupak: Henrik Stenson will regret walking away from Ryder Cup captaincy for money

Well, that seems more hope than fact at this juncture, but are we at all curious at the price for treason? 

Of all the flip-flops, this is the toughest one to swallow because Stenson effectively admitted that the money – a reported $40 million up front – is worth more than his legacy and the prestige of being captain for the one event where money is never the concern.

So that's what 30 pieces of silver is worth in these inflationary times... 

Eamon Lynch uses Henrik's history to suggest that Europe chose poorly:

Of course, it's Eamon so the pleasure is in the body count:

For a sport that prides itself on values like honesty, honor and integrity, golf sure seems over-
populated with people whose word is worth about as much as a phlegm sundae on a sweltering day. ’Twas always thus, of course, no matter how energetically the PGA Tour marketed everyone as being of admirable character and charitable bearing. Thanks to Greg Norman’s ongoing abuse of the Clown Prince’s checkbook, at least now less work is required to identify the game’s most hollow charlatans. Just lob a dart at the LIV Golf line-up. And don’t feel the need to aim carefully.

Dishonesty and cowardice are two traits common to many players who have decamped to LIV Golf. They lie about their intent to join the Saudi-backed outfit and continually compound that by refusing to admit they did so for money, cowering behind codswallop about growing the game (they’re not) or setting their own schedule (they can’t). It’s an expanding roster of golfers who once insisted they’d never do exactly what they did whenever the Saudis found the inflection point in their spines, where cash trumps conscience.

A phlegm sundae?  Just gonna let that one pass, but I do agree with his larger point.  The a*****es and money grubbers are self-identifying, so good to know.

As for today's vocabulary lesson:

You're welcome.

Here's the nut of Eamon's thoughts:

Most everyone on the DP World and PGA tours knows Stenson has more than once been the victim of large-scale embezzlement, so European Ryder Cup bosses must have understood that anyone offering him money would get a hearing. They would also have surmised that the dollar amount the Saudis were dangling would only increase with his assuming the captaincy. In the crude currency familiar to the Saudi regime, the head of the Ryder Cup captain is an attractive trophy to brandish. So what might seem an impressive coup for LIV Golf is really just an acknowledgment of Stenson’s financial history.

It was a risk Ryder Cup Europe chose to assume. It was a mistake common among many organizations and individuals who have had dealings with LIV players—trusting them, thinking their word was a bond rather than a tactic, assuming their signatures on contracts had standing. In the event LIV gained traction during Stenson’s tenure as captain, no one was more susceptible to FOMO—fear of missing out—on the cash. In the current environment, he was always a risky bet, but one that cratered even more rapidly than the Old World decision-makers could have imagined.

Was Luke a safer bet?  I agree this is a coup for LIV, though it's a curious business strategy to show your principal assets, the players, in such a disagreeable light.   And is it any more than a one-day victory?

The extent to which the Ryder Cup will be impacted by Stenson’s firing is likely less than LIV enthusiasts will claim. The U.S. rout last year in Wisconsin proved that Europe is caught between generations of talent, so there’s little clarity on who the continent will field 14 months from now in Rome. None of the veterans who signed with LIV—Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia, Graeme McDowell—were serious candidates for a spot on the squad. They are all yesterday’s men, as surely as Stenson is yesterday’s skipper.

Great, we got Henri Stenson.  But is that actually a good thing?  Is there a single human being that's actually interested in seeing Henrik with a club in his hand?

Eamon also makes this argument which leaves me very cold, not that they have a wide range of choices:

In pondering options for his replacement, Europe should take the opportunity to dispense with the revolving door that has governed the captaincy for a quarter-century. Some of Europe’s greatest successes came under Tony Jacklin and Bernard Gallacher. Jacklin led four consecutive teams, followed by Gallacher for three. Two men held the captain’s job from 1983 until 1997, when Seve Ballesteros assumed the role for the match in Spain. That’s when Europe’s ‘Big 5’ of the 1980s and ‘90s was maturing into management, so the specious idea took root that even a winning captain had to make way simply because it was someone else’s turn.

Paul McGinley was an excellent captain in 2014, but was replaced in 2016 by Darren Clarke, who wasn’t. Thomas Bjorn led Europe to a decisive victory in Paris four years ago, but stepped aside for Padraig Harrington, whose team was battered at Whistling Straits last September.

Wait, don't tell our Task Force!  

As much as we love the Ryder Cup, it's hard to look past this year's Presidents Cup, where the International Team might well feature Gary Player and Jumbo Ozaki playing.  Just to amuse, I found the International Team point standings, but I'm not sure whether its' been scrubbed: 

None of the defcting South Africans show up, yet Abraham Ancer does.... But the effect of the Cam Smith, Hideki and Leishman rumors is quite obvious.  Not even sure how you hold the event at this point, but Trevor Immelman didn't see this coming for sure.

Frustratingly, Golf Digest has two pieces up that would logically be of interest, but both are behind their newly-established paywall.  The first seems late:

With $2 billion to spend, I don't think Jay is underestimating them at this point.  But I'd be mildly curious as to Max Adler's thoughts, because to me Martin Slumbers is about the only guy to actually criticize LIV's product, which I think is a horrible model for our game.

 This one would be even more interesting, at least to your humble blogger:

Dan Jenkins turns over in his grave to assess the Saudi tour

That's a voice that I miss in these troubled times, a void that I find Eamon Lynch partially fills.  But I'd love to here Dan's thoughts, channeled through Editor Jerry Tarde.  

I've been wrong about pretty near everything, but will enough people pay Golf Digest for their content?  Color me skeptical....

Time to cleanse the palate?

Way Too Early - This is profoundly silly, but what the heck:

Way-too-early 2023 golf major championship winners

OK, so whatcha got?  Though, after last weekend, we all knew this one was coming:

The Masters

When: April 6-9, 2023
Where: Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia
Defending champion: Scottie Scheffler
Winner in 2023: Rory McIlroy

Besides Scheffler, who picked up his first major by winning a green jacket this past spring, no one has played better and more consistently this season than McIlroy.

McIlroy, a four-time major champion, has now played eight full seasons since winning his last one (the 2014 PGA Championship). He has endured so many near-misses during that stretch, finishing in the top five in majors nine times during that span and 17 times in the top 10, the most by any player since 2015.

At some point, the drought has to end, and there wouldn't be a better place for McIlroy to do it than Augusta National. By winning a green jacket, he would become only the sixth player to complete the career grand slam during the Masters era. Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Gene Sarazen are the only ones to accomplish the historic feat. In 2023, it will be McIlroy's ninth attempt in trying to join them.

I've become a Rory skeptic, and have long predicted that he'd never complete the career slam.  He's played some of his worst golf when he wanted it most, think Augusta, Portrush and the Ryder Cup, and last year's second place seemed to this observer to just be an enhanced version of his patented back door top ten move.

Next:

PGA Championship

When: May 18-21, 2023
Where: Oak Hill Country Club, Rochester, New York (East Course)
Defending champion: Justin Thomas
Winner in 2023: Cameron Young

Young all but wrapped up PGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors when he eagled the 72nd hole at the Old Course on Sunday. That shot secured him solo second place, 1 shot behind Smith.

Young is only the second player since 1958 to finish in the top three in his debuts at both the PGA Championship and The Open. He tied for third at the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, finishing 1 shot behind Thomas. Collin Morikawa won the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park and the 2021 Open Championship at Royal St. George's

Young is going ti win somewhere soon, though is he a fit for Donald Ross greens?  Don't' have a clue... 

Always interesting to pick a winner at a venue no one knows:

U.S. Open

When: June 15-18, 2023
Where: Los Angeles Country Club (North Course)
Defending champion: Matt Fitzpatrick
Winner in 2023: Xander Schauffele

With Smith having won the The Open at St. Andrews, Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Norway's Viktor Hovland will head into 2023 as the best players in the world without a major championship. Schauffele did win a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Schauffele, 28, also has been pretty good in the majors, too. He has nine top-10 finishes in majors since 2017, including a pair of runners-up at the 2018 Open at Carnoustie and 2019 Masters. He missed the cut at the Masters, but finished in the top 15 in the other three majors this season.

Seems like he's just picking the usual suspects...

The Open

When: July 20-23, 2023
Where: Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Merseyside, England
Defending champion: Cameron Smith
Winner in 2023: Jon Rahm

Rahm is one of the best ball-strikers in the world, which will come in handy if the winds are blowing hard on the west coast of England next year.

Royal Liverpool Golf Club, which will be hosting The Open for the 13th time, is considered one of the most difficult courses in the rota. In 2006, when Woods won his third Claret Jug, he famously hit his driver only once in four rounds, instead hitting irons off the tee and mid and long irons into greens.

Seems like he's just going with guys that are due, although will they still seems as due (not to mention on-form) nine months from now?

Enough on that....

The Trip - Care for a couple more photos of Pittenweem harbor?  I know, of course you do:


You'll find us walking here every evening after dinner....

There's a different kind of walk to be had when the tide is out:


More to the point, the lead item on Golf.com as I type is this on a nine-holer in Anstruther, the next town over from Pittenweem:

The hole is called The Rockies, and it's considered by many the hardest hole in Scotland:

Like most avid Scottish golfers, Birrell knew of the hole’s fearsome reputation. If he didn’t, there was a reminder right there on a silver plaque by the tee box, which trumpets an honor bestowed upon the 5th by a British golf magazine in 2007:

Voted by Today’s Golfer
Britains (sic) Hardest Par 3

Tipped out, the hole plays 245 yards to a narrow fairway that works left to right but also awkwardly pitches hard left toward out-of-bounds stakes and the rocky waters of the Firth of Forth. A bluff flanks the other side of the hole, at the end of which the half-blind green is tucked around a corner. The Rockies, as the hole is called, might sound more like a short par-4, and, in effect, it is — or at least that’s the sensible way to play it. The green is virtually impossible to hit, and if you do manage the feat, your ball is likely to catch the right-to-left slope and trundle off.

Then again, what fun is laying up?

The gentleman cited is a low-handicap amateur, and feel free to read Alan Bastable's account of  his play on the hole, which involved much ammo and gallows humor.  I'll just show his scorecard:


Good of him to share his misfortune.  They have a restaurant, so I'm thinking a late afternoon nine holes followed by a pint and dinner.... It does play as Par-4 for the ladies, so we'll have to figure out how to accommodate that in our matches.

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up on Monday.

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