Just a few bits before our steamy Wednesday game.
More Open Leftovers - Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column popped up on Tuesday, perhaps delayed by a flight home. Always chock full of fun bits, here was his thoughtful take on how the Old Girl played:
1. Low scores didn’t mean boring golf.Cameron Smith’s winning total of 20 under par equaled Henrik Stenson’s major championship record. That reinforced a suspicion that was circulating heading into the event: The Old Course doesn’t hold up to advancements in technology and training. In other words: the ball goes too farand the course is too easy.Did that prove true? Yes and no. The “too easy” argument goes something like this: Even with extreme pins that made the Old Course’s setup as difficult as possible, Smith made his way to 20 under par and a horde of players were at his heels.“I think we definitely are hitting it too far for the course probably, if I had to guess,” said Xander Schauffele after his final round. He wasn’t quite sure, but it seemed like a fair assumption.The “not too easy” argument goes like this: It was super-firm, so the ball was rolling out like crazy. Irons were going 300-plus yards. Drivers were going 400-plus. Long holes were playing short and short holes were playing really short. The Old Course was missing its greatest defense — heavy wind — and even softened up on the weekend. Of course scores were low!But there’s another compelling defense of the Old Course, regardless of score: Sometimes we complain about courses being too easy because it leads to uninteresting golf. We complain about courses being too short because it leads to driver-wedge everywhere. This course played short, sure. But it was playing so firm and so short that we were seeing approach shots hit with the longest clubs of all — 3-woods and drivers. There were five drivable par-4s and two reachable par-5s, which meant we saw plenty of long-range approach shots. We saw plenty of intriguing pitch shots and recovery plays around greens. It’s just that players were getting up and down for birdies instead of pars, hence the low scores.
Whereas yesterday your humble blogger was bemoaning that the guys can leave the six and seven-irons home, Dylan makes the intriguing that what we get is even longer clubs into greens, albeit off the tee.
The golf was compelling, and certainly the leaderboard proved to be appealing. And while play might have been too wedge-intensive, the wedge shots are themselves compelling, offering a choice of altitude or ground routing, the latter usually including all sorts of humps, hollows and hillocks.
But the Old Course's primary defense, those 110 bunkers, weren't all that much of a factor this week, were they? Rory was in one all week, that hole-out on No. 10 on Saturday, and the only guy I saw in Hell Bunker was Tiger. While wind would obviously change this dynamic, the guys were simply able to bob it over the first line of defense.
I liked this as well:
4. Tiger Woods has mastered the bump-and-run 4-iron.At this stage of his career Woods reminds me of Daniel Craig in the later James Bond movies. Intheory, the game has passed him by — but then he proves that some of the old ways still work best. I noted this earlier in the week, so apologies for double-dipping, but one of my enduring memories from this Open will be Woods standing in the 18th fairway, 20 to 50 yards out, skittering Bridgestone balls along the ground, through the Valley of Sin and up onto the green.Who chips with a 4-iron?! Only Woods, I’d say. He got one last chance to try the shot on Friday afternoon, playing his final hole of the week, and executed it to perfection, rolling one up inside four feet. (He missed the putt, but still.) The ground game lives on.
Who even has a 4-iron in their bag these days.
And this throwback item:
6. We saw the Old Course from a different perspective.Sunday morning, we took a plunge. Fellow dot-commers Alan Bastable, Sean Zak and I hoofed it to the West Sands, the beach adjacent the Old Course (and site of the iconic scene from Chariots of Fire) and took a plunge. It’s cool to see the game’s legendary ballparks from different angles, and this one included a craggy coastline, a castle and a bustling downtown just around the corner from the course. We didn’t last long — the water was 56 degrees — but came out refreshed. And ready to watch some golf.
There's video, though I've not watched it. You'd think they'd know a little golf history, wouldn't you? Chariots of Fire, for sure, but Old Tom Morris famously began each day with a morning dip in the North Sea (the Irish Sea during his time in Prestwick), which you'd think a golf writer might note.
It was a great week that I selfishly hope is only a preview of our forthcoming trip. I do think the Old Girl held up to the onslaught, but just barely. We'll hope for more wind in '27 or '30 when they return, but we should also bear in mind that we may not be blessed with such firm conditions.
LIV Updates - Not just Cam and Henrik, it seems:
LIV could add up to six names, according to multiple reports, including five ranked in the top 100 in the world.Besides Smith, those strongly linked to LIV include No. 14 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 39 Adam Scott, No. 57 Marc Leishman, No. 84 Bubba Watson and No. 171 Henrik Stenson.Matsuyama (2021), Watson (2014, 2012) and Scott (2013) are former Masters champions. Leishman was Smith’s Australian Olympic teammate and Stenson is the current European Ryder Cup captain. He will be stripped of that title if he joins LIV.
Well, alrighty, then. I guess this answers the why question:
Smith reportedly will sign a $90 million contract to join LIV. Phil Mickelson is LIV’s highest contracted golfer at a reported $200 million. Dustin Johnson reportedly jumped for $125 million and Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau are thought to be making at least $100 million each.
Methinks Cam should be renegotiating that, as he appears substantially underpaid compared to his peer group. At least if the metric is golf talent.
Though I'm guessing they didn't intend for this 'graph to be as amusing as it is:
One name linked to LIV Golf for weeks, although speculation has diminished, is Rickie Fowler. The 33-year-old appears to be a prime candidate considering his game has taken a dive in recent years. His world ranking of 149 is his lowest in about 12 years. Fowler has not won on the PGA Tour in nearly 3 1/2 years.
The bolding is obviously mine, but doesn't that say it all?
But how about this bloviating from the Shirtless Shark:
Norman told The Palm Beach Post in an exclusive interview last week that after this week’s announcements the 2023 field of 48 players is “closed.” He was then asked what would happen if a highly ranked player expressed interest in joining LIV before the 2023 season starts in March.“That is a great problem to have and we will discuss it internally to figure out what would need to be done, if anything,” he said. “I’ve always respected and honored the first movers.”
Closed? I'm guessing they'll find a spot for Cam and those other names....
The Big Easy has had some bones to pick with the bonecutters recently, but also sees a way for us all to get along:
In Els’ view, the LIV format—48-man fields, 54-hole events and no cut—is not “real” golf. Buthe was quick to say that there is a place for those sorts of fun events in what used to be called the silly season. In other words, the LIV Golf series should be accommodated in the three months at the end of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.“It’s crazy at the moment,” said the South African. “It’s just a shame how things are being split up. My view—and I discussed this with the Saudi people a long time ago—was always to do things with the major tours. Everybody should partner up in this team and individual format. And play it in the dead season. That wouldn’t interfere with any of the main tours, It wouldn’t interfere with real golf as we know it.”
Good luck with that. It makes a certain amount of sense given that the Tour has made quite the hash of the Silly Season, but I don't see how Jay can really be faulted for going to the mattresses. LIV has from the beginning indicated their intention to buy Jay's 48 most important assets, so there's going to be pushback.
But here's what may be the most discouraging bit of all. Ernie had this warning for the guys:
“Fifty-four-hole events means the players are going to lose ranking points,” he said. “They are going to have to play the Asian Tour. I’m sure those events are going to be $5 million to $6 million in no time. That’s where they are going to have to play to get their ranking points. The rest of the world is playing 72-hole stroke-play events. You have a cut after 36 holes and that’s how you get your ranking and make your money. LIV Golf doesn’t do that, so why would you be under the same brush with the rest of the world. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s a different format of golf. It’s what we do on the Champions Tour at the age of 50, and they don’t give us World Ranking points.“Just because you are playing for $20 million a week doesn’t change anything,” Els continued. “It’s still 54 holes. There’s no basis to it, there’s no substance to it. You can’t have a 48-man tour playing no-cut golf and expect the world to take you seriously. It’s not going to happen.”
But is it possible they don't actually care about the majors?
As for the Ryder Cup veteran, he admits he did his “due diligence” before making the switch, and was was fully his world ranking would suffer as a result.“I was fully aware of what might be, of the possibility of not playing majors,” he added. “I think it’s an interesting question for the younger guys. Myself, I mean, I’m hanging on in the world rankings.“I was under no illusions that my ranking could slide and be out within however long, whatever the timeframe is. I did my due diligence, put it that way.”
I'm sure for many of the older players the calculus included the fact that there might not be that many majors in their future in any event, but I would have thought that would make each of them more valuable.
Back to Ernie worrying about his favorite event:
Another victim in this whole thing is going to be the Presidents Cup, an event with which Els has a strong affinity. Eight times a member of the International team, he was a losing captain at Royal Melbourne in 2019. But he fears for the competitiveness of the event later this year because of the number of potential International team members who have already switched to LIV, including a number of his compatriots.“We had a conversation with Jay last time,” Els said. “I said to him that we need to be in more control of how we pick our side. But he wanted to keep it more under the PGA Tour’s control. And this is where they are today. They’ll have to change it to have any kind of field from the International point of view. So many of our players have gone to LIV. It’s going to be tough for [captain] Trevor [Immelman]. He might have to be playing captain. Whatever, it’s going to affect the Presidents Cup in a big way.”
Timing of defections aside, it appears the International roster will include no South Africans, Australians, Japanese or Mexicans. This is the one that Jay actually controls, so he'd cancel the event before allowing those guys to tee it up. Oy, what a mess.
Trip Preview - It's gonna be great, assuming we actually get there. We are connecting through Heathrow and flying into Inverness, heading to Elsie and John's home in the Highlands. What could go wrong?
Then there's the issue of baggage, this from Heathrow:
The luggage situation at Heathrow Airport is nuts pic.twitter.com/2YYZUip5mC
— Hater Ackerman (@LilAioli) July 1, 2022
Meanwhile, further North the situation is hardly better, as this is the scene at Edinburgh Airport:
Just let them do it to us on the way home, please.
On a more pleasant note, care for some more photos of Pittenweem?
Not showing its best at low tide, but our rental house is partially visible in the distance.
Unlike next door St. Monans, where we stayed in 2019, Pittenweem is still a working fishing village:
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