My arrival at the keyboard was delayed by a certain feline, one known around here as The Little Colonel, finally rewarding his Dad with some lap time. Inconvenient for sure, but life is about priorities....
The Show Must Go On - We knew this would be the toughest stretch of the year for the Tour, one in which their bloated schedule, minus that stratum of mid-level talent, would look weakest. Your humble blogger displayed some deft timing yesterday, having parked himself in front of the boob tube for a light dinner, while watching the late NFL game finish. At a commercial break I flipped to Golf Channel, and caught Max Homa playting an impossibly long bunker shot into the 18th green. What happened next might have been a crazier finish than the Jets game:
Max Homa was on the ropes. He had just left his third shot from the bunker at the par-5 18th at the Silverado Resort and Spa North Course short of the green.His opponent, Danny Willett, was already one shot ahead and had less than four feet for birdie to seal the win.The 2022 Fortinet Championship was over.Until it wasn’t.Homa holed his fourth shot from a collection area left of the 18th green…
The notable bit to me was that they cut to Willet just after Homa jarred it, and he seemed to have the professionally-bemused look that anticipated his opponents pyrotechnics, so all seemed under control.
Just to give a brief look inside the dark mind of your humble blogger, as this wa splaying out my thoughts turned to the Ryder Cup. Seeing Willett in control it occurred me that return to form by the 2016 Masters Champion might be a good thing for the historically weak Euro team, at leat until this happened:
…and then watched as Willett missed his birdie putt and then shockingly missed again, this one from about five feet, handing the first title of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season to Homa.
That putt was exactly 3'7" and didn't even threaten the hole, so good luck to Captain Stenson Donald.
He gets a call out from Eamon Lynch, with which I agree. Well, let me qualify, I agree that his reaction was unbelievably gracious under the circumstances, though I'm not sure that's entirely a good thing:
A lot of players would struggle to muster this display of class after that gut punch finish. 👏 https://t.co/l4tusx6DAZ
— Eamon Lynch (@eamonlynch) September 19, 2022
I'd feel better about his prospects if he broke something, and then was gracious....
Another Straw Man Sacrificed - I'll take Strange Headers for $200, Art:
Cam Smith wins LIV Golf’s Chicago event, proves he’s not ‘a worse player’ just because he switched tours
Effectively rebutting an argument made by....checking notes, nobody.
It's pretty silly stuff:
Both his defection, and reasons for it, were criticized—namely by Gary Player and Fred Couples.Player questioned why Smith would defect to a tour that features 54-hole events, no cut and 48-player fields saying, “What sort of tour is that?”Couples’ comments were seen as more of a swipe. He posted on social media, “To all my friends who I missed birthdays & weddings … so sorry, I was busy earning a living on the @pgatour and in my line of work the goal is to EARN your way to work weekends … and by weekends I mean 72 holes.”On Sunday, Smith admitted he had a point to prove in shooting a closing 69 at Rich Harvest Farms to win the LIV Golf Chicago Invitational by three shots (66-68-69, 13 under) over Dustin Johnson and Peter Uihlein, who both finished at 10 under par.“I think I had to prove to probably myself and some other people that I’m still a great player,” Smith said after his round. “I’m still out here to win golf tournaments. I’m proud how I hung in there today.”
There's a serious question that Cam's defection triggers about retaining his competitiveness, but it's a long-term issue. Exactly no one thought he'd turn into a pumpkin at midnight, or at least not the first midnight. But he beat Peter Uihlein, so obviously he's still in complete command...
Among the bizarre moments from the week, this might top the list:
Down goes Bryson. (Also, interesting word choice!) pic.twitter.com/YPqrinQYDD
— Kyle Porter (@KylePorterCBS) September 18, 2022
Hey, I'm just glad to know that Bryson is still trying this golf thing.... here's something we haven't done previously, take a look at who made what.
4. David Puig, a senior at Arizona State, made his professional debut at LIV Golf Chicago this week, finishing TK. Puig turned pro while ranked as the No. 9 amateur in the world. Will the future of both the PGA Tour and LIV come down to where these top amateurs land?Bastable: Even for the most accomplished college stars, there’s obviously no guaranteed route to the PGA Tour, so for up-and-comers looking to make a fast buck, LIV undoubtedly is anattractive option. I’m not sure how the PGA Tour can compete with that. Puig seemed off-put by the lack of opportunities (i.e., sponsor invites) he’s been awarded to play PGA Tour events. Those invites, the Spaniard noted, more often than not land in the laps of better connected U.S. players. There’s not an easy answer here for the Tour. It can’t lower the bar for entry, even for seemingly can’t-miss college studs. The Tour’s meritocratic qualifying system makes the Tour what it is. Gotta earn it.Dethier: To Alan’s point, there have been plenty of can’t-miss prospects who end up missing. But LIV can’t take all of ‘em under its current format. There are only 48 spots, after all. The question then becomes how LIV’s feeder structure works — and exactly how far down the depth chart they can send big-time guaranteed cash.LKD: Not really. I’ve said this before, but I don’t think either tour’s future is at stake, at least for the next few years. What golf fans should brace for is the kind of messy reality we had in golf between the 1980s and 1990s, when half the world’s best were playing the European Tour and the other half in America. It was only the rise of Tiger Woods that consolidated professional golf stateside. With the GOAT receding from view as a player, that kind of two-pretty-strong-tours is what we’ll be returning to.
This to me is far more interesting than the Cam Smith defection, and we should include 2021 U.S. Amateur Champion James Piot as well. Puig's whinefest can be found here, in which be bemoans the absence of sponsor's exemptions while at Arizona State, about which I have no opinion. As long-time readers know, I've had my own gripes with the effect of the Tour's actions on the amateur game.
But, and it's more of a BUT, it's your friggin' job! I just have to believe that Puig and Piot have taken the easy way out, and that in avoiding that grueling grind to achieve status, they've put themselves at a competitive disadvantage. But what strikes me most right now is that they're willing to go down a path that gives them no chance (other than the two Opens' qualification process), to play in any of the majors. They don't seem especially high on their own prospects, so why should any of us care one way or the other?
Prez Cup Preview - If he didn't have the big chair at CBS awaiting him, I'd feel really bad for Trevor Immelmann. Shall we draft on the TC gang?
1. It’s officially Presidents Cup week, as the Americans take on the Internationals at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C. The U.S. has dominated the series. Any reason to think thatwon’t be the case again this year?Alan Bastable: Well, even Adam Scott has called his team the “heaviest underdogs ever,” with Vegas giving the Yanks a roughly 90 percent chance of prevailing. So, yeah, it looks bad on paper. Real bad. But…match play! Sports! Anything can happen, right? If the Internationals can avoid being overwhelmed by the scope of the task at hand — winning 17.5 points — and instead take each match as it comes, who knows what could happen. We’ve seen otherwise overmatched Davids with hot putters take down Goliaths before, and we’ll see it again. It’s been a weird year in golf. Perhaps the weirdness will continue. That said, yeah, it’s also quite possible the matches will be decided before we get to singles.Dylan Dethier: Sure, why not?! If we don’t think the Internationals have any chance, there’s not much point, so I’ve talked myself into +750 being an extremely intriguing number for the away team. And the course actually fits a bunch of the International squad pretty well. Quail Hollow favors big hitters and specifically guys who are good with mid- to long-irons in their, while there’s less emphasis on chipping and putting. Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Cam Davis, Mito Pereira, etc. — these guys can all hit it where they’re looking. And this is sports! Let’s see how their best stuff stacks up.Luke Kerr-Dineen: Almost exactly no reason. The weaker team on paper lost more of their players than the stronger team. Sure, the U.S. won’t have Dustin Johnson, who may be the hottest player in golf right now. But the depth of their team means they won’t be losing sleep over it. Crazier things have happened, but the Internationals will need a Rocky IV-style upset to pull this one off.
I actually think this will be a tough week for the Americans, as there's little upside. They are such an overwhelmingly superior team by any metric, yet eighteen holes of match play is almost a complete crapshoot.
2. Much of the conversation around the event will likely be about which players aren’t there, guys like Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith, among others. As the first team event without LIV players included, how do you anticipate that changes the mood or excitement level around it?Bastable: The LIV factor will undoubtedly dominate the conversation early in the week, just as it has at virtually every other tournament this year. How can it not, what with the event being defined almost as much by the players who aren’t there as the ones who are. Take the International team’s absentees alone: Cameron Smith, Charl Schwartzel, Abraham Ancer, Louis Oosthuizen, Marc Leishman, and on and on. Brutal losses all. You can’t blame Capt. Immelman for feeling like he got dealt a pair of 2s vs. his opponent’s full house. By Thursday, though, the attention will inevitably shift to the competition, and it’ll be fun, as ever, to see how some of the more unheralded players respond to the pressure.Dethier: The event’s profile gets some sort of short-term boost from the chaos and controversy around who should be included and who shouldn’t. But there’s no question it’s a less interesting team dynamic without Brooks and Bryson vying for captain’s picks and Cam Smith dropping daggers on the greens. Immelman made it explicitly clear in our conversation that pros leaving for LIV knew they’d be barred from the event. Still, it’s a clear effect of pro golf’s fractured existence.LKD: I think the Presidents Cup should be honest about its need for a re-think after this. The lesser of the two team events already, if this continues, it simply isn’t a sustainable path forward for an event that already struggles to punch through for wider relevance. If the majority of the conversation about a tournament is about who isn’t playing, you know there’s a problem.
The biggest problem with the event is that it isn't like that other team event, which of course ignores the fact that it took that other event sixty years to become what it now is (or was, because I'm not exactly over the moon about the future of the Ryder Cup). But, given the world in which we live, you'd think the Tour could use this as an opportunity to appeal to the N.Y. Times editorial board and at least head off future exposes of Jay's private aircraft usage (and, yes, I know that was in the WSJ).
There was this from a couple of weeks ago:
Davis Love III shoots down mixed event idea for Presidents Cup
But riddle me this, Batman. We have a Ryder Cup Task Force that was supposed to use the Prez Cup as a proving ground for the important one, yet has given us a retread captain that has no business helming this team. So, I know this will sound hopelessly cynical, but it might just be that our vaunted task forces was just a way to make sure the cool kids were taken care of...Maybe letting Phil make that hostile takeover wasn't the greatest idea?
3. Name one U.S. and one International player who look primed for a breakout week.Bastable: Excited to see match-play savant Kevin Kisner in action. Dude has been aching to play on a U.S. squad for years. I think he’ll embrace and rise to the moment. On the International side, fully expecting Tom Kim’s star to continue to ascend. Insanely good ball-striker, and also strikes me as a fun/jovial team-room guy.Dethier: Pendrith has quietly returned from injury to put together a run of some of the steadiest golf of anyone. He smashes the ball and is primed for a big-time week. On the U.S. side, Patrick Cantlay is playing as well as anybody — and it seems likely he and Xander Schauffele will each play every session.LKD: Breakout? Max Homa seems primed to thrive in red, white and blue. And he’s playing well. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him run the table. As for the International team? How about Joohyung Kim. It’s a big stage for the young player with bundles of talent, and I think it’ll bring the best out of him.
Alan, that dude played at Liberty National, which seems to have escaped you.
One of the uncompromising messages delivered by players to Tour commissioner Jay Monahan after a meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, in August was that they don’t want to cross paths with LIV players on the tee again. There will be no LIV guys in the team rooms at Quail Hollow but the shadow cast by the Saudi series will be so obvious that the ceremonies might as well include a toast to absent friends. The schism is real, and apparently permanent.Even for the most patriotic of players, it’s not always easy to get motivated for the Presidents Cup, and for some it’s only ever been a necessary inconvenience. This edition will be unlike those that preceded it. It’s an opportunity for the U.S. team to prove that it is united behind its Tour. The team members will be intent on sending a message, not so much to the International team as to an unseen enemy.After almost 30 years of comparative apathy, the U.S. squad really does have something to prove at a Presidents Cup.
I don't see that at all. It's a no-win proposition, as a U.S. route will be interpreted as attributable to LIV, meaning that they've diminished the PGA Tour product. The best scenario for Jay is, to my way of thinking, for it to be highly competitive, thereby allowing the Tour to crow that the has-beens that went to LIV wouldn't have been a factor here at all.
I'm going to leave you here, though IU expect to be back tomorrow with more on this topic.
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