Monday, February 20, 2023

Weekend Wrap

It's a sad time in our game.... No, I can live with the Brendan Steele news, it's leaving those great iconic venues of California for, checking notes, The Bear Trap that has me down....

Never Wrong, Occasionally Early - As I've fessed  previously, I started the 2022 season curious as to whether Jon Rahm could separate himself from the pack.  The answer at that time was a resounding "No", but the question seems a bit more relevant in the current moment.  Of course, this reference goes right over my head, as well as that of my readers:

There are a series of numbers that begin to explain Jon Rahm’s recent run of golfing brilliance. We’ll get to some of those. But it’s far more fun to describe how it feels, and in that department, algorithms only go so far.
The only issue, perhaps, being that Augusta is still 
And so we look to Max Homa, Sunday’s second-place finisher and one of the best analogy-makers in the game. Homa fought as hard as he could, all week, and even stole the lead from Rahm in the middle of the back nine. But there’s an inevitability to this version of Rahm we’re seeing. Give him 72 holes and he just emerges.

“Yes, he’s probably Thanos,” Homa said, citing the Avengers super-villain so strong it requires an entire universe of heroes to topple him. “He has a lot of the [infinity] stones in his toolbox. He’s a tremendous golfer, he has zero weaknesses. He’s been this dude for a long time.”

He really has been. But Rahm is also playing the best golf of his life and is finally comfortable admitting it. He has officially ascended to World No. 1 but doesn’t seem to care specifically about that honor; he’s comfortable knowing he’s been atop the eye-test rankings for weeks and months, as Homa alluded to. He’s won five of his last nine tournaments worldwide, and in the four he didn’t win he finished in the top eight every time. So Homa’s comparison fits. Rahm is always going to be there, and it might take 130 players to beat him. Rory McIlroy captured the mood of the field on Thursday, admitting when he saw Rahm was six under and atop the early leaderboard, he rolled his eyes (at least figuratively) and thought, “Again?!?” Thanos was back for more.

The only issue perhaps being that Augusta is still two months away.... with many elevated designated to be played between now and then.

In his Quad post, Geoff bullet points (what, you didn't know it was a verb as well?) the accomplishments:

In holding off Homa, Rahm recorded some impressive feats:
  • Returns to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking and extends his lead in the FedExCup standings to 426 points
  • Records the most wins on Tour in California since the start of the 2016-17 season (5)
  • Earns his third win in his last six starts and fifth in his last nine starts.
  • He is 93-under-par since January 1.
  • Rahm becomes the first player to reach three Tour wins in calendar year before March 1st since Johnny Miller in 1975 (Phoenix Open, Tucson Open, Bob Hope)
  • Holds the most wins in California since the start of the 2016-17 season (2023 Genesis Invitational, 2018/2023 American Express, 2021 U.S. Open, 2017 Farmers Insurance Open
  • Improves to 4-for-9 when holding the 54-hole lead/co-lead on Tour.
  • $9,864,750 in 2023 earnings.
  • Gained 11.92 strokes Approaching The Green (1st)
  • Gained 4.520 strokes Putting (12th)
  • Averaged 302.1 yards a drive, All Drives (12th)
  • Averaged 314.5 yards (6th)
  • Made 2 eagles, 22 birdies, 9 bogeys
  • Played Riviera’s par-3s: -8

That last one might just be the craziest, give how difficult these Par-3's are.  In fact, later in the post Geoff does a deep dive on No.4, which Mr. Hogan once thought highly of:

Riviera’s 4th is not seen as the greatest par-3 in America. Ben Hogan’s endorsement of the one-shotter came under more scrutiny than normal this year. With the greens so firm and the kikuyu still acting like its usual spongy self, the 238-yarder played especially tough downwind three of the Genesis days. Just 63 of 388 tee shots (16.24%) hit the green in regulation. The number rose to 20% for Sunday’s final round playing into a slight sea breeze. While there is the tendency of players to believe they are entitled to play directly at a hole and hold the green under any and all conditions, the 4th’s righthand approach still kicks balls left and down the slope if landed on the sidehill slope. Is there a fix? One option is to replace the approaches and collars with a different turf. However, because the kikuyu roots run so deep, Riviera would need to remove at least 12 inches of soil, then sand-cap the areas in question, and try to grow Bermuda. Not an easy task.

Not exactly sure what that graphic speaks to, but I also suspect that it's the first Rothko that I've posted.

But that strokes Gained: Approach might actually be the biggest tell because, as I understand Rahm's game, that's been the comparatively weakest statistical component.  When a guy already among the elites dramatically improves his biggest weakness.... Of course, any one week is a small sample size, so we should probably just go ahead and play the Masters in any event...

By the relevant statutes, we are required to cover Tiger:

4. Tiger Woods returned to the PGA Tour for the first time since his missed cut at the Open
Championship seven months ago, pulling double duty as player/host at the Genesis Invitational, and he made news for his play — he shot rounds of 69, 74, 67, 73 — and for a prank that he apologized for a day later. Do you think this version of Woods can contend at the majors?

Rogers: Being on-site this week, my biggest takeaway will be that this course is a really, really hard walk and Tiger was able to play solid golf with a bad leg. His limp got a lot worse after his round each day, so props to him for getting in four rounds this week. I think he can absolutely contend at majors in 2023 and I’m excited to see how it all unfolds.

Colgan: In a word: yes. He’s swinging it well enough. Walking well enough. Even thinking well enough to hang around in a major. It’d take lightning in a bottle to hang in for four straight days (particularly if his putter is as balky), but we’ve seen that before.

Sens: It’s kind of like my swing producing a straight shot. It could happen. But I wouldn’t wager on it. It would just take too many moving parts syncing up.

The week was a huge home run for Tiger, and will likely fuel all sorts of unrealistic expectations for what comes next.  That's probably a very good thing for the game, though your humble blogger tires of dealing with the incessant "Do you think he can do it?' questions from the dead-enders.

No question he was walking markedly better than anything we saw last year, even with the lingering plantar fasciitis.  That allows any and all to dream big, although I do think Josh Sens nails it.  Four days is a lot to ask, especially on a course as difficult to walk as ANGC.  

Do Women Know About Elevation? - There's been a confluence of folks declaring victory that to this observer seems, at best, premature.  For instance, this coda from the TC panel:

5. Also at the Genesis, Jon Rahm won again, shooting rounds of 65, 68, 65 and 69, and Max Homa almost won again, finishing second, as the two went back and forth in a memorable final round. As the PGA Tour heads to its Florida swing — and LIV Golf begins this week — how would you rate the Tour’s ‘changes’ and its designated events?

Colgan: An A+++. Three designated events into the Tour season and we’ve seen three highly competitive, highly intriguing tournaments. The Tour couldn’t have scripted a leaderboard any better than what it’s gotten the last two weeks. It almost makes you wonder why we ever bothered with the old setup.

Rogers: Between last week and this week, I’m totally sold on designated events. They just feel bigger. Between the leaderboard, the fans and the atmosphere around the course, the Tour seems to have just gotten it right.

Sens: From a fan’s perspective, the best thing about the past year’s tumult is that it shook the Tour out of its complacency and its wrap-around season snooze-fest. Even though these elevated events have pumped-up purses, it hasn’t felt as if money is the sole motivating force behind them. Maybe it is. But it hasn’t felt that way. There’s been an electricity to them that you don’t get just by piling huge prizes at the end, as so often happens at the Fed Ex Cup. The flip side is, what’s the Tour going to feel like during all its non-designated tournament weeks this year? That vulnerability remains.

OK, at least as far as it goes.  LA had already been "elevated" into an "Invitational" and I'm just not sure how much stronger the field actually was this year.  Not that we can't enjoy this bit of toothless snark from our favorite bonesaw bot:

Heh!  I mean shall we keep our powder dry and see the relative "lifelessness" of this week's Mayakoba leaderboard?

There was also an Eamon Lynch piece that I can't find right now on Google in which he described Phoenix as a successful proof of concept for these designated events, which seemed an early call at best.  The problem with the designated events has always been just outside one's field of vision, but since we're headed to the Honda, it should come into focus pretty clearly.  Just the fact that Honda, the longest continual sponsor of the Tour, has walked away in a huff should make the issue clearer...

But the other obvious issue with declaring Phoenix a success is that next year it likely will not have designated status.  Don't you want you want to see what that looks like before declaring victory?

Netflix In Full - Employee No. 2 and I have watched about five episodes, and it's really quite the silly undertaking.  The TC gang wastes a lot of pixels, so shall we sample?

1. Netflix released its highly anticipated “Full Swing” docuseries on Wednesday, which included eight episodes featuring about a dozen of the game’s biggest names with cameras following them on and off the course. Now that you’ve had time to digest all eight episodes, did the series live up to your expectations? And could hardcore golf fans and non-golf fans both enjoy it?

James Colgan: The problem ‘Full Swing’ faced from the second cameras started rolling last winter was that it would never be able to live up to expectations. Golf fans are so exacting, and
the show was made for non-fans. That central paradox was always in conflict with expectations. That said, I enjoyed the show. It was a compelling look into the life of pro golf. It was not revelatory, or astonishing, or mind-blowing. But it was interesting and fun to watch for both fans and non-fans. I’d give it a B+ for season one, with plenty of room to grow.

Claire Rogers: As much as I enjoyed the show, what I’m enjoying, even more, is hearing from my non-golfer friends who are watching it. I’ve spent a full year trying to explain LIV, and a handful of years trying to explain characters such as Brooks Koepka and the friendship that JT and Spieth have. The show finally allows people who don’t follow the Tour week in and week out to get to know some of the players, which is why I think it’s the perfect show for people like my sister. I also really enjoyed the storylines and definitely learned a lot in terms of what life is like off the course for these guys.

Josh Sens: I was prepared to be really bored by this show, mostly because the single-mindedness it takes to play golf at the highest level doesn’t naturally lend itself to multidimensional characters. But Netflix chose its subjects well and hit the jackpot with its timing. I thought it was terrific. Mostly for the reasons Claire says, it was a brilliant introduction to the current state of golf, with enough inside-baseball material not to be entirely old-hat to serious fans. There were people you could root for, and people you could roll your eyes at. Which every story needs. Watching it with my wife, who has no interest in golf, was especially entertaining. She was into it. Just one complaint: not nearly enough Dylan Dethier.

They certainly chose well in many of their subjects, Joel Dahmen most notably to this observer.  Although the absence of Jon Rahm seems telling at least it does this morning.

I was prepared to be bored and I had been forewarned about the Golf 1012 tutorials, I just didn't think I'd have to be lectured that there's a 36-hole cut quite so often.  I think they've found that sweet spot where the hard core golf fans won't see anything new and the non-golfers will be stifling their yawns...

2. Who, or what, do you think won the series? Were there any losers?

Colgan: Joel Dahmen is the unabashed winner of the series. Brooks Koepka offered the most compelling testimony, but also the most personally damaging. LIV must be furious their star addition showed himself in such a defeated light.

Rogers: I agree with James! Joel and Geno stole the show (series?). Brooks Koepka is the loser because he said he didn’t know who won the Masters. No further comment from me.

Sens: No doubt about Dahmen and Koepka. But for a self-parody of the pampered athlete, Poulter made a pretty good bid for top honors, complaining about the hardships of missing cuts while hopping a private jet back to his estate to sort through sunglasses. On the upside, it was baldly honest, which made it interesting.

I agree more with Colgan than Sens on Koepka.... Not least because Jenna Sims came across (at least to me) as vacuous as I assumed her to be...

The bride expressed some intrigue about Brooksie showing himself to be vulnerable, with which I agree in part and I know others have embraced.  I don't love the frat boy so I found myself rolling my eyes at those bits, but I have to acknowledge that it's the perfect synecdoche for the LIV moment.  What Brooks makes clear is that he grabbed the cash on offer when he thought he couldn't compete with these guys.  But feeling healthier now, we saw in Saturday's post that he has buyer's remorse.  Doesn't that tell us all we need to know about LIV?

But Josh nails it with Poulter, who seemed to be reading for the part of whiny bitch in the Real Housewives of Jupiter.  This is from Golf.com's recap of Episode 3:

Episode 3 of “Full Swing” — “Money or Legacy” — features just Ian Poulter, but it introduces LIV Golf, and it focuses almost exclusively on the decision Poulter faced last year, between signing on with the Saudi-backed series, or staying with golf’s established brands and potentially building upon Ryder Cup successes.

Where LIV stood early last year — the rival golf league is coming, it will be fronted by Greg
Norman, big money is being offered to players to join, Poulter could be one of them — starts the episode, then it digs into Poulter. He’s painted as a personality. (“My name is Ian Poulter and my profession is a wannabe golfer,” he says early on.) He’s touted as a Ryder Cup legend. (At one point, a narrator asks him: “Do you love playing in the Ryder Cup?” — to which he responds: “Do bears s**t in the woods? Ah, dear, do I love playing in the Ryder Cup? Oh, my god, is the pope Catholic?”)

And that name recognition is why he’d be attractive to LIV. The episode, though, spends most of its time looking at the other side: What would make Poulter want to leave, a move that would both ban him from the PGA Tour and potentially cost him future Ryder Cup spots, as both a player and a captain. The episode centers on Poulter’s play at the time — it shows him missing cuts at the Players Championship and PGA Championship, and failing to advance out of pool play at the WGC-Match Play — and his family.

With LIV, the money is also guaranteed.

“My whole life is about trying to work hard and provide,” Poulter says. “I’m sure LIV had offers out there to numerous people. The fact of there being guaranteed money at play is obviously an attraction. People ask all the time — don’t you have enough already? But that’s all relative. I treat my golf as a job, and I want to obviously maximize every bit of my potential over the coming years. And I’m 46 years old; I’m not getting any younger. There’s so many deciding factors in all this. I love the Ryder Cup, and if one day I get the opportunity to be Ryder Cup captain, I would absolutely love it. If you do play for LIV, would it be a factor in not being able to be a captain down the road? It would be devastating if it were taken away. That would be really disappointing.”

 Devastating?  Then why would you do it?  

The larger question, at least to this cynical observer, is whether that locker room meltdown was performance art?  Because they know the cameras are there and my nature is to assume he's trying to convince us of how much he cares?  Yanno, just before taking the easy check.

More importantly, who is the guy in the foreground with his nose in his phone as Poults explodes?  he's my hero and needs to be featured in Season 2.  But the jarring bit was nailed by Josh, the on-course emltdown followed by the private jet tells us all we need to know about these pampered, entitled a****es.

3. Filming for Season 2 is already underway. What would you do differently, or like to see more of, for the next batch of episodes?

Colgan: I think there are ways to build tension and intrigue beyond money. The show’s all-consuming obsession with cash grew to undercut its most interesting storylines. In season two, the show’s producers and editors should search out the most interesting stories in each of its characters, and then see if they can find throughlines between them, not the other way around.

Rogers: I want a Max Homa episode! As well as a guy who hasn’t made much money on Tour in order to highlight the struggles that we don’t see with top-50 players.

Sens: A where-are-they-now and what-are-they-up-to-now episode or two wouldn’t hurt, catching up with a guy like Hunter Mahan, who had it then lost it. Track someone on the outside looking in and desperate to get back. Or who left and is trying to adapt to a new life, stripped the ‘golfer’ identity he’s always lived with. Anthony Kim would of course be the white whale.

I couldn't agree more about their odd treatment of money.  It's certainly important in relationship to the LIV plotlines, but flashing their winnings was just bizarre, especially when it was a $500,000 type number for a top ten.  I had no clue why they were doing that or what the message was supposed to be.

My sense is that, in trying to appeal to everybody and to make each episode work as a stand-alone storyline, they've diluted the drama to the point where it will appeal to few.  My immediate reaction is to tighten the focus.... fewer players and stories in greater depth.

Upon Further Review - When last we touched base with everyone's favorite despots, we were on pins and needles over LIV's delay in releasing their final team rosters.  There was a thought that the announcement was delayed because Tiger had sucked the oxygen dry, but your humble blogger correctly deduced that they were setting us up for some surprising additions to their rosters.

I nailed it, boys!  Although, if this is the best they can do, it's profoundly sad, first this guy:

Belgian golf star Thomas Pieters is headed to LIV Golf and will be announced as one of the new members of the league on Monday, Sports Illustrated has confirmed.

The former standout at the University of Illinois who played for Europe at the 2016 Ryder Cup will be one of the last players added to the 48-player field that will compete in the first event of 2023 next week at Mayakoba in Mexico.

The news was first reported by the website handicap54.golf.

Pieters, 31, had expressed dismay last week on social media about not getting in this week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club, calling it one of his favorite tournaments of the year.

A pretty loose definition of the word "star", no?  Geoff nailed this for sure:

Yes, he'll fit right in whining about grievances with Poults and  Sergio...

But think about all those new viewers he'll bring to the CW.  Actually, I thought Pieters would prove out to be quite the talent, but he's not done much in recent years, obvious from that fact that he's not made a Ryder Cup team since 2016.

But this will send shock waves through the golf world:

It was early December at the media day for The American Express PGA Tour event in La Quinta, California, and Brendan Steele was giving some very specific thoughts about the LIV Golf League.

“For me, I’m fine if guys want to go,” Steele said by telephone to a gathered group of media and tournament officials. “I think they just have to make the best decision for them. But don’t expect to come back and play on our tour.”


Ten weeks later, the 39-year-old Steele, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour, has apparently made the choice for himself. ESPN reported Saturday that Steele is among three golfers — along with Thomas Pieters and Danny Lee — making the leap from the PGA Tour to LIV in time for LIV’s season-opening event in Mexico on Feb. 24-26.

Danny Lee?  Wow, that changes everything....

I don't even know why you'd want these guys (Steele is obviously at least borderline relevant), as all it does is drive up the burn rate.  That these are the best players they can attract at this point seems humiliating.

Can this still look viable to the Saudis?  Or is it just hard to walk away from $2 billion in sunk costs?

That's it for this morning.  Catch you later in the week.

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