Friday, March 31, 2023

Your Friday Frisson - ANWA Edition

My brother scored us some opening day tickets yesterday, so your humble blogger is still on a baseball high....Anyone remember those late 1950's Braves?  They had two top flight starting pitchers, so came up with the "Spahn and Sain and two days of rain" ditty....  For this Yankee team I'm going with "Nestor and Cole, then crawl into a hole".  

Some golf?

A Rose In Bloom - She's been in this position before without finishing it, but it just seems she's quite a bit better than the other girls:

Rose Zhang has a knack for making golf look incredibly easy, and the Stanford star is up to her usual antics once again this week.

Over the first two rounds of the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, the 19-year-old phenom has made just one bogey at Champions Retreat — host course for the opening two rounds of the 54-hole event — and will enter Saturday’s final round at Augusta National Golf Club with a five shot lead at 13 under.

The world’s top-ranked amateur shot the low round of the day on Thursday, a blistering 7-under 65 to follow her 6-under 66 in Wednesday’s opening round. Zhang set the 18-hole tournament record for low score in the first round then beat her own mark in the second.

An equipment representative said it best: “There’s a lot of really good players here, but there’s one great one.”

My favorite fun fact about the young lady is that she's won both a Women's Amateur and a Junior Amateur, but she won the big girl event before the junior.... Not sure that's happened before.

 She seems to understand that there remains work to do:

After winning the U.S. Girls’ Junior, U.S. Women’s Amateur and NCAA individual national championship, the ANWA is the final event left for Zhang to conquer in her accolade-laden amateur career.

“The job’s not done yet,” said the always humble Zhang. “We still have to go out there and play a good round.”

I have incredibly mixed feelings about this event as longtime readers will know.  While the support of ANGC for women's amateur golf is welcome, they destroyed the best women's professional event in the process.  They're inherent stubbornness is on a display as well, keeping them at another venue for the first two rounds and limiting how many girls can play on Saturday.  In an amazing concession this year, they've generously agreed to allow the low thirty and ties to play on Saturday, as if it matters how many groups they have. In prior years, those T30s would have had to play off.... sheesh, why do you guys hate women so?

With Rose in full flight, the drama was around that cut line:

Below her, though, were some recognizable names in women’s golf who were clawing just to be
able to play the final round at Augusta National Golf Club on Saturday. The cut for that honor comes at the top 30 and ties, and top players such as reigning U.S. Women's Amateur champ Jensen Castle, No. 12-ranked Amari Avery, 2021 runner-up Emilia Migliaccio, and Stanford’s Megha Ganne entered their last nine holes under enormous pressure and in complete grind mode.

The trio of players who also made it on the number were Kentucky’s Castle, who overcame two double bogeys and birdied the 18th hole in a round of 76; Auburn’s Megan Schofill, who scored 71 and will play on Saturday for the first time in three tries; and English 19-year-old Lottie Woad, whose six birdies in the round included one at 18.

Migliaccio, 23, was feeling her own pressure. The fifth-year player at Wake Forest nearly won the tournament two years ago, losing in a playoff, and then last year missed the cut. She desperately wanted to compete on Saturday again, and she rallied from suffering a double bogey on the third hole (her 12th of the day) by stringing together three straight birdies to close a round of 74 that put her tied for 21st place at one over.

Greg Norman might to be taking notes, golfers fighting for their lives is compelling theater....  Of course, Jay, Rory and Tiger should be taking notes as well.

This was, shall we say, unfortunate:

As Anna Davis stood near the scoring area at Champions Retreat on Thursday afternoon, her demeanor was one of quiet resignation. Minutes earlier, she had signed for a second-round score
of even-par 72 at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, and with a four-over total 148, the reigning ANWA champion would not be among the top 31 scorers to make the cut and advance to Saturday’s final round at Augusta National Golf Club.

Davis, 17, missed the cut by two strokes—a margin made more painful because she suffered four strokes worth of penalties in her opening round of 76 after she mistakenly played preferred lies for two shots from the rough on the opening hole. The committee issued a rules sheet before the tournament that stated that players could only lift, clean and replace their ball in grass the length of the fairway or shorter.

DJ, call your office!  I'm going to spend way too much time on this, just because Anna's caddie does, first with this:

He also contended that there should have been lift, clean and place through the green because of numerous mud balls that Davis incurred after the course received five inches of rain earlier in the week.

OK, that's what's known as an opinion, though those offered after the fact are of dubious value.  I certainly didn't see any issues in watching some of both day's broadcasts, but they did get a lot of rain...

And he does take a little of the heat:

Bisharat has taken the setback hard. “It’s going to be a long flight home,” he said. He is accepting responsibility for the gaffes, because he feels it was his responsibility to know what the specific rules situation was. Bisharat said he did look at the competition committee’s memorandum regarding the Model Local Rule that was distributed in the locker room and caddies’ room. But he said his eyes went to bullet points about lift, clean and place, and not to the paragraph that designated only the grass cut at “fairway height or less” was designated for preferred lies.

“I read that sheet of paper three times, and it’s really embarrassing to say, I’m a college graduate and I skipped over that part every time,” he said. “In my defense, in junior golf, amateur golf, pro golf, we have read thousands of those sheets. It didn’t look any different than any other one.”

Well, we've seen what goes in in colleges these days, so as long as you got everyone's pronouns correct.... But we can all agree he should have left it there:

Bisharat said he also was disappointed by the way the Model Local Rule was communicated. He said in many other events there is an official on the first tee to offer rules clarifications.

“On the first tee yesterday, there were zero words spoken about lift, clean and place,” Bisharat said. “That was the first time in a golf tournament that I’ve seen that. Not one word spoken about it, but it was on a piece of paper.”

Bisharat is likely to be fuming over the incident for some time.

Manifest failures and yet, miraculously, no other competitor had any issues....

Augusta Stuff - Some history lessons, including this about the founding:

Bobby Jones vs. the world: The untold story of how the Masters became the Masters

It's all a happy accident, though the writer is focused on one interesting aspect, the framing of the sporting press.  But lots of background color as well:

Eleven years from your reading of this, the Masters will celebrate its 100th birthday (if not its 100th playing). However, in 1934, the tournament was no shoo-in to reach its current exalted status, let alone be considered the fourth major championship of golf’s modern era. For starters, the U.S. economy was just starting to creep back from rock bottom during the Great Depression, but it still had a long way to go. Spectators did not turn out by the tens of thousands. An eight-day pass (including four days of practice rounds and other events, such as a long drive contest) went for $5.50 — that kind of dough could buy a lot of food at a time when people were so busted and spirits were so broken that some citizens cheered on the criminal and occasionally violent antics of Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow and John Dillinger, all three of whom literally bit the bullet the same year.

Augusta, Ga., had a population of about 60,000 in 1934, and not too many folks were going to travel from Atlanta and pay to see the likes of Paul Runyan and Horton Smith, even if they were very fine golfers. Walter Hagen was a draw, of course, and he was there at age 41. Not so Gene Sarazen, who would have added juice to the star power of the invitee list, nor reigning U.S. Open champ Johnny Goodman. The week of the Masters, Sarazen departed for a global exhibition tour. Goodman, who today remains the last amateur to win the U.S. Open, stayed home in Nebraska, likely because he didn’t care to make the trip to Augusta or couldn’t afford it. Instead, as the opening round was being played in Georgia, Goodman shot 70 in a spring outing of members at the Field Club of Omaha.

Only two sportsmen in the U.S. at the time could have inspired more than a few hundred people to turn out at Augusta National. One was Babe Ruth, who, at that moment, was playing Grapefruit League ball, preparing for his final season as a Yankee.

At 10:35, the other megastar of the era’s sporting scene would step onto Augusta’s first tee and into the arena for the first time in four years. He was the winner of the Grand Slam in 1930 and nine other major titles dating back to 1923, a quarter-finalist in the U.S. Amateur at age 14 in 1916. He retired from competition at age 28, with no realm left to conquer.

Here's the flavor of that hype:

Associated Pressman Dillon Graham set the tale of the tape: “Jones is playing several rounds a week on courses around Atlanta in preparation for his comeback. Occasionally, he comes here [Augusta] for a few days’ practice. Judging from his scores, his game is as good as ever. He’ll be a little heavier than his usual tournament weight, tipping the scales around 185.”

It was Rice, however, who played the hypemaster as Thursday drew near. Under the headline: “’Let’s Get Bobby!’ Professionals’ Cry on Eve of the Emperor’s Return to Battle,” Rice wrote: “Here is the one unique situation in competitive sport. Surrounded by old and young rivals who love him and admire him, the slogan still is ‘Let’s get Bobby.’ They are all after his scalp. And there isn’t one of them who won’t admit it is the hardest scalp to lift that sport has ever known.

“It is the most remarkable situation I have ever seen. There are more than 60 of the greatest golf players in the world, professionals and amateurs, and the one idea of this field is to beat Jones. Sport has never seen anything like this.”

Not content to paint Jones against the backdrop of golf, Rice positioned the “comeback” as something unprecedented in all sports.

Crazy, given Jones' mixed feelings on the subject and certain knowledge that his game wasn't of that standard any longer.... But the photos are pretty great:

That's the 12th green, though played as the third in that first year, though I'm reluctant to call it The Masters just yet.

Bob Harig has a ten-year anniversary for us.  Remember this?

Harig gets this right:

A shocking sequence

Virtually the entire golf world missed what occurred on the 15th hole on April 12, 2013. Ten years later, the entire episode elicits all manner of opinion. The shot Woods hit that bounded off the flagstick was replayed dozens of times. So was the next one that he hit close to the hole. In real time—and in the hours afterward—nobody caught what had occurred: Woods had taken an improper drop in the fairway.

The CBS broadcasters never mentioned it. Nor did Golf Channel in its postround wrap-up show. Media on-site who interviewed Woods never noticed. And when Woods was interviewed by ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi in the moments after signing his scorecard, he casually said, “I played it two yards back’’ from where he hit his original shot, which did not trigger any alarm bells. Woods used the same terminology in his postround description of the shot with the media.

Then:

Nobody knew what had played out behind the scenes as Woods took roughly an hour to finish his second round. A TV viewer—something that was common at the time—noticed the drop and wondered whether it was legal. So he alerted Augusta National officials that something might be amiss.

The viewer, however, was not just some random guy on a couch. The PGA Tour and the major championships might have taken dozens of such calls on any given week. But this happened to be David Eger, a longtime and respected rules official who had worked in an official capacity for both the United States Golf Association and the PGA Tour.

Curiously, this is how Harig describes Fred Ridley's role:

“I said, ‘Fred, David called me and you need to look at Tiger’s drop.’ So Fred was aware of it,” Bradley says. “To him, it was like splitting hairs. They didn’t question him. At the time I got the call, Tiger was still on the course.

“To be fair, the committee should have penalized Tiger. And Fred’s a rules expert. But he thought it was splitting hairs."

It’s quite possible that Ridley and the rules officials he conferred with believed that it was a technicality. “As near as possible’’ is a bit of a nebulous term. What if Woods had dropped a foot closer? Two feet closer? They made a judgment in the moment and didn’t believe it was a penalty. (The rule now states that you drop within a club length, not “near as possible.”)

Ironic, no, that the man charged with saving our game, was at the center of this rules issue....  Here's the thing though, the first rule of rules officiating is that you always speak to the player.....

Alan Shipnuck reacted to Harig's piece by linking to his own deep dive for the same publication, which covered the more personal issue involved:

Eger knew that Mickey Bradley, a PGA Tour rules official, was working the Masters. He sent him a text about what he had spotted. Bradley had already left the course, so he forwarded the text to Mark Russell, the Tour's vice president for rules and competition and a fellow member of the Masters rules committee. Bradley then called Ridley. "He thanked me for bringing it to his attention," Bradley says of Ridley. "He was very professional." The clock was ticking—Woods was going to complete his round in about 20 minutes—so Russell also texted Ridley. "Fred definitely knew that this had originated with David Eger," says Russell.

And there's the rub, because Ridley and Eger have some history. "We've had a few disagreements through the years," Eger admits. He played for the 1989 U.S. Walker Cup team, which was captained by Ridley. In an opening-day foursomes match Eger recalls conceding a 10-inch putt, earning an admonishment from his captain that he found insulting. Eger competed at the U.S. Open nine years later, and during a backup in play he practiced his putting on the vacant 7th green. Though it is allowed at the Open, Ridley, who was then the USGA's treasurer and working the event as a rules official, approached Eger and suggested he was committing a violation. Eger told him to check with another official and continued putting. Ridley returned to acknowledge his mistake, but the hard feelings endure. Eger recounted these episodes in a first-person piece in the October 2013 Golf Digest and concluded with the kind of public put-down that is rare in the chummy world of golf administration: "In my view, Ridley's knowledge of the Rules of Golf was, and is, suspect."

Can't we all just get along?  I'd always heard that Ridley considered Eger a yenta, and that made him predisposed to ignore the implications of the situation.   Although Alan's use of the m-word here seems curious:

Nevertheless, Ridley was mobilized by Eger's text. He went to tournament headquarters to review footage of Woods's drop. For all their specificity, the Rules of Golf allow for judgment calls; case in point is the phrase "as nearly as possible" in 26-1a. But because Woods had left a sizable divot, it was easy to be precise. "Clearly, two yards is not as nearly as possible," says Russell. The Masters rules committee is populated by experts, but Ridley asked none of them to review the drop with him. He alone would be Woods's judge and jury.

But it was those comments to Tom Rinaldi that sealed the deal:

It wasn't difficult for Woods to identify the spot of the original shot; the divot hole was easily seen on the pristine fairway, and LaCava was standing nearby. Instead, Woods backed up two paces while keeping an imaginary line between the divot and the flag. Later, he spelled out his thinking for Rinaldi. His 33-word explanation would prove fateful: "So I went back to where I was and actually took two yards farther back and tried to hit my shot another two yards off of what I felt like I hit it."

Here Woods was a victim of his hubris; he could have hit 100 balls from the previous spot, and it's highly unlikely he would have nicked the flagstick again. But in his mind he needed those extra two yards to prevent lightning from striking twice.

It was exactly hubris, telling us how smart he was but leaving Ridley, who hadn't heard those words until later, in quite the pickle...

Fred doesn't come off very good, does he?

As Ridley stared at his TV screen, reviewing the drop, the moment of truth arrived for him, for Woods and for a tournament they both venerate. Ridley may have had a history of being a consensus builder, but Augusta National has long clung to an autocratic style. Did Ridley choose not to see a violation because he knew the tip had come from Eger? Was he hesitant to create more bad headlines while the tournament was being pilloried for the Guan penalty? Did Ridley think his chances of succeeding Payne as chairman—he'd long been considered the heir apparent—would be jeopardized if he DQ'd Tiger Woods from the Masters? All we can do is wonder, because Ridley has retreated behind Augusta National's traditional wall of silence: Through the club he declined to be interviewed for this story.

Ridley's initial mistake in not spotting the violation was compounded by an even bigger one: Although consulting with a player is standard procedure in such a situation, he chose not to talk with Woods before he signed his scorecard. "I fully expected to see a half-dozen guys in green jackets intercept Tiger as he walked off the [18th] green," says Eger. No one materialized.

Given Ridley's malfeasance, the decision not to DQ Tiger was, I continue to believe, the right one. It's just that, given Ridley's importance on issues of the ball and LIV, this walk down memory lane doesn't inspire much confidence.

This was an odd note as well from Alan's piece:

About Augusta National's flagsticks: Though a club spokesman says otherwise, one caddie suggests there was something different about them in 2013. "All the players and caddies were talking about it," says the veteran caddie, who requested anonymity. "They were like twice as thick as usual. I had a feeling someone was going to get a bad break and have a ball bounce hard off the flag."

Exit Strategy -  I got to the keyboard late and am already behind schedule, so I'll just leave you this bit of amusement for the weekend:

Great.  Now do Phil's.....

Seriously, couldn't happen to a nicer group of fellows.

I guess I'll throw this in on a similar subject:

Conceding that he tended to be more of a lone wolf keeping to his team at tournaments,
DeChambeau said, “I was always kind of a guy who did it myself so I didn’t have too much contact with too many players but we’re cordial. I’ve talked with Jordan (Spieth) numerous times at Dallas National, anybody that’s out there, Will (Zalatoris) I’ve had a couple of conversations with but no problems.”


Asked if anybody had cut him off, DeChambeau answered, “Yeah, definitely, I’m sure you can guess who.”

DeChambeau chuckled.

When asked if he was referring to Woods, DeChambeau said, “Yeah, I’m not going to throw anyone under the bus. He’s been a great friend. I texted him on his birthday. It is what it is. He has his viewpoints on it and thinks we’re potentially hurting his record. If anything, nobody is ever going to touch his record. That’s just it, that’s the bottom line. There’s a chance to grow the game even more and I hope one day he’ll see the vision that we all have out here.”

Based upon the ratings, it seems no one has seen the vision you have out there....

One last bit I've forgotten to use from Dylan Dethier's Monday Finish column:

In a Q&A in the Hollywood Reporter, Ben Affleck explained that he’d first met Michael Jordan — an important figure in his new movie, Air, which centers Jordan, Nike and a sneaker-business revolution — at his golf course. (We’re assuming that meant Grove XXIII.) Did Affleck play?

“I waited for him to finish playing. I don’t golf myself. Because I just feel like it eats people’s lives up,” he said. “I look at golf like meth. They have better teeth, but it doesn’t seem like people ever come out of that. Once they start golfing, you just don’t ever see them again. So anyway, I waited.”

Nailed it.

See you guys on Monday. 

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