Monday, May 8, 2023

Weekend Wrap - Coronation Edition

I'm always happy to learn new stuff, and this was only the second coronation ever televised, the first in color.  But did you know about the royal infinity gauntlet?

Apparently it's only golfers and sovereigns that wear only the one glove....

You're Certain This Was Elevated? - As you might have noticed, quite a few alpha dogs traveled all the way to Charlotte for the sole purpose of mailing it in.  I personally enjoy when unheralded players take that all important step forward, though in this case not enough to actually watch.

I'm guessing that the ratings, when released, will show that I was not alone in that decision-making.  But, it was big in the Clark family:

Wyndham Clark opened the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship with a nervy bogey after sleeping on the lead for just the second time in his PGA Tour career.

However, by the time he finished, there were no signs of those first hole jitters and he looked every bit of the PGA Tour winner he was about to become.

After going out in even through nine holes, Clark caught fire on the back nine, making four birdies in six holes, and turned what seemed like a battle with Xander Schauffele into a comfortable four-shot victory at 19-under par.

“I’ve dreamt about this since I was probably 6 years old,” Clark said after the win. “Since I’ve been on the PGA Tour, you fantasize about it all the time, and I’ve done it multiple times this year where I catch myself daydreaming about winning. And to do it at this golf course against this competition is better than I could ever have imagined.”

Not only was the win a first on the PGA Tour for Clark, a seventh-year pro from the University of Oregon, but it was his first as a professional. His last victory came at the 2017 Pac-12 Championship.

This is the kind of story we should be embracing in our game, yet seem to be attempting to outlaw.   

One of my amusements in this current cycle has been how commentators have been so eager to declare those Elevated Designated Events a success, without a passing thought for the impact of elevation/designation on those lesser events.  I guess we'll now see how they react when, aside from the X-Man, the name-brands didn't perform.

As a proxy, where would you set the over/under line for the number of questions about this event to be found in Golf.com's Tour Confidential panel.  Yeah, trick question, always take the under, but now set the over/under for Tiger questions....  How's it all working out, Jay?

This was as close to this event as the TC gang got:

3. Rory McIlroy will be penalized $3 million for missing his second Designated event of 2023, as McIlroy skipped Hilton Head the week after the Masters. He previously missed the first Designated event of the season (he played the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic instead of the Sentry Tournament of Champions). Under the Tour’s current policy, players can only miss one Designated event before it starts cutting into their PIP winnings. Two questions: Is it a bad look for McIlroy, who has essentially acted as PGA Tour’s de facto player/commissioner, to now miss two of these? Or are McIlroy’s absences evidence that this current model isn’t working?

Berhow: No, it’s not really a good look, but it also shows that these guys are human, just like us,
and have bad days and weeks and need some time away. (It also probably helps that McIlroy is, absolutely loaded, so an extra $3 million in his pocket doesn’t mean the same thing it would mean to us.) The Tour’s designated events model is still new and a work in progress, but I’ll give the guy a break because we know how much the Masters means to him and I won’t act like I know what’s going on in his life, but yes, this proves there will always be hiccups no matter what the formula is. ‘Tis life. That said, if he missed a third with a non-injury, then Jay, we got a problem.

Dethier: Yeah, it’s kind of a bad look for McIlroy to skip out after essentially designing a system where the best players would show up. But 1. This rule is changing next year, allowing pros to skip, and 2. He’s also being significantly financially punished for missing the RBC. The current model is working. What’s more concerning is McIlroy’s game, which looked uneven all week in Charlotte en route to a T47 finish.

Barath: Considering all the things Rory has said about having to stick to a schedule, it does come off the wrong way, but as Dylan said, having this rule change next year is going to make this a moot point at the end of the season.

It seems that it's not just the players phoning it in.  Not only was this all hashed out a few weeks back at Harbor Town, but Dylan also misses the point that there are only eight of these money grabs next season, the idiocy being having fourteen this year.

Obviously Rory laid a bit of an egg this week, which after his Masters funk and Harbor Town no-show is worth watching, given that the majors will come at us quickly.  But I have a different interest in Mr. McIlroy,  given how I tend to fixate on minutia.  As you might not recall, Rory switched back to a blade putter at the Match Play and made two subsequent statements that caught my eye.  He said that putter switch did the following:

  1. That it made him more athletic with the putter, and;
  2. It made him also more creative with the putter.
Are we done laughing yet?  It is funny, and I certainly laughed when I heard each claim for the obvious reasons.  Then I though more about and how we struggle to find positions and feelz out there, and then further struggle to describe them, so I was inclined to give slack, the more so since he did seem to play and putt well in Austin.

But, there was that Masters flame-out in which he looked clueless on the greens and then he shows up in Charlotte with the mallet back in the bag and we can only conclude that athleticism and creativity are overrated.  Or that he wasn't so much trying to convince us as himself.

Today in Tiger Centrism - I know they have column-inches to fill, but are we adding any value here?

1. Joe LaCava had been Tiger Woods’ trusted caddie since 2011, but with Woods out, the long-time looper has now joined Patrick Cantlay’s bag full-time, debuting with a T21 finish at the Wells Fargo Championship last week. Do you see this immediately improving Cantlay’s prospects going forward? How can a caddie like LaCava help him?

Josh Berhow: It will be interesting to see what this move does for Cantlay, a.k.a. one of the best — if not the best? — current pros without a major title. Sometimes, it’s the little things that vault
players over that hump. It’s not like he was carrying his own bag before, though, and had a good looper in Matt Minister, but sometimes a change of scenery is good for all parties. LaCava’s resume speaks for itself. It will definitely be a fascinating duo to watch going forward. It can’t be a bad thing, right?

Dylan Dethier: Predicting caddie dynamics is a fool’s errand. I think caddies are hugely important but there are so many different ways to be a good caddie that it’s tough to know how it’ll go. With that said, this pairing makes a ton of sense. LaCava is a pro’s pro, which I’m sure Cantlay will appreciate. But he also just seems to have a great sense for when to keep things light and when to dig his heels in. I’m excited to see what happens.

Ryan Barath: With the NHL Playoffs in full swing, thinking about caddies has me drawing a direct line to coaches and the old saying “they get hired to get fired”. Sure there are some extremely long-term relationships out there on tour but in most cases the end result is up to the golfer and not the guy carrying the clubs. Do I think it helps Cantlay’s chances — honestly no, but I’ve been wrong before.

It's an interesting question, despite being asked only because of the linkage to you-know-who.  But we've seen a run of these, from Scottie Scheffler and Ted Scott to Cameron Young and Cameron Young grabbing Paul Tesori (not to mention Bones and JT).  I personally might be happy if Joe simply got Patrick to play more quickly, but Cantlay has certainly under-performed on the biggest stages, so stay tuned.

And this click-bait:

2. Woods and LaCava won 11 times together, including a five-win 2013 season and the 2019 Masters, which was Woods’ 15th major title. What was your favorite moment or most memorable interaction between the two? And how much will this hurt Tiger’s chances when he does get healthy and tees it up next?

Berhow: Loyalty was a word thrown around a lot last week, as in the loyalty LaCava had to Woods to stay on his bag despite Tiger missing significant time with injuries. Now there’s a good chance LaCava was still getting paid something during that absence, but there’s always that strong will to compete between the ropes for player and caddie. He had to miss out, and I think a move like this was a matter of time. I’ll always think back to that pep talk he gave Woods during the final round of the 2019 Masters — “He was saying some things that I can’t really repeat here,” Woods said — which ultimately led to Woods turning his game around and winning his fifth green jacket. As for what this means to Tiger? I’m not sure he’s worried too much about that right now. His first step is to get healthy and, when he’s ready, I think he’ll have a long list of candidates lining up to see if they can find lightning in a bottle another time or two.

Dethier: I posted this video last week from ESPN’s Tiger doc Return of the Roar and the line from LaCava has stuck with me since:“If I could live another 100 years I’d wait another 100 years. I was never not going to work for Tiger as long as he was going to have me.” LaCava’s departure signals the end of an era, but there’s plenty left to celebrate from his partnership with Woods.

Barath: I think the 2019 Masters has to be the moment for me as a whole but I can distinctly remember earlier this year at the Genesis Invitational, Tiger was out first in the pro-am on Wednesday and one of the few guys out just as early was LaCava. It was still dark, near freezing, and there he was with Tiger’s bag getting ready for 18 holes. Lots of people can be there in the big moments but for me, the small moments like that show just how much it meant to be there for Tiger.

Don't wanna ruin your week, guys, but might be time to move on....

Goochgate - Wow, who knew that Phil bore a grudge against the USGA?  Hard to think where that might have come from, but do I sniff the reek of desperation?  Because when a man who's never had a thought beyond his own vested interests goes to the barricades for, checking notes, Talor Gooch, something is in the water.

This is the gist of Phil's most recent diatribe:

Phil Mickelson continued his crusade against golf's establishment on Friday—only this time with some slightly more colorful language.

The six-time major champ has been in a war of words with the PGA Tour and the Official World Golf Ranking for the past year, but more of his ire in recent days has been directed at the USGA following a tweak in language regarding U.S. Open criteria. Previously, any golfer qualifying for the PGA Tour's Tour Championship got into the following year's U.S. Open field, but the USGA changed that to “those players who qualified and were eligible" in February for the 2023 championship at Los Angeles Country Club.

What's the big deal? Well, that rules out any LIV golfers who qualified for the Tour Championship, but weren't eligible to play at East Lake after being banned by the tour for joining the new Saudi-backed league. Specifically, that ruled out one golfer: Talor Gooch.

As you can imagine, Gooch wasn't happy about this development. And Phil wasn't happy about this development. And after USGA CEO Mike Whan defended this development, Phil still wasn't happy, tweeting this message directed at Whan:

So many lay-ups it's hard to choose.

The lie about it being retroactive is quite the tell, especially since the LIVsters have had one due diligence face palm after another....  It turns out that taking Greg Norman's word is fraught with peril, if only they'd asked your humble blogger.

We should also note that Phil trotted out that d**k move bit in several subsequent tweets, which Geoff picks up on the cognitive dissonance just as he awkwardly ducks behind his paywall:

The Google alerts piled up after Phil Mickelson thrice labeled the USGA’s 2023 U.S. Open exemption criteria tweak “just a d!*k move.”

So I did what all adults of a certain vintage will do and went over to the Urban Dictionary for the etymological clarification.

Mickelson used the phrase repeatedly in replies to reinforce that (A) he has a lot of free time on his hands and, (B) he is definitely not in any way whatsoever projecting.

Yeah, I think we can all agree, that our Phil retired the dick-move championship belt years ago....

Combined with the mewling about the OWGR, it's almost as if things aren't going according to plan.  Who could have seen this coming, but do they not realize they're in a hot war?  Shane Ryan had some thoughts, beginning with this rather serious question:

When you're in a war, should you expect the other side to be "fair"?

Why it's almost like they expect the PGA and DP Tours to march in columns so they can be readily picked off by snipers...

Again, it doesn't mean you have to like it. If you're a LIV Golf supporter, or you just think guys like Gooch have become collateral damage in the ongoing fight, you might think this is an unnecessary or even petty punishment. But the important point is that the minute Gooch signed up for LIV Golf, he took sides in a fight, and was no longer a neutral party. Once you jump in the fray, you have to live with everything that comes next. For Gooch to complain strikes me as equivalent in microcosm to some small nation declaring war on a superpower, and then being shocked when its capital gets bombed.

Hail Fredonia!  Anyone with me on that reference?

But I think I can explain this to Shane:

This works both ways. If LIV Golf finds itself on the ascent, you can bet any mercy they show to the Tour will be on their terms. And if you back an organization like the PGA Tour into a corner, they're going to fight with every weapon at their disposal—as far as they know, their survival is at stake. That's a basic concept, so it's baffling to see a litany of woe-is-me complaints anytime the Tour or any other party exercises its power and influence. LIV players still expected to play in the FedExCup playoffs last summer; they still expect an easy path to OWGR points; they still want to play in the Ryder Cup.

Remember all those years when I was ranting about the Tour not disclosing disciplinary actions?  Covering for D's failed drug test with a fake jet-ski accident?  Is it any surprise that they reek of entitlement and thought their actions would have no consequences?  In a delicious irony, those they covered for most are doing the most whining...

Although I think he's ignoring one possibility here:

And they may get some of those things, eventually, but if they do, they're going to get them the
same way you get anything in a war: either by conquest or by amassing enough power that your enemies are willing to negotiate. At the moment, though, players like Gooch seem to want their cake and to eat it too; to join the war on the side of LIV Golf, but still be treated "fairly" by the organization they're directly threatening.

That's not how it works. When you throw a metaphorical punch, and it's not a knockout blow, you can't whine or be shocked at the inevitable retaliation. The public-facing side of the Tour, of the USGA, and of LIV Golf observe the rituals of politeness and nicety, but those same poses may not actually govern their actions. Naïveté doesn't play; the rules of conflict don't include the subjective concept we call "fairness," and actions have consequences.

They're going to get some of those things, probably the OWGR points, because of the the lawyers.  Although it may well be that it's because the Five Families believe they can win the war of attrition over the long-term.

Eamon Lynch has a similar take:

As much as I typically enjoy Eamon's pyrotechnics, this might be slightly over-the-top:

Since being accused of a “dick move” by Phil Mickelson is comparable to having the Pope commend one’s catechism scholarship, Mike Whan ought to take the stigmatic legend’s intended insult as a compliment, and file it as yet more evidence of how Mickelson never emerges best in USGA contests.

Mickelson attacked Whan in defense of Talor Gooch, who Mickelson felt was unfairly discriminated against by a change in exemption criteria that cost him an automatic spot in next month’s U.S. Open. Having now taken a stand in support of someone treated shabbily by tournament regulations, it can only be a matter of time before Mickelson steps forward to shield those who might find themselves at the business end of his employer’s bonesaw.

Does a bonesaw have a business end?  I might have gone with a scimitar instead, but that is literally Monday-morning quarterbacking...

Eamon does defenestrate Mr. Westwood for his duplicitous hypocracy:

“As a European Tour member, I was allowed to be a member of the PGA Tour without any problem for all those years. Tell me, what is the difference?” Westwood said to the Telegraph. “Just because LIV is funded by the Saudis — a country where my tour used to play and where we were encouraged to play?”

Westwood is conflating separate reasons why the LIV enterprise upsets people. For many fans — including plenty of his own, once upon a time — the issue is absolutely where the money is coming from, in this case, an autocrat eager to use golf to sportswash his abuses. But for those in charge of the DP World Tour, or the PGA Tour for that matter, the issue has only ever been where the money is going — to a rival league. For them, LIV is a commercial threat, not a moral dilemma.

That’s the context Westwood omits when he says there’s no difference between playing sporadically on other tours versus signing a long-term commitment to a circuit intent on supplanting the very tours he claims loyalty to. The LIV threat underpins the strategic alliance between the DP World and PGA tours, an arrangement Westwood dislikes.

That last bit is pretty key, here but also to those clamoring for a settlement.  The LIV model from Day One calls for the destruction of the PGA Tour as it exists, yet they keep saying it should be accretive.  They say that because they have only the most transactional relationship with the truth, but why would we be surprised at that from Phil, Sergio or Patrick?

But Eamon finishes strong:

Among some LIV players, the stench of desperation is rising as rapidly as Greg Norman’s hollow promises are falling apart. Those who believed the flaxen-haired finger puppet have cash, sure, but no access to the PGA Tour, no right to cherry-pick from the DP World Tour, no ranking points, and no respect as game-growing visionaries. Decisions by the British arbitration panel and a federal court in Northern California have for now marooned LIV players on an island, a reality that must be apparent to even the most obtuse of their number (it may take a while longer with Pat Perez).

This explains the rising pitch of whining about access, about ranking points, about all manner of supposed conspiracies against them. It’s the defining trait of LIV and its bottom-feeders: the legitimacy of any institution is entirely dependent on whether it favors them, be it rankings, regulations or elections.

The crybaby routine is destined to grow louder in hopes that some spineless industry executive will act as a pacifier and see to it that LIV demands are met. It could work. Golf’s upper echelon doesn’t lack men who would cheerfully peel off Saudi riyals for their beleaguered organizations under the guise of making peace among warring factions. But for all the noise, the arguments mounted by LIV players are little more than whimpering by those who made a clear-eyed choice, the consequences of which they are increasingly unprepared to live with.

I just can't stop laughing at their surprise and outrage that the golf world hasn't rolled over and played dead for them.  And when that outrage is coming from Talor Gooch, a man who has done exactly nothing in this game, it becomes a full-body laugh...

Can you imagine holding a U.S. Open without Talor Gooch?  Yeah, I was pretty sure you could....  

Gotta run and likely won't see you until Thursday.  

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