Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Tuesday Trifles - Longest Day Edition

Caught just a few minutes of those playoffs for slots at LACC last night, a unique day of golf that partially restores our faith in mankind.  Not in elite professional golfers, as it's hard to ignore the events of the last 18 months, but close enough to avoid despondency for a day or so.

Darwin Rules - It's a good contrast with that Rory fever dream....  He's worried that the guys already in can't be bothered showing up to compete for a $2.6 million winner's purse, but the Kevin Streelmans and Stewart Cinks of the world are kicking and clawing for a tee time.  That doesn't mean that Rory is wrong.  Oh no. it's far worse than that.  He's hanging with Cantlay and Schauffele, et. al., and the most depressing aspect is that he's likely offering an accurate assessment of their state of mind.  It's enough to make a fellow check the TV listings for cornhole tournaments....

Summary data from Golfweek:

  • Nick Hardy had the round of the day with a 61 on his second 18 at Springfield Country Club in Springfield, Ohio. Preston Summerhays and Samuel Stevens each shot a 62 at their qualifiers.
  • Five of the 10 locations needed a playoff to settle things.
  • Thirteen amateurs made it through. Five of those ams won or tied for the top spot in their respective qualifiers.
Only five?  Damn, I had the over....

Some college studs made it through as well, though only a couple familiar to this observer:

 Insane?  Only if they win the damn thing....

The most watched of the sectionals is always Columbus, OH, which is specifically located to be convenient for those lucky souls with weekend tee times at Jack's place (which might be in Detroit nest year).  Here's how that sectional played out:

Columbus, Ohio • 103 players for 11 spots

Olin Browne Jr., whose father qualified for the U.S. Open in 2005 with a sterling 59 and won the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, reached his first U.S. Open at the age of 34 by leading a group of 11 qualifiers.

Browne, of Hobe Sound, Fla., followed up a morning 66 at The Lakes with a 67 to earn medalist honors at 11-under 133, one stroke better than PGA Tour player Davis Thompson, who scorched Brookside in the afternoon with a nine-under 63. Six players tied at nine-under 134, including 50-year-old Stewart Cink, and Eric Cole, who qualified for his second U.S. Open.

Can you see any of those terrific peni we've been lambasting out there at age 50 grinding for a tee time?   

Any interest in a feel-good story?

The feel-good qualifier is 28-year-old Corey Pereira of Cameron Park, Calif., who has taken nearly all of the year off from golf to care for his girlfriend, Leah Bertuccelli, who is battling cancer. Pereira, who fell short of retaining Korn Ferry Tour status last year, has competed in just two events this year, the local and final qualifiers for the U.S. Open. He sank a 15-foot par putt on the 18th hole at Brookside to avoid falling into a playoff.

“Golf has taken a step down for me,” Pereira, a University of Washington product, said. “I want to be with her. She’s on her 10th round of chemo, and it’s my biggest priority is being there to support her. I was thinking on the back nine today that I’m so lucky to just be out here competing and knowing if I hit a bad shot, it might cost me a bogey, which is nothing compared to what Leah deals with. It’s given me a huge amount of perspective.”

Whatya know, he just became my favorite Pereira in golf....  

Not to be confused with the artists formerly known as Thunderbear, this kid will hit your radar soon:

Canoe Brook Country Club

Summit, N.J. • 67 players for 4 spots

In a field that included multiple former and current PGA Tour pros, it was amateur Michael Thorbjornsen who earned medalist honors with rounds of 66 and 68.

Thorbjornsen, the No. 3-ranked male amateur in the world, made 13 birdies against five bogeys. At just 21 years old, this will already be Thorbjornsen’s third career U.S. Open appearance, the Stanford standout having qualified in 2019 as an 18-year-old and again last year. He made the cut in his U.S. Open debut at Pebble Beach but missed last year at The Country Club at Brookline.

Lastly, does Viktor Hovland seem like a good guy?  He's always smiling and I'd be up for a beer if he's so inclined, but I'm guessing you'll like him even more when you see this: 

What's the big deal?  He was already in the Columbus area, so no airfare required....

OK, I lied, that wasn't actually my last bit.  So, supposing you were on your final hole of the day and you needed to get up-and-in to play in the Open.  These guys are so good it might not be a big deal.  Unless, of course, your ball ended up here:

Jordan Spieth, call your office.  Michael Brannan is a Wake Forest guy, but see what you think of his short-game skills:

A much-needed palate cleanser for or game, and LACC is gonna be great.

Rose In Full - First the business end.  Despite being granted immediate LPGA membership, the girls still has girlie things to wrap up:

It’s easy to forget that Rose Zhang is 20 years old. The California native has rapidly ascended the women’s golf ladder and is now one-for-one when it comes to winning LPGA events as a
professional. What she’s doing is unparalleled in the sport. She knows this. The world knows this. And yet, none of this matters when it comes to finals.

After besting Jennifer Kupcho on the second hole of a tense playoff to win the Mizuho Americas Open, Zhang won’t have much time to soak in the glory and celebrate the remarkable win. She has places to be, tests to complete and a dorm move-out to accomplish. That sounds almost as difficult as taking on Liberty National.

Appearing on ESPN's "SportsCenter" Monday, Zhang echoed what she said late Sunday after her historic victory: “I did turn down next week’s ShopRite LPGA just because I have to get back on campus, I have a couple of tests to finish. Finals … I have three finals to take. Got a paper. Have a problem set for CS [computer science] class. It’s just going to be a really hectic week not on the golf course.

Including some more hang time with her teammates.  She'll play plenty of golf this summer, but even at age 20 she can afford to focus on the majors.

Beth Ann Nichols as as consistent an advocate for women's golf as any, though is this wise?

She seems oblivious to the cautionary tale involved, but can't get past the lede without it rearing its ugly head:

The LPGA has been desperate for a moment like this. There hasn’t been a player on the LPGA with the potential to move the needle in the United States like Rose Zhang since a prodigious Michelle Wie West.

And how did that work out?  

This is true, but only to a certain extent:

Several players have risen to the level of “household name” on the LPGA in the past two decades, but those were households outside of the U.S. Ariya Jutanugarn, for example, became the first Thai player to win a major and ascend to No. 1 in the world. Her face was on a Gatorade bottle in Thailand, but her name never resonated here in the U.S.

Ai Miyazato rivaled Tiger Woods in popularity in her native Japan. No one on the LPGA did more media than Miyazato during her time on tour, but that daily attention came almost exclusively from Japan. Yani Tseng had the same security detail as Lady Gaga when the LPGA came to Taiwan for the first time.

Beth Ann, it seems to me that you're working the crowd, because those ladies flamed out pretty quickly....  I think she's on less solid ground here:

Lydia Ko’s youngest-to-ever resume was significant, but it didn’t revolutionize the tour.

Not even Inbee Park’s attempt at winning a fourth consecutive major in a calendar season could capture the attention of golf media in the U.S., let alone the greater sports landscape.

Annika Sorenstam, the greatest player in the modern era, won 46 times in 124 LPGA starts from 2001 to 2006. But not even her sustained dominance could break out of Tiger’s shadow.

I'm sorry, the knock against Annika is that she failed to become as popular or well-known as....Tiger?  really, are you aware that everyone you've mentioned played women's golf?  It's possible, and I'm just spit-ballin' here, that you're setting the bar a tad high.

 And she just doubles down on this nonsense:

There isn’t a player on the LPGA right now who can be considered a household name in the United States. To become a household name, one must be well-known among those who aren’t golf fans. For example, people who don’t watch a single hockey game any given year know of Wayne Gretzky. Plenty of people don’t read Stephen King but know of his work. Sports fans might not watch tennis all season but would tune in to watch Serena Williams at Wimbledon.

These are household names.

OK, so you want a twenty-year old girl to consider herself a failure if she doesn't supplant Stephen King in the American psyche?   Hard to see what could go wrong here....

Would you believe her logic hasn't hit bottom yet?

Wie West became a household name because she contended at LPGA majors as a kid, competed in PGA Tour events and tried to qualify for men’s majors. Sharing a stage with men ­– as Annika did at Colonial – skyrocketed Wie West’s global appeal. She was magnetic.

Magnetic?  OK, for a brief moment in time, and then she became a laughingstock, because she kept trying to play with the men without actually accomplishing mush among the women.  So it's hard for me to think of a worse role model for Rose....  

But, Beth Ann, who are you speaking of here?

Of course, there’s more to it than winning. Female athletes have to put in more time outside the ropes than their male counterparts to move the needle even a fraction of the way. There are American stars on the LPGA right now who don’t want to put in this time. They frequently turn down the requests of the national media and their own organization, even at majors, and sometimes shut it down after big victories rather than take advantage of the moment. This, of course, hurts not only their brand, but the overall growth of the tour.

 I think we're gonna need names....

Pete Dye had a funny bit that might apply here.  He said that anytime he faced a dilemma in his work, he would ask himself what Trent Jones would have done, and would do the exact opposite.  Notwithstanding her friendship with Wie West, she should use her predecessor's career as a cautionary tale.

The good news is that I see little chance of Rose going down that same path, for the simple reason that there's a huge difference between to two women.  Fact is, Rose doesn't seem to hit the ball very far, and if there's any red light flashing about her prospects, that would be the cause.  But no one will watch Rose and wonder how she might do against the men, and thank God for that.

Lastly, while Beth Ann is obsessing about Rose becoming a mononym among U.S. fans, Dylan Dethier files his Monday Finish column from the Front Door Pub in Galway, Ireland, including this endearing scene:

GALWAY, Ireland — It was just before 11 p.m. on Sunday night when a TV in the back room of
the Front Door Pub flashed a graphic across the screen.

NEXT UP: MIZUHO AMERICAS OPEN, ROUND 4

One member of a group of four women in a corner booth stirred, catching a glimpse of the screen over the shoulder of a navy-shirted man standing mostly in the way. She gestured at the Stanford-hatted young woman whose photo had just appeared on the Sky Sports broadcast.

“There’s that girl,” she said, voice rising above the pub’s delightful din. “Rose.”

Chill, Beth Ann.  The Kids are all right...

Down Goes Wolff -  One of my thoughts yesterday was that the aforementioned Viktor Hovland might be playing the tortoise to certain hares.  Collin Morikawa's career arc seems uncertain in the current moment, but this guy seems down for the count:

It’s been a rough go recently for Matthew Wolff.

The 24-year-old withdrew from U.S. Open final qualifying at Pine Tree Golf Club in Boynton Beach, Florida, on Monday as rumors continue to swirl about his current status on the Greg Norman-led and Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf League. At a U.S. Open qualifier last year, Wolff also left early after he walked off the course following a poor drive.

Last week No Laying Up was first to point out that mention of Wolff was removed from the social media accounts of Brooks Koepka’s Smash GC.

After a T-7, T-10, T-5 start to the season, Wolff has struggled for the last two months with finishes of T-44, T-41 and T-30 in the 48-player field events, and most-recently withdrew after two rounds of 73-78 at LIV Golf Washington D.C. In seven events he’s earned $2,821,667 so far this season.

Did that header read, as intended, in the voice of Howard Cossell?

Lots to learn in that excerpt.  First, he's a bit of a jerk, as walking off the course and withdrawing late indicates.  But who put him on Koepka's team, which seems a bad fit?  Given his entitle petulance, he'd be perfect for Sergio's team, no?

But it does raise an under-reported issue about LIV, one that's a factor in the ongoing OWGR deliberations.  The OWGR recognizes tour, not individual events, but requires a method of qualifying onto such tours, which is where it gets problematic for LIV.  With their low cap on field size, there's no way to play one's way onto that tour, but we've also wondered if it was possible to pay one's way off the tour

But here's te awkward part for LIV (as well as for the OWGR folks).  Wolff apparently can play his way off, though it's unclear whether he's played any worse than, say, Phil or Westy..... But Phil and Lee have their tee time guaranteed in his contract, so they're there for the duration.  Kind of messy at best, and not at all the vision for golf being articulated.

But can you feel the game growing?  Because $2.8 million large for sucking at golf is a pretty sweet deal.

That's it for today.  I'll see you folks next on Thursday.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)