Monday, September 11, 2023

Weekend Wrap - Content-Free Edition

I'm merely the aggregator, so hold your fire.  Unless, yanno, you're a Giants fan, and then you'll need to release a bit of that frustration.

They're Baaack! - How was your off-season?  Yeah, I know, it just flew buy as if it wasn't more than a couple of weeks.... But, good news, no one expects you to be interested in this first bit:

5 things to know about the FedEx Cup Fall, consisting of 7 official PGA Tour events

I'd be far more interested in the Fall of the FedEx Cup, but I'm sure this will be quite grand.  Though you might want to take notes:

The fall portion of the PGA Tour schedule has been reimagined as the FedEx Cup Fall, consisting of seven official Tour events. The top 70 have secured their cards for the 2024 season, which returns to
a calendar-year schedule (January-August).

The top 125 after the RSM Classic, the last of the seven fall events, will retain their playing privileges for 2024 while those who fail to do so (and aren’t otherwise exempt) will be forced to return to PGA Tour Qualifying School in December, where five Tour cards will be up for grabs.

“We are launching the most meaningful updates to the PGA Tour season since 2007, the first year of the FedEx Cup,” said PGA Tour president Tyler Dennis.

If these guys were better at the imagining thing, they could have spared us the reimagining bits...

They used to call it the Fall Finish, and it made sense as a place for guys to improve their status, just not as a place for folks to, yanno, watch.  It's mostly the events you've previously ignored, with a tweak or two:

Napa, California, is the kick off for the fall portion of the schedule, where the only notable course change is the World Wide Technology Championship, which shifted from Mayakoba Golf Club near Cancun – which jumped to hosting a LIV Golf event – to Los Cabos in Mexico at the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal at Diamante. Also, the fall portion of the schedule lost its Houston event, which moved into the regular season in 2024, and the CJ Cup, which had been played in South Korea, Las Vegas and most recently South Carolina. CJ took over title sponsorship of the Dallas Tour stop. The WGC-HSBC Champions in China, which has not been contested since 2019, will not be played in 2023.

That Houston event still brings a chuckle to your humble blogger, as they voluntarily eschewed a spot on the main schedule for the wasteland of the4 Fall, ostensibly because of Houston weather.  Then they got a load of those two playoff events in Memphis and Atlanta and said, "If Lucas Glover is to have swamp ass, why not in Houston?"  In fact, Robert Garrigus might be in line for a sponsor's exemption....

This might be the extent of anyone's interest:

Will any of the big names play?

Much of the top Tour talent has been dreaming of a true off-season and the end of the wrap-
around schedule means players in the top 70 don’t have to worry about falling behind in the standings if they don’t play in the fall and the top 50 have already locked up status in the signature events. They have limited motivation to play in the seven fall events but they are still eligible to do so and some of them may sign up for tournaments that they are fond of, or they might just get bored being home (too much time off?) and want to play – pro golfers are gonna golf!

The Fortinet Championship field has two-time defending champion and Fortinet ambassador Max Homa as well as his Ryder Cup teammate Justin Thomas signed up to knock off some rust after missing out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

The Zozo Championship in Japan, which is a limited field, no-cut event, should draw some big names. Golfweek has learned that Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele, who both have ties to Japan, are expected to play and it would be a shocker if native son Hideki Matsuyama skipped playing there.

You could throw up a limited field no-cut event in Antarctica opposite the U.S. Open and draw a bunch of these guys, just to help grow the game I'm sure.

The Tour Confidential writers likely expected to have an offseason as well, but had to come up with something to head their homepage:

The fall season of the PGA Tour schedule begins Thursday with the Fortinet Championship at Silverado Resort in Napa, Calif. What storyline are you most interested in monitoring: Can Max Homa three-peat? Or will Justin Thomas turn in a good result following his Ryder Cup captain’s pick?

Zak: It’s all about Justin Thomas. If he finishes in the top 10, no one is worried about his form ahead of the Ryder Cup. If he misses the cut, the scrutiny only increases. Keegan Bradley only gets more annoyed. Jordan Spieth’s form gets brought into discussion, as a result of being Thomas’ preferred playing partner. It all gets…hairier. And frankly, more fun to talk about. But I’m rooting for JT to make it a non-story.

Sens: Sean has summed it up well. Another way to put it is that this is what we call a ‘slow news week’ story.

Colgan: Correct. A top-10 and nobody says a peep until we get to Rome. An MC, on the other hand, and the discourse may threaten to reach a fever pitch.

Got to admit, the JT is just a wee bit interesting.....and perhaps risky.  A 75-76-MC will make Zach's collar just that much tighter, though maybe the whole team could use some competitive reps?

Ryder Cup Musings - Very little to mull over, but that TC panel went after those Euro picks and "snubs":

The 24 Ryder Cup players representing the U.S. and Europe became official last week when captain Luke Donald finalized his European team with six captain’s picks made on Monday: Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry and rookies Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg and Nicolai Hojgaard. What are your thoughts on the picks? And what do the three newcomers bring to the team?

Sean Zak: The picks make sense. Aberg is the future world-beater. Hojgaard doesn’t need to be selected, but it’s also a future-oriented pick. And a player who is in form. Unlike the American team, the captain’s picks that Donald went with were all players going out and getting it, so to say. I think they’ll all happily follow Rory and Rahm’s lead, playing their three matches and faring quite well on European turf.

Josh Sens: Sound picks on paper, for sure, with a good mix of young talent and experience. The Americans are favorites heading into Rome. I’m not sure they should be.

James Colgan: All the picks make immediate sense with the exception of Aberg and Hojgaard. I like Aberg, but he’s a particularly notable gamble given his age (23) and relative inexperience (no career major starts). Those two won’t be relied on to do everything for the Euros, but it’s the Ryder Cup — would it surprise you if the whole thing came down to those two?

OK, except that Shane Lowry hasn't "gone out and gotten it" since July 2017....

Aberg made Luke pick him by winning (and isn't THAT young), but the Hojgaard pick still surprises me.  But it's never about just the one guy, it's always a choice:

One player who wasn’t selected was 30-year-old Polish pro Adrian Meronk, who said his emotions have turned “from shock to sadness to anger,” although now he says he’s using it as motivation. Meronk has won three times since July 2022, and his latest victory (back in May) was at Marco Simone — the same course that will host the Ryder. He also barely missed auto qualifying for the team. Was he the biggest Ryder Cup snub of all, including the U.S. side?

Zak: Absolutely the biggest snub. He must have thought “what more can I do?” after winning a tournament on the host course this year. But Keegan Bradely felt similarly after he won the Travelers. It’s never a done deal if you don’t auto-qualify. That’s the big lesson here.
 

Sens: ‘Adrian Meronk’ is pretty much Polish for Keegan Bradley — each is the biggest snub of his respective side. But let’s not make too much of this and suggest that Donald and Johnson somehow made the wrong decisions. The picks they made were every bit as defensible as choosing Meronk and Bradley would have been.

Colgan: Agreed, Sean. If the Euros lose on the back of the two younger picks, you can bet the fans will be roiling about Meronk’s exclusion.

What more could he do?  Well, let me just spit-ball here, but he could, yanno, automatically qualify or, failing that, rank higher than 11th on the World Points List.   

I don't actually like using the word "snub" here, because captain's picks can and should be made upon their own subjective criteria.  If you've left yourself in that position, then you simply haven't earned a spot on the team.  If you're picked, that's a gift, but the absence of a pick doesn't come with a license to whine.

If you need a laugh, this reflection on that 2018 face-palm will provide it:

The U.S. Ryder Cup team won’t make the same mistake twice. At the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris, Europe held a distinct advantage as Le Golf National had been the site of the DP World Tour’s French Open for years. Then U.S. Captain Jim Furyk led a trip there ahead of the British Open in July for potential team members, but only Justin Thomas competed in the French Open that year and he ended up with the best record among the Americans, who were routed 17½ to 10½.

“They had us over a barrel in Paris because we didn’t have enough practice rounds at (Le Golf National),” Davis Love III, former two-time captain and a vice captain in 2018 and again this year, told Golfweek in 2021. “The other team knew the golf course way better.”

Isn't this why we have a Task Force?  Yet, coming off that route at Hazeltine in 2016, they thought they could throw any twelve guys out there and make it work.  How'd that work out? 

But this might be even funnier:

That could be the case again but to a lesser extent: the last three Italian Opens have been held at Marco Simone. Love noted that Tiger Woods helped shape Team USA’s approach to preparing for a course.

“He said, ‘Let’s talk to the head pro, the best caddie, the top players among the members,’” Love said. “We learned a lot of why he beat us all those years.”

Sure, that's the ticket.  You didn't need to be Nostradamus to know how the Euros were going to set up Paris, yet our vaunted Task Force not only put Phil on the team, but sent him out in foursomes.....Like they say, it's not just a river in Egypt.

Of course, not everyone could be bothered:

Nine of the 12 U.S. Ryder Cup team members made a quick visit to Rome and Marco Simone Golf Club over the weekend to familiarize themselves with the venue that will stage the event Sept. 29-Oct. 1

Jordan Spieth, whose wife Annie is pregnant, did not make the trip. Nor did Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, both of whom had previous commitments according to captain Zach Johnson.

Previous commitments, eh?  Given that our terrific penis has been trying to find a merchant bank to outbid the Saudis, we are once again reminded of their priorities.

And what did they find?

"The common sentiments that I heard on the golf course was they really liked it, which is awesome, and I knew they would because Marco Simone is very, very good," Johnson said in the AP story. "The rough was very thick. That was the other nugget that we talked about a lot.

"The putting greens were very good, very true, very nice. The fairways were awesome. It’s a great test and it’s a really, really good match play golf course. So the guys are excited about the competition."

I'm sure you were dying to know their artistic reaction.... Of course, he offers and opinion on the quality of the fairways, whereas we're rather more curious about their width.... But I guess we're to be kept in suspense on that one, although this guy might have given the game away:

The discussion on the Justin Thomas pick is valid, of course, but the bigger issue is how JT and others will be used.  His specific pairing with that father-to-be doesn't seem to me to fit foursomes, though Zach should have an adequacy off ball-strikers on this team.

If it doesn't work out, we'll always have Paris.

Ryder Cup Prep - U.S. fans will want to see JT play reasonably well this week, but how will Euro fans react to this prep work?

Rory McIlroy finds water 4 times at Irish Open while Vincent Norrman storms to victory

Only four?

Playing in the final group, McIlroy was tied for the lead at 13 under when he arrived at the par-4 seventh. There, he put the first of four balls in the water Sunday—this one an approach from 158 yards from the middle of the fairway to make double bogey. The World No. 2 found water again, this time a 136-yard approach that he pulled just left of the green at No. 11.

Still, when he sat in the fairway at No. 16, McIlroy was three shots behind clubhouse leader Norrman with three to play and par 5s among that trio. It was not out of the question for a four-time major winner to make up the deficit. With 267 yards to the narrow green, McIlroy flared a fairway metal into the creek. Then, after dropping in the fairway closer to the green, McIlroy fanned his fourth shot into the water. He airmailed the green for his sixth shot and, from the bunker, made 8. A birdie at the par-5 18th gave McIlroy a nine-under score and a tie for 16th.

That's the River Liffey, for those keeping a scorecard at home.

Of course Rory's travails mean absolutely nothing, but it's easy to make the case that Rory might be the pivotal player for Europe.  Everyone is wont to cite their three top dogs, ignoring that Rory hasn't exactly brought his best stuff to recent Ryder Cups.  

Parting Shot - There was a funny bit from that U.S. scouting trip, one that Spieth must regret missing:

The selection of Justin Thomas to the U.S. Ryder Cup team was made with team vibes in mind. Unfortunately for JT, the vibes couldn't have been lower during the American squad's scouting trip to Rome on Saturday night.

As a team, the Americans kicked back and watched college football's first marquee matchup of 2023 -- Texas at Alabama in primetime. Thomas' Crimson Tide, playing at home in Tuscaloose, closed as a 7.5-point favorite, but quickly found themselves in a dog fight with Scottie Scheffler's Longhorns. While Bama certainly kept it close and at times looked like they might pull away, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns offense kept answering before finally slamming the door, stunning Nick Saban's Tide and winning 34-24.

The game had a classic changing-of-the-guard feel, Saban's former pupil, Steve Sarkisian, possibly having Texas all the way "back," for real this time. Max Homa, one of the automatic qualifiers on the U.S. Team, captured that exact feeling and moment for JT and Scheffler:

Boys will be boys....

Have a great week.  It'll be a light blogging schedule, so plan your week accordingly.   

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