Oakmont On Our Mind

It's time to turn our attention to the looming U.S. Open at storied Oakmont.  The Open was last here in 2007 when Angel Cabrera won,

The USGA has this short intro to Oakmont on their website:

A Course That Stands the Test of Time

Oakmont Country Club was founded in 1903 by industrialist Henry Clay Fownes. The

layout he created and tweaked through the years with his son, William, has set the standard for championship competition ever since. The nation’s first golf course to be recognized as a National Historic Landmark, Oakmont has previously hosted 15 USGA championships, including eight U.S. Opens (1927, 1935, 1953, 1962, 1973, 1983, 1994 and 2007).

Tommy Armour, the Silver Scot, won that first Oakmont Open in a playoff over Lighthors Harry Cooper to earn all of $500.  Except for the unknown local boy Sam Parks, Jr. Oakmont has produced champions with names like Hogan, Nicklaus, Miller, nelson and Els.

The missing name on the list is of course local boy Arnold Palmer, who lost to Jack in that 1962 playoff.

For a deeper dive into Oakmont, the place to go is Golf Club Atlas, Ran Morrissett's playground for all things architectural.  Here he introduces Henry Fownes:

An avid golfer who qualified for five U.S. Amateur Championships, Henry.C. Fownes decided at the turn of the twentieth century to start a golf club. In 1903, Henry Fownes found property well suited and oversaw the purchase of nearly 200 acres of pastureland above the town of Oakmont. The property was open in nature and remained so through the 1950s. Grantland Rice wrote in 1939 that he enjoyed the view of seventeen of Oakmont‘s eighteen flags from the clubhouse porch (only the 16th obscured by a hill was out of view). 

Henry Fownes and his team of 150 men and 25 donkeys constructed a course over the open farmland that resembled the unobstructed sweep of a links course. At the time of construction, the Haskell ball was making its presence felt and Henry Fownesrecognized that the gutta-percha days were quickly ending. Consequently, he built the course to handle this new technology. When it opened in 1904, Oakmont had a par of 80 and was over 6,400 yards in length, a very long course for its day. Much to the credit of Henry C. Fownes‘ feel for the land, today’s holes occupy the same general playing corridors as his original routing. Well under one hundred bunkers were constructed and Henry Fownes relied more on the natural landforms to present the challenge. The original scorecard shows the twelfth hole at 560 yards with a bogey of six (!) while the 225 yard sixteenth had a bogey of four.

One can't overstate how audacious that was in 1908, as the game was merely getting off the ground in the U.S. at that point.  But the legacy might have been lost had not his son gone into the family business:

William C. Fownes is one of the great figures in amateur golf and one of the giants in the development of golf in the United States. An accomplished player (he won the U.S. Amateur in 1910), he also the playing captain of the Walker Cup team in 1922 and served as president of the United States Golf Association in 1926/1927. In addition, he served on the advisory panel at Pine Valley and helped guide that club after George Crump’s death. However, his most important and lasting contribution to the game was the continual refinements he made to his father’s design at Oakmont. 

William C. Fownes spent over four decades getting to know the course and observing how it played. If a particular bunker was rendered ineffective through time (such as the advent of steel shafts in the 1930s), he did not hesitate in working with the legendary Green Keeper Emil Loeffler to build another one further up the fairway to ensure that the integrity of a hole was preserved. William C. Fownes and Loeffler made a formidable team, both in the construction of bunkers and in imbuing the greens with some of the most imaginative interior contours for putting surfaces on this side of the Atlantic. Loeffler accentuated the design’s merit by setting new standards for fast and firm playing conditions in the United States.

Ran runs on at length at that link, and also provides this wonderful photo of a golfer playing out of the famous church pew bunkers on the third hole:

Good luck to you, sir, though that seems an awfully aggressive line you're taking....

The USGA has rolled out it's hole flyovers again, and we'll partake over the next ten days.

Hole No. 1 -  Is there a more difficult opener in major tournament golf?  The first at Augusta is difficult, but this one is just a beast (as is pretty much then entire course).

You might recall that Aaron Baddeley, the 54-hole leader in 2007, made double to start his final round, and pretty much hasn't been heard from since.

Hole No. 2 - This is as close to a let-up hole as you'll find on this course, but there's no such thing as a birdie hole if you miss the fairway or put the ball above the hole on the green:

Note the contours on the green, very typical for Oakmont.  Each green is really three or four far smaller greens, and often a balloff the green but below the hole might well be better positioned than one that counts as a G.I.R.

Hole No. 3 - My plan was to do three holes per post, but you'll quickly see why that's not possible as we happen upon arguably the most famous bunker in golf.    Talk about visual intimidation from the tee, it looks awfully narrow to this observer:

According to Ran Morrissett, the church pews bunker is 135 yards in length.  Thought you'd want to know...

Hole No. 4 - I didn't want to leave you stuck in the middle of the church pews, though you'd hardly be the first to require a tactical extraction.  The fourth, the first Par-5, runs back the other way and offers players that visited the CP's on No. 3 the opportunity for a daily double:

Surprisingly, there are a mere thirteen(!) bunkers on this hole, though that's ninety-one in dog bunkers....

We'll cover the rest of the holes as the week trudges on, but this guy has the horse right here:

If you were looking for a reason to back Rory at Oakmont, he certainly gave punters all they needed to see on some of the tour's toughest greens.

I think most fascinating about the putter grip change from left hand low to conventional is just how much less he "pops" a putt instead of a stroke. Popping is not a good thing on greens running 14. IMHO.

And he quotes Bob Harig of ESPN with this:

But perhaps more important was McIlroy's putting. Typically a sore spot and the aspect of his game that holds him back, McIlroy was second for the week in strokes gained putting and never took more than 29 putts in a round. (He had more than 30 in each round two weeks ago in Ireland.) 

"Off the tee I was really good this week, and I feel like my putting improved a lot,'' he said. "If you look at the stats from my putting, I feel like it's been really good. So all things considered, it's been a decent week. Time to get ready for Oakmont.''

That's a rather dramatic turnaround in one week, though the greens didn't have that fire.  The course would have to be especially soft for me to like Rory's chances, as his iron and wedge play has been simply dreadful recently, and I'm a little skeptical of the value of such a small sample size.  

But he can dominate a course with his driver like few others can, and that's a useful skill at Oakmont.  So, I like Rory less than Jason but more than Jordan...

Lastly, don't miss this Pittsburgh Post Gazette item on the caddies at the 1951 PGA held at Oakmont.  It's nothing profound, but a nice look back at a different era in our game through the eyes of the local caddies:

But, in 1951, with the PGA Championship in his backyard, Cosnotti said he was matched 

up to caddie for a little-known pro from Sacramento, Calif., named Frank Minch. Cosnotti also caught a few glimpses of all-time greats such as Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen. He frequently revisits those memories with fellow former caddies and did so two weeks ago in Oakmont as the club prepares to welcome its ninth U.S. Open and 12th major championship. Such caddies often remark how much things have changed for Oakmont and their former industry. 

On the course, 14-year-olds don’t receive experiences like that anymore. Now, being a caddie at a major is a career. And those 14-year-olds . . . they aren’t the kids of local factory workers who play with a pickup club set of maybe three MacGregors, two Wilsons and whatever else they can find as Cosnotti did. Instead, they are experts who make 5 percent to 10 percent of a golfer’s winnings — the highest-earning caddie in 2014, Micah Fugitt, who caddies for Billy Horschel, made a total of $1.57 million after Horschel won the FedEx Cup. Snead won $3,500 for winning at Oakmont in 1951.

Pretty comical that a writer with Google would cite Billy Horschel's looper from two years ago, when I'm guessing that Michael Greller blew that number away off of Spieth's $22 million in winnings last year.  Just sayin'...

But Cosnotti remembers Minch treating him well. Minch didn’t make it past the second day, but Cosnotti was paid $30 — almost $300 in the money of today — and Minch gave him a dozen Titleist golf balls. He would ask the 14-year-old Cosnotti about how far the green was and what club he should use, as if he were a caddie with decades of experience.

“It was a tough thing to tell him about a club because I had never seen this man hit a golf ball before,” he said.

A different time for sure.... 

Weekend Wrap

My heart's not really in it, as it wasn't much of a weekend for the professionals....

The Best Laid Plans... - Jack's Memorial is one of the better stops on the PGA Tour, combining a first-rate venue (Desmond Muirhead is the unsung hero there, though that's not important now), a great date on the calendar and a celebration of Jack's thoroughly American upbringing.

The course played soft all week, leading to scores that made one think that The Bob Hope Desert Classic had been relocated, yet there were no shortage of show ponies on the leaderboard.  But Sunday's round was moved up to beat the weather, and flags started to move..... Suddenly, a U.S. Open c. 1985 broke out... and playing the role of Andy North was.... Oh, never mind, here's the game story:

DUBLIN, Ohio – The world of William McGirt changed dramatically on Sunday, as the

Ummmm.....you two wanna get a room?

journeyman won the Memorial Tournament, his first PGA Tour title, in a two-hole playoff over Jon Curran at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. 

For McGirt, 36, it’s hard to imagine what this maiden victory means. There’s the money, $1.53 million, the invitation to the Masters and PGA Championship, and, due to his move into the top 50 in the world rankings, a spot in the U.S. Open. Oh and the three-year exemption on the PGA Tour. 

It took 163 events since getting his card at Q-School in 2010 for the mini-tour aficionado to win on the PGA Tour, but he had three runner-up finishes and 15 top-10s on his Tour resume prior to this week.

With a "Dirt" McGirt-Jon Curran playoff on tape delay, those ratings are gonna be, what's the word, YUUUUGE!.  But it's golf, and this happens all the time...

I should note that there was joy in your humble correspondent's home, as Employee No. 2 took instinctively to McGirt, declaring him her "New Lumpy".   There' little doubt that my bride's need for a Lumpy points to some major failing of mine, but the reader can sort through that on his own....

Dirt himself put his career in perspective with this:

“It was a hard day,” McGirt said, appearing excited and exhausted at the same time. “I’ve always been one to kind of keep my head down and do what I do. My wife [Sarah] can tell you that. I would practice hours and hours and hours. I would do whatever it took to get here. 

“It's just been years and years of practice and getting your nose bloodied and learning from it.”

Yeah, that seems about right....  They make a nice living for sure, but it's not an easy life out there...

McGirt saved himself a trip to U.S. Open sectional qualifying today....

Speaking of Which... - The Longest Day in Golf, as Golf Channel used to call it.... until the USGA gave Fox their television contract and no real need to promote an event that's carried by one's competitor.

Shack's got the skinny here, including the venues and notable players attempting to qualify.  He also has this helpful tip about the extensive Fox coverage:

Fox Sports 1 provides a 1-hour wrap-up from 12:30 am to 1:30 am ET Tuesday morning.

Glad they could fit it into their schedule.... I can't tell whether Cam Morfit's tongue is in his cheek with his item on twelve golfers we're shocked (shocked, I tell you) have to qualify.  Here's an example, but spoiler alert, if you watch a lot of golf none will surprise you:

4. Woody Austin, 52, has won three Champions tour titles this year, but hitting a lot of quality shots on Golf Channel counts for nothing when it comes to U.S. Open qualifying; senior wins don’t come with world ranking points.

Cam, I know it's a slow week but Aquaman?  Please tell me you're pulling our legs....

Best story?  Long-drive champ Jamie Sadlowski attempting to qualify with Gray McCord on the bag (they both play out of Whisper Rock).  I'm a bit surprised that McCord can carry for 36 holes at his advanced age, but...

Way Cool - I'm not so sure this is a good idea, but in another sense it's great beyond belief:

It appears that Bubba Watson plans to add a major championship to his June schedule. 

Watson has been talking recently about playing in the National Hickory Championship, according to Jens Beck, his representative at Pro-Sport Management. The NHC will be played June 9-11 at Oakhurst Links in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. The Greenbrier owns Oakhurst Links and sponsors Watson, who has a home at The Greenbrier Sporting Club. 

Beck said via email that Watson’s participation in the NHC is “definitely the plan,” adding that “I think it would be a blast.” But he left some wiggle room, saying it is not “100 percent yet.”

Here's Shack's take, with which I fully agree:

The idea Bubba Watson is taking an interest in them and willing to put himself on the line just prior to the U.S. Open is pretty outstanding in hopefully showing that there are other fun ways to play the game.

Bubba carries such a bad rep for being a curmudgeon, but he's often more willing to talk about course design and, while he has a commercial relationship with The Greenbrier, that he's interested in this  man.

Your Daily Zika Update - Which would you like first, the good news or the bad news?  Sorry, couldn't hear that response, so we'll start with the good...  As we discussed last week, Rory is Ready....

However, at the Memorial this week, the four-time major winner clarified that he's

intending to travel to Brazil. 

"I'm ready to play," McIlroy told reporters. "I feel like the advice I've sought out over the past ten days has put my mind at ease and makes me more comfortable going down there knowing that, even if I do contract Zika, it's not the end of the world."

That'll relieve certain folks, but the reader can sense what's coming:

Jason Day opened the door Friday to the possibility that he might skip the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, later this summer over concerns about the Zika virus. 

“It’s difficult to say right now,” the world No. 1 said from Muirfield Village, site of this week’s Memorial. “We’re just really trying to monitor what’s going on and make an educated decision because obviously we’re not done having kids.” Day and wife Ellie already have two kids, Dash, 3, and Lucy, 7 months.

Well, that probably wasn't as obvious as Jason thought, but they are a pretty darn cute family, especially when they run onto greens.

The question it begs is whether you trust the information being provided by the IOC and golf folks...  I mean they're all fully invested in the games, so they wouldn't understate the risks, would they?

Doug Ferguson covers the Zika angle, and had this ominous note from Charl Schwartzel:

The South African says he expects more golfers to think hard about going, and he would not be surprised if more pulled out. 

"You can hear the guys mumbling about it. It's definitely stuck in their heads," Schwartzel said. "I would go so far as to say anyone going is not comfortable going. I think it's a worry for them. It's a choice. If it was anywhere else, I'd play. I'd love to play in the Olympics."

Alex Myers helpfully provides these answers to FAQs about Olympic golf, and it's a relatively even-handed accounting:

OK, so for those who go to Rio, what’s the format?

You know how every other week of the year you watch 72-hole stroke-play events? Well, this is going to be the same. Not exactly the most creative thinking, but on the bright side, it’s easy to remember. 

You mean there’s no team competition?

Nope. It’s just everyone for themselves. Except they’re representing their countries and playing for medals instead of money. 

So. . . then why are there team captains?

Good question. Gary Player is probably going to have a lot of free time on his hands.

Well, Gary is there to tell us how exciting it all is...

Driving Distance, An Update - We delat with the USGA's report on driving distance in our Friday post, but Shack is back with an update.  He links to this post at bunkered.co.uk, which had some juicy bits:

In short, they’ve written a report about what happened after the horse bolted through the stable doors. It’s like going to the cinema and only getting to see the end credits. It’s completely pointless and, dare I say it, deliberately misleading.

I just wish he'd tell us what he really thinks... And this:

In 2000, there was only one recorded drive of more than 300 yards on the Tour. Since then, there have been over 400 recorded drives of more than 400- yes, 400 – yards. But driving distances aren’t increasing. 

Between 1995 and 2015, the distance of the longest recorded drive on the PGA Tour increased by almost 100 yards, from 315 to 409 yards. But driving distances aren’t increasing.

You gonna believe me or your lyin' eyes?  Must be all that time they're spending in the gym...

Geoff also revisits Kris McEwan's item and specifically this excerpt:

Now let’s put that twenty additional yards to work in an actual scenario. A pro hits driver in 2002 on a par-4, 400 yard hole, that means his second shot is going to be 140 yards. In 2012, the same drive leaves him with 120 yards to the hole. Any hack on a municipal course on a Sunday morning will tell you how significant those twenty yards are. 

Fast forward from 2002 to 2012 and pros are now hitting driver another ten yards farther. Meaning over a twenty year span, golfers on the PGA TOUR gained an extra 30 yards off the tee. 

Oh, and before you tell me, “players today are in better shape and more athletic,” allow me to point out that the Champions Tour guys—you know, the old dudes—are hitting the ball 275 yards today versus 250 yards twenty years ago.

It's a painfully difficult issue to address, but the USGA seemingly wants to argue over the meaning of "is"....

Say It Ain't So, Poults -  I believe that Darren Clarke's life just got a little easier:

On Friday, the AP's Doug Ferguson reported Ian Poulter will be out for four months with

a foot injury. The Ryder Cup is scheduled to begin Sept. 30 and simple math tells us that is (slightly) less than four months away. 

"I am obviously disappointed to be in this situation, especially during a Ryder Cup year," Poulter, 40, said. "Right now, rest and rehab take priority in me returning to full strength later this season. I look forward to resuming a full schedule as soon as I am able." 

We can just hear U.S. captain Davis Love III thinking to himself, Yes, Ian. Rest is good. Take your time.

The media is playing this as a setback for the Euros, with which I strongly disagree....  He's never been a top tier player, though his passion for the specific event is undisputed.  But he played poorly at Gleneagles and his skills, limited to begin with, are eroding rapidly.  I wanted Clarke to give him a captain's pick, though I don't think he would have been that foolish.

In any event, he's given Ian a set of cart keys, so he'll be at Hazeltine and can revisit old times with Michael Jordan.

Hoping to be back with some Oakmont and other thoughts later.

Friday Fallout

It's Friday and our theme is fallout, so deal with it...

Duck Fallout - Let me first just reiterate how great it all was, beginning with the ladies the prior week.  Conclusion Numero Uno is that team match play rocks.  

Obviously there was much discussion about the unfortunate injury to Beau Hossler, including this from lee Ringler about changing the rules to allow for a substitution:

For any change to be effective, substitution would have to be allowed for any reason, be

 it injury or poor performance. Leave it to the coach’s discretion, just as in other team sports.

With a national championship at stake, Hossler’s pivotal injury provided a textbook example of why substitutions in college golf make more sense than ever.

We can all agree that it was most unfortunate and that we'd have preferred that Texas could make such a substitute, and yet it's not the slam dunk you'd think it is.  Shack explains why on the tube and in print:

In a sport already teetering on the brink of serious have vs. have not, carrying another player to the national finals and incorporating a sixth player during the season would add another cost factor that college golf can't ignore. Ringler points out the topic is a regular topic at the coaches convention. 

As I explained to Cara Robinson on Morning Drive, the resources were there at this year's final. But more often than not, injuries rarely happen and adding another cost wouldn't do college golf any good. Also note the highlights played as I'm talking, Brandt Packer and team really captured that final putt in style.

In this day of men's sports being cut back to ensure compliance with Title IX, increasing the cost structure of college golf (and one assumes the big programs would include the substitute with their normal travel squads) will only serve to decrease playing opportunities.

But our game has only the most tenuous relationship to fairness, what Tom Doak amusingly calls the "F" word.  

Shack has other worthy links in his post, including to this Beth Ann Nichols profile of Taylor Funk.  What I found most interesting was that the announcers seemed to go out of their way to not inform us that he's Fred's kid... Wassup with that?  But back to Shack with the numbers:

The overnights are in and SportsTVRatings says the three hour, forty minute telecast in east coast primetime averaged 325,000 viewers, with 94,000 from the only demo that matters. I'm not sure where that number lands, but that's definitely double any PGA Tour fall event and has to be one of the channel's higher rated non-PGA Tour live telecasts. Hopefully that helps Golf Channel's investment pay off with the combination of eyeballs and buzz.

That's pretty good for our little game that struggles to match the ratings of The Real Hosewives of Ponte Vedra Beach...  but the key word above is likely prime time (I know, make that key words).  Obviously this event needs to be moved around the country and it's preferable to play in daylight, but on a Monday-Wednesday it needs to be televised at night.  Discuss among yourselves...

Trump Fallout - Don'y worry, I mean that in a minimalist sense....  Just as relates to the event formerly held at Doral.  You know, for more than sixty years....

Shack had a daytime post on Wednesday that I almost missed in my unrestrained lust over the presser for the ages....Here's the gist of Geoff's thoughts:

President Trump's first day in office just got one more item added to his list of things to abolish! 

It's called, the PGA Tour's 501c3 tax status! 

I can't fathom how the PGA Tour would chose today, the Wednesday of The Memorial, as the day to dump news they are leaving Trump Doral for a yet-unnamed course in Mexico City. That's the city they haven't been to since..oh that's right, Senior Tour players were robbed having dinner!

Even more audacious, Commissioner Tim Finchem is holding a press conference atMuirfield Village at 3 pm ET. 

Take that, Jack, you Trump supporter! 

There have been so many signs that the Commissioner has exceeded his sell-by date, but I can't fathom a better example than not having found a solution to this matter. How about eating the sponsorship of the Doral WGC stop for a year to avoid a showdown with Donald Trump? It would also have meant avoiding a showdown on the eve of a Memorial with its best field in years, and on the day the greatest golfer ever, Jack Nicklaus, is honoring his pal Johnny Miller. The entire fiasco seems downright rude and short-sighted on an unfathomable level even for the Napoleonic Commish.

First, let's tip our caps the Shack for tying the move to Jack's support of Trump... It's probably more amusing than true, but we also probably like amusement more than truth.  

You know I've been critical of the Tour for spitting on its own history time and again, even though Doral itself leaves me cold.  Geoff avoids the entire issue of the creation of the WGC's, which was all about the Commish controlling the golf calendar and has little to do with the "W" in the acronym....

I'm agnostic about whether Timmy should have self-sponsored the event, as I just don't have enough information.  But the man doesn't bring an abiding love of the game to the office, and his legacy will be limited to the amount by which he increased purses and playing opportunities.  If you live and die by your deal-making, it seems entirely fair to note your failure to handle this one....

Equally importantly, his abject failure to control the media environment is downright comical....  Trump played him for the fool, again in a field that's supposed to be in little Timmy's wheelhouse.... Obviously Jack shouldn't have to pay the price for the Commish's fumbling, but it's also the sponsors...

But it reminds of something that normal human beings would have long forgotten, Tiger's infamous press conference at TPC Sawgrass after he decapitated that defenseless fire hydrant.  I know, my mind works in strange ways, when it bothers to work at all....

Anyone remember when that awkward event took place?  Anyone?  Bueller?

It was on the Wednesday of the that year's Match Play event, which just happens to start on a Wednesday.  Our hero made his Ponte Vedra fortress available to Tiger while there were golfers on the course in Arizona.... How do we think Accenture felt about that?  And might that partially explain why Accenture is no longer a partner of the Tour?

That's why I would never be Tim Finchem's partner in anything...  There's a serious of principals and sponsors that he's treated miserably over the years, and he thinks nothing of directly competing with them after the ink is dry (think of the FedEx Cup nonsense).  I'd be interested in knowing whether Jack and Nationwide even receive an insincere apology from the Tour, but my guess would be not.  I don't think that Finchem is out to deliberately hurt Nationwide or Accenture, I just don't think he cares much one way or the other.

Political Fallout - As a smooth segue from the previous item, Golf Digest has presented us with a new feature to which one can only ask, "You sure you want to go there"?

On the right (sort of) we have the legendary Dan Jenkins, and firmly on the left is John Feinstein in a new Golf Digest Political Blog.  It's an odd strategy, as most media organizations choose to pis soff half the country, but GD is clearly shooting for the twofer.  There's no doubt who gets the better of the opening arguments, as he's both the better writer and on the side of the angels:

I’m also amused by the people who call Trump a “loose cannon,” suggesting he might 

Shouldn't they have, you know, flipped this image?

drag us into “nuke-lar combat toe to toe with the Rooskies,” as Slim Pickens says in "Dr. Strangelove." 

Trust me on this, people. A guy with a wife who looks like Melania ain’t gonna blow up the world. 

As for Trump’s opponent, our “lyin’, crooked” modern-day Bonnie Parker, who’s been in public life for 25 years but has said only one thing anybody remembers--“What difference does it make?"--I can only paraphrase the words of Mark Twain from a 100 years ago: 

“When you see a political leader you think is excellent, keep in mind that she only needs to serve a term or two in the penitentiary to be perfect.”

She?  Whomever could he mean?  Now Feinstein has some moments, such as this:

Then there’s the notion that Bob Knight has become a political genius. I know Bob Knight, I worked with Bob Knight, and believe me, he’s no John Kennedy. Why is Trump so attractive to Knight? Because they’re the SAME PERSON.

I'm for anything that gives Dan Jenkins a reason to amuse, even if it's in support of Donald Trump.

Hockey Stick Fallout - Any of you know the name Michael Mann?  He's a climatista from Penn State who in the late nineties produced the famous hockey stick graph that purported to show a straight-line dramatic increase in global temperatures over the ages.... Just one little detail emerged to undermine the too-good-to-fact-check visual, if you picked a different start date the graph didn't work as well.  So while we can agree that science doesn't lie, unfortunately scientists will and do....

Don't you learn interesting things here at Unplayable Lies?  Can this possible have relevance to little game, I hear you snarking.... Alas, yes, as the USGA has published a report that tells us not to believe our lyin' eyes:

Between 2003 and the end of the 2015 season, average driving distance on four of the seven tours increased about 1%, or 0.2 yards per year. For the same period, average driving distance on the other three of those seven tours decreased about 1%

I certainly feel better that they're on the case.... But as Luke Kerr-Dineen (who is now at USA Today) informs, that 2003 date is highly relevant:

Yes, there may have been a massive increase in driving distance between 1993 and 2003 that the USGA didn’t include in its key findings, but there’s a very good reason for that: Golf technology was exploding during that era, and things only began to level off in 2003, when companies began hitting the USGA’s legal limit.

It really seems to come down to an issue of whether you're happy with the current state of play.... as per Luke:

The counter argument made by the pro-rollback technology crowd is that the damage has already been done. Even if we take as true the notion that the current rate of distance growth is acceptable, it’s already reached too high a point. It doesn’t matter that your ship is sinking slower than it was before. It’s still sinking. 

Historically great courses that are part of golf’s heritage, St. Andrews being the best example, have already been badly compromised. The land and costs that go along with maintaining them have already reached the point of instability. Maintaining the ceiling where it is now won’t bring these courses back into relevance. To do that, you need to lower the ceiling and keep it there.

Shack goes after this issue in comparing driving distance and accuracy, and interestingly goes back as far as 2000 to prove his point.  Though he elides a key point I think.... we tend to focus on the distance that ProV1's and their like travel, but I've long believed that the reduced spin is also a major factor.  he makes this point in the midst of his rant (which you should read in its entirety if the subject is of interest):

In 2003, that number increased to nine and it has kept climbing. Better athletes who have grown up not knowing what a persimmon miss looks like and who have optimized launch conditions are able to drive it significantly longer than their predecessors.

Those persimmon misses were ugly, partially due to the size and composition of the clubhead, but also because the balls spun so much more.  One reason the Bubbas of the world can air it out is that their misses don't go as wide...

Shack as an addendum from this gent with some telling data as well as this useful perspective:

Kris McEwan at Golficity breaks down the numbers and says the year-by-year analysis is "the equivalent of measuring the growth of a child and only reporting the year to year change. In turn, you are ignoring how much taller the child is actually getting across the overall span of time. Suddenly, you look at your kid twenty years later and he’s six feet tall and you’re asking yourself, 'when did that happen?!'"

The challenge is that the technology has made the game far more enjoyable for the masses, but has had a different effect on the game played at the highest levels.  That seems to this observer to be an argument for bifurcation, but....

To be continued at a later date, in perpetuity.

Beard Fallout - I had jokingly suggested a Beef-Boo-Beard pairing in the U.S. Open, but there's a second reason that might not happen (the first being Boo taking razor in hand):

I'm not saying it's the yips, but it's the yips.

I'm also not saying it's the beard....but...

Cheap Shots -

Dog Bites Man - VIDEO: Phil Mickelson plunks marshal in head with wayward tee shot

And I'm The Queen of Sheba - Finchem: Tour Leaving Doral Not About Trump

Not In The Biblical Sence One Hopes - Natalie Gulbis: The Donald Trump I Know

Late-Week Lamentations

Lots to cover and a hard stop, so why are we wasting time on pleasantries?

The Mighty Ducks - A great couple of weeks of watching the youngsters carry their bags, rake their bunkers and play aggressive golf under trying conditions.  And both titles found their way to the Pacific Northwest.  First, Jay Coffin:

Drama was oozing from both sides. 

Then they played the matches. 

Fast forward to the end, because that’s truly all that mattered on this day. With the matches tied 2-2, the championship was decided by a PGA Tour winner’s son (Texas sophomore Taylor Funk, Fred’s son) and a man who grew up in Eugene (Oregon junior Sulman Raza), the two playing in front of hundreds of Ducks fans hanging on every swing. 

Then that match went three extra holes. 

You can’t make this stuff up.

The good news is that you don't have to.... First, how great for Casey Martin to deliver in his hometown....

And how about this timely snark from that Shack guy:

No one deserved to lose! 

Such a dreaded cliche but so appropriate in the case of Oregon vs. Texas at Eugene Country Club, with two great teams and two of the best coaches on the planet reminding us for the 49,721st time that team match play golf is just a bigger, better beast. 

So glad we kept it out of the Olympic Games.

 Geoff, time to move on... the Olympics will be great.  Or not....

A word on the classy Texas team, who showed good stuff in almost overcoming the loss of their best-known player:

Playing the host Ducks on essentially Oregon’s home golf course, Eugene Country Club, in front of a dramatically pro-Oregon crowd, the top-ranked and top-seeded Longhorns, both surprisingly and not surprisingly, were the underdogs. And that was before word surfaced that junior Beau Hossler would have to forfeit his match because of a left-shoulder injury. 

Hossler, who injured the shoulder Tuesday during his semifinal match against USC’s Andrew Levitt but fought back to earn the winning point to send Texas to the final, was scheduled to play Oregon senior Zach Foushee. Instead, Hossler was relegated to cheerleader, and his withdrawal gave crowd-favorite Oregon the early advantage.

“I have a lot of confidence in our guys,” Hossler said before the match. “They have a lot of guts.” 

He was right. Led by a trio of sophomores, the Longhorns nearly pulled off the man-down win.

And this says it all from Texas coach John Fields:

“You work really hard as a coach and for these players, you come with a dream that someday maybe you can do something special like this. For them [Oregon] to do it with their home crowd here is magnificent. It is good for college golf. It’s good for everybody concerned, but not us right now, because it is stinging. It will be tough for our guys. But that is what it is all about. You’ve got to keep getting better.”

Good stuff all around.

Into The Clear -  I'm uncertain as to how to handle yesterday's Finchem press availability on the event formerly known as the WGC Cadillac, which Shack Fisked in epic fashion here.  Like Geoff, let's start with the money quote that will make the rounds of the cable networks:

Donald Trump is a brand, a big brand, and when you're asking a company to invest millions of dollars in branding a tournament and they're going to share that brand with the host, it's a difficult conversation.

That's no doubt true at some level, but this clarification from Shack confirms that things aren't always exactly as they seem:

Interestingly, my sources say sponsor Cadillac wanted to return to Doral but not at WGC prices. Tim Rosaforte reported something similar.

With our Commish, it's always about the Benjamins...That seem harsh?  

As we anticipated, some of the reaction revolves around the feeling that somehow this is a political exercise, and it is not that in any way, shape, or form. It is fundamentally a sponsorship issue. We are a conservative organization. We value dollars for our players. We have a strong sense of fiduciary responsibility. So we make decisions that are in the best interests of our players, short term and long term.

That certainly makes me feel better that he's not allowing politics to impinge on the purity of his WGC money-grab.... And let me share a couple of Shack's best.... errr...let's go with clarifications:

The decision made here was based on the reality that we were not able to secure sponsorship for next year's WGC at Doral or for out years for that matter. At the same time, we had an opportunity to build what we think is going to be a spectacular event in an area that is strategically important to the growth of the sport and the activity of the PGA Tour that has been focused in South America and Central America for the last good number of years. 

Psssst...Timmy, Mexico City is in North America. But go on...

And this:

When Donald Trump purchased the property, he called me and asked whether I felt that it was necessary to do much with the golf course, and that led to a discussion that led to an indication that, if he wanted to work on the golf course, our recommendation would be to use Gill Hanse as the external architect and our own staff internally to do the work, which is what ensued and led to the product we have now, which we're very comfortable with. 

I don't know about you, but talking the "product" in Tony Montana's old stomping grounds seems a bit shady.

But what gets really confusing is that he uses "the product" for the golf course and "property" for the event:

We are keen on coming back to Doral.

We need to find the right property to resume our long-term involvement in the community.

We're proud of being there for over 50 years, and we'd like to come back. We have looked at certain kinds of properties that might work on our schedule, and we'll continue to do so with an eye toward bringing sponsorship, appropriate sponsorship, to whichever property we decide upon.

We explained all this yesterday to Donald in New York.

Which made him go public before you had finalized arrangements, making you look like a hack.  And by arrangements I mean little details such as where they're going to tee it up:

Q. Tim, can you say what kind of options you have for courses down there?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: We started off looking at a handful. We narrowed it down to two. We're focused on one, and we would hope to announce the details of that pretty soon, but we don't want to announce it until the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed on the agreement.

As long as you're focused....Now The Donald isn't everybody's taste, of course, but we naturally assume that he's found an impeccable partner (with bonus Shack snark):

Q. Tim, could you give us a sense of perspective on Ricardo Salinas in terms of his wealth, his commitment or spirit to the game, and also what he says as his vision for this tournament? 

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, when we contacted us well over -- or almost a year ago, their whole focus from day one, it's a very significant group of companies. And we have a couple of companies that we do business with that do a lot of business with them. We have a couple of CEOs we know very well here in the United States that do a lot of business with them. So we were able, after these initial conversations, to vet them quite thoroughly. 

The thing that struck us from day one was that their overriding reason to become involved was, in fact, not the brand exercise, advertising, the standard things. It was to build golf in Mexico. They had taken notice of The First Tee program, showed a lot of interest in that, and part of this agreement is they will underwrite the cost of a significant First Tee type program in Mexico City, which will be a very interesting thing to watch and see how it works.

Ahhh...the thermal exhaust port in Darth Timmy's Deathstar, aka The First Tee.

Well, he certainly sounds like a solid citizen, and as long as he's willing to pay for his share of that wall... What, oh that's nothing:

Q. Well, in light of that, Mr. Salinas of Grupo Salinas, had a run-in with the SEC about 10 or 11 years ago. It wasn't insider training, but self-dealing. He made a profit of $109 million. He wound up not admitting guilt, but he paid a $7.5 million charge. Obviously, you guys vetted that. Can you talk about, in light of the Phil thing, here's a guy that he was barred from holding office of a U.S. public listed corporation for five years. Could you discuss his history?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Yeah, we did, and we concluded that, given all the facts, it should not be something that would preclude us to do this particular transaction and all of its elements.

What, El Chappo isn't a First Tee kind of guy?  You have to admit that the Phil thing makes this a just a wee bit awkward, though I credit Nurse Ratched for his candid responses to these questions:

Q. If I could quickly shift gears for a quick second. There's that portion in your handbook about players not associating with people that could bring adversity to the game and reflect badly on the game. You had Mickelson being named as a relief defendant in the insider training indictment. Have you spoken with Mickelson? What do you plan to do in that regard? 

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: I have not spoken to him, but I have no comment about anything else at this point in time. 

Q. Tim, to follow what you may or may not have a comment on, Billy Walters has been involved in at least one PGA Tour event in the Pro-Am. What are the lessons that you will take from this situation moving forward? 

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: That's a very good question, but I'm not going to answer it today.

That's a very good question, but FU!

I don't know enough to know whether Salinas' brush with the SEC should be disqualifying, but one doesn't get the sense that Timmy has particularly high standards in this regard...  But believe it or not, it gets worse:

Q. Tim, a couple players who have been to Mexico City just said they think it will present some security challenges. How big a concern is that?

COMMISSIONER FINCHEM: Well, we'd like to think that, for a good number of years now, we take the cautious view, regardless of where we're playing around the planet, you have some areas are more prone to terrorism and other places that are more prone to theft, and some places where you have people being kidnapped in very dangerous parts of the world. But like every other country, Mexico has dangerous areas and nondangerous areas. Obviously, we have some in the United States.

Don't you just love that bit of moral relativism?  Because the U.S. is just like Mexico..... But in a tasty morsel of cosmic irony, it reminds me so much of this comment about Vladimir Putin's killing of journalists:

“Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also"

The speaker? That would of course be one Donald J. Trump....ah, the irony, she burns.

Of Veej I Singh -  Right on cue lands this story of the seemingly dormant Vijay Singh lawsuit against the Tour involving, no laughing at our hero now, deer antler spray:

In a memorandum filed with the New York State Supreme Court on Tuesday, Vijay

Singh accused Tour officials of subjecting him to "absurd" and "unfair" treatment by ignoring the use of deer antler spray by five other professional golfers playing on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour and then lying to the public by "characterizing Singh as a cheater who caught a break."

According to Singh, discovery revealed that five golfers, identified anonymously as Golfers A, B, C, D and E, admitted to the Tour as early as 2010 or 2011 that they had used the same spray as Singh but were not sanctioned under the Tour's anti-doping program.

Stay tuned, as our Veej seems to be on a crusade.... and while he remains an obviously-unsympathetic litigant, my hope is that he provides a needed dose of disinfectant to an inappropriately opaque process.

And if Tim seems a little testy in public these days, it's even worse in private:

That accusation may not have sat well with the Commissioner. 

"As a mirror into his mentality, Commissioner Finchem under oath in discovery in this litigation was asked to explain his multiple, false and misleading public statements about the Singh matter," Ginsberg wrote. "Remarkably, Commissioner Finchem refused to respond to the questioning about whether WADA ever changed the list or why he told the world that WADA had changed the list, and, instead, stormed out of the deposition, and refused to return."

Did WADA not change its list?  Because judges typically aren't amused by parties storming out of depositions, and it's not typically done when a party thinks it has the facts and the law on its side....

Further Clarification -  We had a brief note on Hunter S, Thompson, but have received this additional clarification:

We played that first evening, in the dying light, at the municipal Aspen Golf Club, which was closed. Hunter just waved to a guy in the pro shop, who brought us a bucket of balls. Hunter had a 12-gauge shotgun in his golf bag and we had Heinekens in a cooler on the cart—also a fifth of Chivas, a fifth of Jose Cuervo, limes, a fifth of Dewar's (for George), and an extra cooler of ice. 

"Here," Hunter said, holding out three white tabs of blotter paper with an unfamiliar red symbol on them. "Eat these."

Except for the LSD, it's eerily reminiscent of my day at Muirfield.  But impinging on the Marty Hackel beat, can we agree that this isn't a great look?

Midweek Musings

We've got the goods for you, starting with the youngsters:

And Then There Were Two... - It's match play finals day, and shame on you for missing the exciting semis... I've jumped on the Ducks bandwagon, as Casey Martin's squad took down the deep Fightin' Illini in one semi-final, while Texas' win was dependent upon their best player keeping his clavicle in its socket:

It was painful just to watch Texas junior Beau Hossler finish his NCAA semifinal match

Tuesday at Eugene (Ore.) Country Club against USC’s Andrew Levitt. One can only imagine how painful it was for Hossler to actually play as he tried to secure the winning point to send his team to Wednesday’s NCAA finals while struggling with a left shoulder injury that appeared to get worse with each swing. 

Somehow, Hossler managed to birdie the par-5 15th hole, chip-in for birdie on the par-3 16th hole and then get up-and-down for par on the par-4 17th hole from a bunker—using his putter for both shots—to beat Levitt, 2 and 1, and set up a championship-match showdown between the Longhorns and the host school, Oregon. 

Whether Hossler, a first-team All-American in the running for a pair of national college player-of-the-year awards, will participate in the final, however, remains to be seen.

It was painful for sure, but also oddly captivating.... He improvised some modern dance moves that I'd not previously seen, and managed to gut it out.  As for this, we used to do this all the time at Lake Isle:

Good move by the kid...  By the way, if his name sounds familiar it's likely because he hung around the leaderboard at The Olympic U.S. Open far longer than most ams....

Here's the matches for today:

If Hossler can't go, there's no provision to replace him and Oregon would be awarded that point.  Those are PDT times, so it's Prime Time coverage.  Go Ducks!

This Tine It's Personal - Shack's new podcast is playing in the background as I dive in on this Trump-related item, which began in an offhand comment to Sean Hannity:

What a guy! Most would be angered at losing the event, but our hero offers constructive suggestions to ensure that their insurance binder is comprehensive...  I din't understand why folks are put off by him.

Back at his blog, Geoff is holding his breath until he turns blue with this rant:

Now, the serious (golf) issues at hand here: 

--The PGA Tour has been going to Miami since at least 1961 and Doral was an important event before being turned into a WGC by Commissioner Tim Finchem. WGC's are costlier to sponsor and therefore prone to be moved, altered and stripped of identity. 

--Trump has invested heavily into the resort and course with great results. While he may have intervened in course setup and may have been too high of a profile for the tour or sponsors, the event is seemingly is a great sponsorship opportunity due to its place on the schedule, the status of Trump Doral and the Miami market. Apparently the tour no longer can convince a sponsor of that. 

--At a time the PGA Tour is considering opting out of its current TV deal with the networks, it is considering saddling a network with a WGC in a country other than the United States and one that only gives candidate Trump more fodder for one of his key campaign themes. I'm not sure how that creates leverage for the tour, only headaches.

--Instead of just letting the Doral event die and opening up a spot on the schedule, a replacement event is the goal because executive bonuses are tied to playing opportunities. Even when the playing opportunity might be in Mexico City! 

--Finchem is possibly positioning the PGA Tour to become a focal point of the presidential campaign as he's preparing to opt-out of a television contract. A wiser commish less-focused on his golden parachute would have had the tour self-sponsor the event for a year to ride out the campaign. 

Let the fun begin!

Feel better, Geoff?  I'm going to half agree with Shack, as I think he's way over-stating the extent to which this ties in to the political campaign, but so be it.  Who knew that Mexico had enough money to both pay for the wall and sponsor a WGC event....

But it is yet another example of the blatant disregard for Tour and golf history....  Anyone but me remember The Western Open?  It's...strike that, it WAS the second oldest professional tournament in the U.S.first played in 1899, at one point having a credible claim to being a major.  In more recent times it had everything going for it, a great date on the schedule, a fine venue and that guy named after a predator showed up.  But Commissioner Ratched sacrificed it to the FedEx gods seemingly without the slightest hesitation, though there's some good, clean Schadenfreudistic fun in hearing the announcers on the BMW telecast unconvincingly attempt to tie themselves to the storied history of The Western.

You Don't Know Jack - jack held his annual presser yesterday at The Memorial, and he remains as gracious as ever.  The highlights are here, but I'll offer this bit:

“(Sam) Snead, (Ben) Hogan and (Byron) Nelson wasn’t too bad.” — When it was suggested that Nicklaus joined Arnold Palmer and Gary Player to form the first “Big Three” in golf.

Hate to play the uptight schoolmarm, but is there any doubt about the original Big Three?

My personal favorite was his candid assessment of his performance in the 1960 U.S. Open:

“I proceeded to fall apart like a $3 suitcase.” — Reminiscing about the 1960 U.S. Open, which he led as an amateur headed to the back nine at Cherry Hills. Nicklaus finished second, two behind Palmer.

He got paired for the final 36 holes with Ben Hogan, so that had to be quite the experience....

On a related note, the Tour Confidential crew took on this question earlier in the week:

5.) With the Tour this week visiting Jack’s place, Muirfield Village, in Dublin, Ohio, let us pause to reflect on Nicklaus’s signature accomplishment, his 18 major wins. In the hierarchy of sporting achievements, where does Jack’s mark rank?

OK, this is one of those questions.....obviously there's no real answer possible, though this goes at it exactly wrong I think:

Sens: Or the occasional fire hydrant, for that matter. So many roadblocks can get in the way. But in the grand hierarchy, I’d say DiMaggio’s hitting streak will outlast Jack’s 18 majors.

Apples, oranges.... It's an amazing feat of durability compared to the ultimate in-season streak.  Both amazing of course, but not of the same ilk.  But this answer is the reason I circled back:

Shipnuck: The fact is, most of the greatest players tend to win all their majors in a six- or eight-year burst. Even Tiger topped out at 11 years from start to finish. So by that math Rory is already halfway through his run. Is he going to win 15 majors in the next five years? I kinda doubt it. So many things about Big Jack broke the mold; his longevity is just one of them.

Got your abacus handy?  Because 1962-1986 is twenty-four years....  You can decide for yourself what it means, but it's quite amazing....

Burying The Lede - We were all over The Beef yesterday, except that we missed the photo of his parking spot at Wentworth:

I promise it won't happen again....

Naming Names - We love our golf names, but trolling for new ones is most productive among the ladies, their game being the more international.

First, we'd like to congratulate LPGA rookie Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras on her T27 at last week's LPGA Volvik Championship.  All I know is that she's Thai, 5 '6" tall and has $12,972 in career earnings.  In case you ever have need to pick her out of a police line-up, here's her tour profile headshot.

Of course, she's no Sherman Santiwiwatthanaphong, but it's not fair to hold folks to those unattainable standards.  We noted the later for you earlier when she won the Symetra Tour Championship, but I still find that given name a tad weird.