Weekend Wrap

All the good headlines were grabbed by folks who posted yesterday, so I'll go the classical Shakespeare route...

Now Is The Summer Of Our Discontent - Shack grabbed "Deja Vu All Over Again" from the Highlands and Ron Sirak's Plan B was pretty good as well:

ANOTHER U.S. OPEN FOR THE (RULE) BOOKS

 But at least, as the award ceremony proved, the bar remains very much open.... So, let's have at it:

You almost have to feel sorry for the U.S. Golf Association. Almost. While it dodged

disaster in the U.S. Open when a penalty on Dustin Johnson did not affect the outcome, a violation Sunday by Anna Nordqvist handed the U.S. Women’s Open to Brittany Lang. 

Crank up the social media machine: Those who love to attack golf for the complexity of its rules were handed a ton of material during the three-hole aggregate playoff when Nordqvist was assessed two strokes for grounding her club in the bunker on No. 17 -- the second playoff hole. 

Sure to be second-guessed will be the fact TV was used to detect the violation and that Nordqvist was informed of the penalty after she hit her third shot into No. 18 while Lang found out before she played her third over a water hazard, timing that could have affected how boldly she played the shot.

The late Frank Hannigan used to say that the biggest issue with the USGA was its need to be liked..... but I'm guessing that we've taken care of that issue for a while.

The infraction did happen, and it's hard therefore to argue with the Fox crew that the penalty needed to be assessed, though lost to me in all the chatter was the process by which the USGA became aware of the violation:

John Bodenhamer the USGA’s Senior Managing Director of Competitions and Championships and Governance, said they first learned of the rules issue when someone from Fox called to ask if there had been an issue in the 17th bunker. 

A staff member watching from home viewed the shot three times and didn’t see an infraction. Bodenhamer made his way to the compound, and after looking at a different camera angle, saw the violation. 

“We quickly consulted with our committee and decided that we would inform Anna immediately,” said Bodenhamer. “We immediately notified the referee, who, as quickly as he could, notified Anna and Brittany.”

Before we get to the notification botchery, let's lay out some of the obvious issues....

•  The Rule - The Rules of Golf would, I suspect, garner approval ratings consistent with those for mass murders and Congress, ignoring the obvious overlap between those two groups.  I dissent form this perception, as I find them mostly an engaging process and occasionally helpful.  But, as with repairing spike marks on the green, there are always those with which one can disagree...

But it seems obvious that there is both the absence of intent as well as a lack of advantage to the violation which was not evident to the naked eye.  As I understand the rules (and I'll gladly defer to Maggot or Mark W. if they disagree), a player in a different type of hazard that inadvertently grazes the grass in their takeaway would not be penalized.  I would ask why that shouldn't apply here as well.

•  High-Resolution Video - This needs a complete  re-thinking, as we all agree it's  not working as is.  This to me is very reminiscent of the Tiger issue at the BMW a few years back, where the movement of the ball could only be seen in slow-motion.  The rule has been changed to take DQ's off the table for that which can't be discerned in real time, but no one can be happy with this result....

Now golf is different than every other sport in that we expect that our players want to post the most accurate scores possible, and should therefore welcome technology that assists in that objective.  But again, si anyone happy right now?

•  Notification - So, assume for a second that you had a large bet on Brittany Lang to win the U.S. Open and were simultaneously a USGA rules official, would you have timed the notification any differently?

To recap for those with lives that weren't watching, the walking referee notified Nordqvist after she hit her third into the 18th, but got Lang before she hit hers, having this predictable affect on strategy:

“I had lob wedge out, because I was going to hit a high lob wedge to land soft because I thought I needed a birdie,” Lang said. “Right when he told me that, I was thankful he told me before I hit my wedge. I hit a little sand wedge way out to the right, and just tried to two-putt from over there.”

The worst part of this situation is that everyone sitting at home knew of Nordqvist’s error in the sand long before she did. Golf fans – including Fox announcer Paul Azinger – were trying to will a USGA rules official to stop play before Nordqvist hit that third shot.

A number of commentators have made a very good point, that they simply could have stopped play while reviewing the video tape given that there were only the two girls on the golf course.  

Of course we were already deep into Fox's prime time schedule by then:

Worth noting that the final threesome finished in 5 hours and 43 minutes. Pace had been an issue all day.

All week would have been more accurate, but they seem to have also botched the final round set-up, and when Lydia's travails at the ninth took way too much time (was she not supposed to look for her ball in the hazard?), the final group was put on the clock....  Lydia, to her credit, took responsibility, but I think the USGA shares in the blame....

And what would a USGA championship be without Diana Murphy beclowning herself....when she started speaking I thought she seemed more in control but Employee No. 2 opined that she was again under the influence.  A little life lesson for you all.... when the subject is public drunkenness, who are you going to believe?  The Jewish husband or the Irish wife?  The question answers itself....

For those that like such things, Shack has the video, in which the President of the USGA twice calls U.S. Women's Open champion Brittany Lang by the name Bethany.... Don't know about you but while I may not watch much of the Senior Open, I will most certainly catch the awards ceremony....

The Scottish - I opted for competitive significance over linksy goodness, so saw precious little of the Scottish Open from scenic Castle Stuart.  I'm not going to keep you in suspense, the event was won by Sweden's Alexander Noren. but this is likely the greater significance:

Tyrrell Hatton, Noren's playing partner, was the runner-up at Castle Stuart in northern Scotland after a 69, while Nicolas Colsaerts (66), Danny Lee (69) and Matteo Manassero (70) were a further shot back.

Hatton, Colsaerts, Manassero and Richie Ramsay took the final four qualification places for next week's British Open at Royal Troon.

Troon On Our Minds - We'll have lots to cover between now and Thursday, but first some history.  Thanks to Shack for posting these videos of Gene Sarazan at Troon, first an unsuccessful attempt to qualify in 1923:

It's quaintly charming, but as the U.S. Open champion he wasn't guaranteed a spot in the Open Championship, so made the difficult journey knowing he had to qualify.  Then this from his 1973 encore:

The next day he holed out from a bunker, so for two days he played the Postage Stamp in three strokes.

Shack also has this long video of the final round in 1973, hat you'll ant to watch at least part of if only for the regrettable 70's fashion:

Anyone know what that dead animal on Johnny Miller's head was?

Shack has a great Q&A with architect Martin Ebert, though the most interesting parts of it relate to Turnberry and Portrush.  But Ebert has also worked at Troon and has some thoughts worth perusing:

GS: Besides the Postage Stamp, what holes would you say are most worth of study at Royal Troon? 

ME: I believe that the Old Course at Troon is generally underrated. I believe it to be one of the best of The Open venues. It has some superb views, has tees which could not be closer to the coastline on the front nine, some great individual holes including the incomparable Postage Stamp and one of the toughest back nines in championship golf. In terms of other notable holes, the 5th is a wonderful par 3 on its elevated ridge by the sea, the dogleg 7th asks questions from the tee if conditions are favourable, the 11th must have the most intimidating tee shot on The Open rota being played over a sea of gorse with no view of the fairway, the 13th has the most magical undulations and shows that bunkerless holes can be the very best, the 15th, in its new guise has great shape to its fairway line and, of course, the 18th is the ultimate test with the clubhouse and out of bounds so close behind the green.

That certainly wasn't my recollection, but I've only played the course one time and that was back in 2009.  I remember it as being a stout test, but less interesting in a strategic or visual sense.  

So, who do you like?  before you answer that question it might be helpful to peruse the list of winners at Troon:

What?  That didn't help you with your handicapping?  

Actually, the best part of that graphic is the right-hand column.... can you understand why so few players from the U.S. made the trip before Arnie?

The astute reader will quickly note that the last six winners have been Americans, which of course means absolutely nothing this week.  What's more significant, and  quirkier, is that the course produced venerable champions, until it didn't.... I'd like to apologize to Todd Hamilton's' family, but those last three aren't exactly name brands....

The Tour Confidential panel revealed their picks, and it's about what you'd expect:

Shipnuck: Yes, Dustin is going to steamroll his way to another victory. There are a handful of other guys who are similarly long as DJ but into the wind he is by far the longest player in the world, with that low, piercing ball flight. The back nine at Troon is always a brutal, blustery slog. Dustin will bash his way to another landscape-altering win.

Didja stay up all night thinking of that pick?  This one is slightly more imaginative:

Sens: DJ is a great choice, which means it’s not going to happen. And it won’t be one of his countrymen either. The Claret Jug goes to Branden Grace, who hits also hits a low, wind-cheating ball and whose relatively weak putting will not be a hold him back on Troon’s comparatively small greens.

Grace was the flavor of the month before Oakmont, so perhaps Shack and all the others weren't wrong, just early.

As for this one, been there, done that:

Passov: DJ finally got the job done at Oakmont, after so many close calls in majors. It’s going to happen to another guy this week, a guy who’s long been in a similar situation: Sergio Garcia. He’s pretty hot in his own right, with a win at the AT&T Byron Nelson and a stellar effort at Oakmont, and in the past two years, has finished T2 and T6 at the Open Championship. On a course that favors great ballstriking, one with greens that aren’t too vexing, it’s Sergio’s time.

Yeah, Joe, that's the ticket.... Your humble blogger correctly picked all six of Sergio's zero Open Championships, so color me skeptical....

I'll have more later in the week, though tomorrow will likely be an off day due to a Met. Golf Writers' outing.

Friday Frolics

With the Scottish Open, featuring those epic views of the Moray Firth, in the background, let's catch up on a few items.  I shan't keep you long, as it's far too warm to overly exert ourselves...

Scenes From The Highlands - Have you watched any of it?  It's 110 degrees in the shade, what excuse do you have....

I caught a total of a couple of hours of taped coverage, and it was spectacular....  the open frame showed long, wispy fescue buffeted in the wind, causing a physiological reaction in your humble blogger heretofore only caused by redheads and bacon....  the wind was up and with it the scores, though I could here the locals characterize it as a "wee breeze."  Amusingly, the Euro Tour asked for a mulligan:

INVERNESS, Scotland – In a rare display of contrition, the European Tour admitted to 

Shane Lowry shows his best modern dance moves.

getting the setup at Castle Stuart wrong in Thursday’s first round of the Scottish Open. 

With wind projected up to 30 mph in the afternoon, the gusts routinely exceeded that speed, including a top gust of 43 mph at 4:40 p.m. 

These high breezes came on a day when the greens were running 10.1 on the Stimpmeter.

Combining those factors with the conditions, the European Tour realized in the aftermath that it had erred.

This lad, who grew up in the Highlands, might know whereof he speaks:

“It was a guessing game,” Scotsman Russell Knox said of his afternoon even-par 72. “We were just pulling a club and hoping for the best. It was borderline too windy. I mean, balls were rolling on the green multiple times during the round, but somehow we kept going. It was hard, though. It was really hard. When a par 5 plays driver, 3-wood, 5-iron and I was nowhere near the hole, pretty tough day.”

My viewing was of the morning groups, so I didn't see the worst of it....   But Castle Stuart is hardly Carnoustie, and as long as balls weren't actually moving on the greens, play on.  Given the way these guys devour the Par-5's, this was unusual:

The par 5 about which Knox was referring was the 18th, which measures 607 yards on the card. On Thursday, it played into the wind, with a small landing area off the tee.

Many players decided not to use a driver for fear of losing it right and having to re-tee as many eventually did. 

Other decided that the ideal play was a long iron and then try to get to the green in three from the fairway or rough. 

Either way, the 18th played as the hardest hole on Thursday, with a stroke average of 5.532 that included 14 double bogeys or worse.

But this old guy liked it:

Oddly enough, one player was happy with the setup. Two-time British Open winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland shot 2-under 70, just one stroke off the lead held by Scott Hend and Felipe Aguilar, in the afternoon and was almost giddy with the outcome. 

“I expected some tee boxes moved up – 17, 18 maybe, and 13 – but I was delighted that they didn’t,” Harrington said. “They won’t move them up next week (in the British Open at Royal Troon); that’s for sure. And the fairways here are wide enough. It wasn’t like there was nowhere you couldn’t make a carry. And to be honest, like even 14, I went down the – or is it 13? – I went down the long line off the tee. Still it was only 170 yards to the front of the green.”

Wind is the ultimate test of golf..... and watching the best players in the world manage their way around is a treat.  If you're a fan of Tour pros landing on their arses, and does it ever get old?, give this a look-see: 

This still-frame capture shows him sticking the dismount.

And when it comes to arses, Patrick's is, as they say, better than most.....

Have you ever heard of Ryan Evans?  I hadn't either, but he was the first alternate and made the eight-hour journey on spec:

Chris Wood was a last second scratch, and all of a sudden the unknown is teeing it up with stalwarts of the Euro Tour:

He made the best of it it with a credible 73 in those tough afternoon conditions.

Shack has arrived in the Highlands, and the bastard also got a late-day round in on famed Royal Dornoch.  He posted this photo of the rather modest Dornoch clubhouse:

And we'll need independent corroboration of this #humblebarg:

Remember that discussion of great short Par-3's such as Troon's Postage Stamp?  This one most definitely belongs as well....

Shack will no doubt be publishing a travel guide to the Highlands, and has photos from Cruden Bay and the delightfully-named Lossiemouth as well....Let's hope he ventures up to Brora as well....

The Ladies Have The Stage - Delighted that the ladies have the stage to themselves, though hwat are the odds that anyone can find the coverage on FS1?  Thanks again, USGA, and those incessant commercials about how the rules of golf are evolving aren't the slightest bit ironic.....

But this young lady stole the thunder from the glamour grouping:

One of the charms of the U.S. Women’s Open, if the word charm can ever be used to describe the grueling test of golf the USGA likes to throw at the best players in the world, it’s that the first round always presents surprises. 

Thursday at CordeValle was no exception. No one I talked to all week saw a 64 out there with most caddies telling me they think single-digit under par will be the winning score come Sunday night. 

That may still end up being true, but grabbing the early lead with a U.S. Women’s Open-record eight-under-par 64 was Mirim Lee, a South Korean playing in the U.S. national championship for just the second time. And there was nothing in her T-47 last year at Lancaster Country Club to suggest she’d make noise here.

That Ko-Brooke-Lexi made-for-TV pairing struggled in the tougher afternoon conditions, with the Canuck looking particularly out of sorts.

DJ, Techie - Doug Ferguson posts an interesting profile of the current "It" golfer, and his most excellent use of Trackman:

Johnson wanted it only for his wedges. 

"All I look at it is carry numbers, just so I have more of a feel when I'm on the course and playing," Johnson said. "I felt like that was one area I needed to improve on. I felt like I was good with it, but I was too streaky. One day I'd be perfect, the next day ... not that I hit them bad, I just didn't hit them good enough." 

Now it's perhaps the most underrated part of his game. 

Three years ago, Johnson was tied for 113th on the PGA Tour in approach shots from 50 to 125 yards. 

Now he is No. 1 on tour.

This may be our first post saluting the man's intelligence and work ethic... I'm as shocked as you, but there's a first for everything...

Enjoy your weekend and we'll be all-Troon next week.

Midweek Musings

And what a strange midweek it is, as only the Almighty can keep our Commissioner Ratched from holding an event.

With devastating floods in West Virginia causing the cancellation of the PGA Tour’s 2016 Greenbrier Classic, the golf world will shift its focus to the U.S. Women’s Open and Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open. 

Faced with six hours of lost time, CBS will show two recent Greenbrier’s while Golf Channel will also dig into the archives for “classic” Greenbrier coverage.

Even a C.B. Macdonald fanboy such as your humble blogger can resist "classic" Greenbrier coverage....  Yanno, unless they pull out those Big Break episodes with our old buddy A.C.  So, what should you watch?

The Ladies? - Fate can be a cruel mistress, but it's given the ladies a surprisingly clear stage for the week.  Here's the skinny from Geoff on the expansive coverage:

The U.S. Women’s Open is once again played the week before The Open, with Fox Sports 1 carrying ten hours of early round coverage, before moving to Fox for the weekend’s eight hours. Thursday and Friday coverage will be helmved by Shane O’Donoghue with analysts Juli Inkster and Brad Faxon, who turn the anchor chair over to Joe Buck, Inkster and Paul Azinger on the weekend. 

Rounding out the team are Faxon, Scott McCarron, Steve Flesch, Holly Sonders, and if someone’s ball moves on a green, David Fay will provide rules analysis.

If one thought that Joe Buck's announcing voice was ill-suited to cover DJ and JD, how will it mesh with Lydia and Brooke?   The question answers itself.... But it's an interesting choice of venue by the USGA:

The Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed Cordevalle, now a Rosewood property, is set at the base of oak-dotted hills and offers no shortage of risk-reward holes. Also count on hearing about the endurance test of walking the hilly back nine layout in San Martin’s summer heat.

And there is that Lydia-Brooke-Lexi pairing to follow....

Randall Mell must be a fan of this blog, because he plays a drum on which I've been beating repeatedly, though he actually takes the time to include data:

Thompson leads the LPGA in driving distance at 284.2 yards per drive. Henderson is 12th, averaging 268.1 yards per drive. While Ko is just 117th in driving distance at 248.4 yards per drive, she leads the tour in money winnings ($1,816,738), scoring (69.08), rounds in the 60s (30) and putts per greens in regulation.

That is so hard to do on a regular basis, and serves as a testament to how extraordinary the rest of her game is.... 

Ron Sirak gives his take on the enigma that is Michelle Wie:

But she is now winless in 50 LPGA starts since Pinehurst with 14 missed cuts and five

WDs. One explanation for Wie’s inconsistency can be found in her health, where she’s had extremely bad luck. She’s had problems with her wrist, her back, her hips and her ankles. She also has multiple food allergies, which has complicated matters. 

“It’s been a struggle this year,” Wie said. “But I still have half a year left and I’m just trying to get some confidence. I feel pretty good at the moment. I’m happy to come in here pain free.” 

Wie remains a huge fan-favorite and is probably the woman who has moved the needle the most for women’s golf since Nancy Lopez almost 40 years ago. A winning Wie is good for golf.

That last bit certainly was true, though I think a high level of Michelle fatigue has set in.  her win at Pinehurst was certainly popular, but she is quite the delicate flower....

The Scottish Highlands -  The Scottish Open returns to Castle Stuart, the Inverness links built by Gil Hanse with developer Mark Parsinen.  The latter had previously developed Kingsbarns just outside St. Andrews, and more famously played Cypress Point with yours truly back in the 1980's.... Strangely, I've never received a single Christmas card from the guy...

It seems hard to remember, but the Scottish Open was played for years at Loch Lomond, a perfectly delightful Tom Weiskopf parkland course....the key word being parkland, when Scotland, as you might have heard, is known for its links.  Oh, and the following week they play this little event called The Open Championship on a links....

Employee No. 2 and I played Castle Stuart for the first time last August, and the account of that spectacular day along with many photos can be found here.  It's quite the spectacular piece of land, not just that it's perched atop the Moray Firth, but it's naturally tiered to allow all holes to have water views.... Geoff posted this video that gives one a sense of the natural beauty:

For the record, as spectacular as the bluebird days was, no doubt the highlight was and remains Elsie's banoffee pie....Just sayin'!

Shack had this on the field and coverage:

The Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open picked up Patrick Reed, J.B. Holmes and Steve Stricker after the Greenbrier cancellation, who join Henrik Stenson, Phil Mickelson, Branden Grace, Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Matthew Fitzpatrick to headline the final preparation prior to The Open at Troon. 

Once again, Golf Channel and NBC split the telecast, with expanded network coverage this year that will see NBC showing more weekend hours of golf from Castle Stuart Golf Links on top of eight-hour windows Thursday and Friday.

It's simply the perfect venue for this event.  As much as it make sense for the players to acclimate to the demands of links golf, there is a risk.  If the weather turns nasty (which, of course, it almost never does in Scotland), it can beat the players up before the Open.  Castle Stuart, with its extremely wide playing corridors and large greens, should remain playable in all but the harshest conditions.

Set your DVR for this linksy goodness....you can thank me later.

One last item as relates to their ProAm......

Equations, rather than numbers, on pin flags? We can think of a few players (and golf writers) who would play to the wrong green were they to have no other direction. But we digress. 

The Scottish Open will be using these during its pro-am on Wednesday, as a way of promoting the learning of maths, as the Brits refer to mathematics:

As they say, maths is hard....are hard?  So, apparently, is grammar.

Today In Olympic WD's - Forget Zika and threats of civil unrest, today's installment in this recurring series is Finchian:

“The reason for my decision is not my concern about the Zika virus. It is truly a business decision,” de Jonge said in a statement to GolfChannel.com. “It would have been a great honor to play for my country.”

“I am truly disappointed, but my current position on the FedEx Cup points list does not allow me the luxury to skip the John Deere Classic or the Travelers Championship,” de Jonge said. “I must finish in the top 125 to gain entry into our FedEx Cup Playoffs. This has to be a priority for me and my family.”

Got that?  The men's Olympic competition is on August 11th-14th, the same dates as the John Deere.  Olympic golf we're told is critical to the future of the game, but Timmy won't give up his DeMoine tour stop.... Shack goes into rant mode on the schedule here, though a brolley might be a wise precaution....

Christine Brennan tackles the issue of whether golf belongs in the Olympics here:

Have you heard any swimmers say they aren’t going to Rio because of Zika? Soccer players? Rowers? 

Of course not. 

The reason is simple: for them, and the vast majority of athletes who will qualify for August’s Rio Games, an Olympic gold medal is the end all and be all in their sport. There is nothing greater for a runner or gymnast or fencer than reaching the Games after putting in four years (or more) of excruciating effort, clinging to a lifelong dream of perhaps winning a medal, maybe even gold.

My rule of thumb has always been that if the Olympics will not be the highest achievement in that sport, there needs to be a damn good reason for including it....  for instance, The Dream Team was one such reason.  But see how this hits you:

It’s an excuse that is helping to expose the tremendous mistake the International Olympic Committee made seven years ago by bringing back golf to the Olympics, allowing a sport already overflowing with international events to take a precious Olympic berth that originally had belonged to softball. 

Remember softball? What its leaders and athletes wouldn’t give to be preparing for the Rio Olympics right now. Eight nations fielding teams of athletes, all of them women, all of them of child-bearing age, just like Day and McIlroy. Do you think they would be complaining about Zika? Or security or crime, other issues that are hinted at by the pro golfers?

Softball?  Really?  I expected her to tell us that she has binders full of women of child-bearing age....

She's not wrong, it's just that the crime syndicate masquerading as the IOC gets the benefit of low expectations....  I blame the brain-dead leaders of our sport for not having the the foresight to understand that having golf in the Olympics is only a positive if it puts on a good show.  Instead, they've arranged that we'll confirm to a world of non-golfers that our game has the entertainment value of watching paint dry....

Try to console yourselves, but Andy Sullivan is also opting out:

NUNEATON golfer Andy Sullivan has added his name to the ever-growing list of golfers unwilling to participate in the Rio Olympics. 

Sullivan, who is the world number 40, has admitted he will not be heading over to South America this summer – even if he qualifies for the event – saying health – as well other targets – come first.

And he certainly has his reasons:

"You have to look at where it is being held, there is a dangerous virus going round, plus the security is said to be not water tight, they are all reasons why I just cannot go. It is a dangerous place to go and when you run the rule over the risk, it is not one I will be taking." 

Sullivan is not the only golfer declaring himself unavailable if selected for the Olympics this summer.

A couple of quick reactions....to that first comment, shouldn't it be "raw sewage tight"?  We kid because we love.... 

As for that last bit, he's far from the first to decline, though to my knowledge he's the first to decline who was never at risk of, you know, being invited....

Everything Old Is New Again - Picture the USGA, flush with cash from a controversial new TV contract, making decisions that leave it's core audience baffled as to their actions....

I know, but the subject at hand is 2007 and the controversial subject is Walter Driver's stewardship of the organization, and our tour guide is of course Shackelford:

Proponents of Driver say he has single-handedly shaken the USGA out of a slumber

induced by the influx of cash the USGA fell into when it reconfigured its television rights contracts in 1994. They say he has tried to inject into a bloated USGA some badly needed business principles (the title of Driver's speech at the USGA's annual meeting in San Francisco last February was "The USGA As An Organization And A Business"). Detractors, many of whom see the USGA as a charitable organization first, say Driver has imposed his will on its culture and that his administration has disenfranchised everyone from Golf House staffers (those who work at USGA headquarters in Far Hills, N.J.) to equipment manufacturers to the organization's once-revered past presidents.

"I would say his effort to instill a new level of business-like procedure at the USGA has been important," says Reg Murphy, USGA president in 1994-95 and the man who authored the association's lucrative TV move from long-time partner ABC to NBC in 1994. "He's tried to create a more business-like organization. There are people who resist that idea, by the way, that the USGA ought to operate like a business."

No punches pulled with that title, eh?  Here's how Geoff frames the issue:

Still, we would like to better understand the culture that focuses so much effort on the high-risk business of running up Stimpmeter speeds or adding tees to U.S. Open courses or policing innocent pro golfers, better known as: ABTB (Anything But The Ball). 

So I was advised to go back and read Chris Millard's 2007 Golf World cover story onUSGA President Walter Driver,. Ironically, the story preceded the U.S. Open at Oakmont. The story resonates on many levels, from understanding the USGA's focus to how much behind the scenes debate occurs. 

Sadly, we know Driver has continued to influence the organization via the nominating committee, with his crowning achievement the naming of pal Diana Murphy as president to continue the corporate prioritization of the USGA's approach.

I'm guessing that Diana and Walter were drinking buddies?

It's amusing that Geoff was advised to exhume this article, since he's quoted in it several times....  While I'm a little hesitant to tie it to the rules fiasco at Oakmont, it's a great read for those interested in how we got where we are on equipment and the ball, including the Battles of COR and ODS.

Weekend Wrap

As the long holiday weekend recedes into memory, let's catch up on all that we've missed:

DJ Über Alles - It happened so quickly that I failed to notice that the Jordan Spieth Jason Day Era had ended:

It’s not just that Johnson shot 66-66 on the weekend and came from behind to snatch

another title from Jason Day, the world’s top-ranked player. 

It’s not just that Johnson won the U.S. Open at Oakmont, as hard as it gets, with a sterling back nine and two of the best shots you’ll ever see on an 18th hole.

It’s how easy he has made it all look. 

Let the numbers fall where they may as the Official World Golf Rankings are revised on a weekly basis. Johnson should move up to No. 2 after this. But really, who would you least like to play right now in a match for your life? It has to be Johnson. Day, who lost the Bridgestone when he went trees-to-trees-to-pond and made double at the par-5 16th hole Sunday, would be second. Spieth is third because of his putting prowess, and then it might be close between Rory McIlroy and Scott Piercy since the latter finished second to Johnson at Oakmont and again here, although Rory’s four major championships give him an edge.

Yes, there's so little to choose between Rory McIlroy and Scott Piercy.....  The former has run away from the field in winning four majors, whereas the latter has done Izod commercials with Webb Simpson.

That's from the usually sober Gary Van Sickle, and it's hard to believe that a copy editor didn't spit up his coffee when blue-lining that last graph though Gary, to his credit, does frame the issue better with this:

You could argue that Johnson has flown by them both in the passing lane. But this is big-picture stuff, not Player of the Month. Still, if you haven’t considered that this may be the start of Dustin Time, that the U.S. Open victory got the pressure of great expectations off his back and freed him up and we’re seeing a golfer finally reach his potential, maybe you should.

 The key word being "May"....  We saw a flurry of pieces on this after Oakmont, and there's an obvious logic to the sense that Dustin had removed a monkey from his back.  But deadlines loom and writers are far too quick to draw sweeping conclusions....

Given that DJ has more talent in his left pinkie than most do in toto, it's conceivable that this could be the summer of DJ....  But let's also note a couple of factors about this latest win.  First, it's an awfully small field... Due to the unique scheduling issues, only 61 guys teed it up, and only 60 of those hit their second shots.  Secondly, this course suits DJ perhaps more than any venue on tour, as Mike Stachura explains:

While its stick straight, tree-lined fairways may not immediately make you think of a bomber’s paradise, Firestone Country Club’s South course’s brutish length (7,400 yards, par 70) requires driver as much as any layout on tour, and the driving-distance numbers clearly reflect that tendency. Six times in the previous 10 playings, the driving-distance average for the WGC-Bridgestone was in the top three of all events on tour, and three times it was No. 1. 

Nowhere was that more the case than last year when the field averaged 317.1 yards off the tee for the week. As best we can tell, that’s the highest driving-distance average for any event in tour history.

And click through for the details on Justin Thomas' 413-yard poke earlier in the week. I thought I heard him say that he got it a little out on the toe....

The Tour Confidential panel tried to get their arms around DJ, and while this isn't the most insightful of their answers, it was the funniest to me:

Marika Washchyshyn: I owe DJ an apology. I spent weeks doubting his ability to stay calm, to make smart shots (and recover from the not-so-smart ones) and to close, and then he turns around and does it...twice. In my mind, he's totally erased Rickie Fowler from the 'Big Four' conversation and has deftly inserted himself into golf's upper echelons. Sorry, and welcome, DJ!

Geez, Marika, take a chill pill.  I've been trashing DJ since you were in diapers, and I'm guessing that you've never called his girlfriend a slut....

 Then there was Jordan and this week's cry for help, announcing his intention to play more quickly:

"The quicker part actually helps me, because then I just get up there and fire away," he explained Friday. "The more I can do that, actually I think the better off [I am with a] kind of gun-slinging mentality, just to go up and hit the way I always have played."

Playing quicker is just one piece of the puzzle that he's hoping to solve while trying to emerge from what he has described as "a little lull."

It's an open question as to whether it'll help him, though it can't but help me enjoy watching him play.  Though this remains the crux of the matter:

That has been the case this week -- from tee to green, at least -- as through two rounds of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational he has found just 12 of 28 fairways and hit only 15 of 36 greens in regulation,

And he had another social media spat with the Twitterati when he took on Firestone's iconic 16th hole.  Shack's got the skinny here.... I tend to think he's got the better of the architectural arguments, but that he was ill-positioned to make them after Saturday's snowman.

Rio, It's Not Getting Any Better - The Golf Channel promos are the same, they're just sounding shriller as we go from bad to worse....

Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama said Sunday he was pulling out of the Olympics

because of the Zika virus, making him the seventh golfer to cite the mosquito-borne virus for sitting out golf’s return to the Olympics after 112 years.

“Although I am excited that golf is returning to the Olympics and I realize that my potential success would help grow the game in Japan, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot put myself or my team member’s health at risk,” he said.

That makes seven players from the top 25 in the world who have said they are not going to Rio next month. The others are Jason Day and Adam Scott of Australia, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and the South African trio of Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

Shack makes a reference to Hidecki having a history of bad reactions to bug bites, but as is noted in reaction to such man-made disasters, what difference at this point does it make?

For those with strong stomachs or prepping for a colonoscopy, here's the men's roster and here's another with the reserves.  I for one have had to go far too long without seeing the charismatic Mikko Illonen, but I'd ask you to remember that Golf Channel will be providing nine hours a day of coverage..... How does that jump to NBC look to Feherty about now?

The women's field with reserves is here, their problem being the number of top-flight players not invited because they happen to be Korean....  I'll leave you with this quite graphic Vanessa Barbara piece from Pravda on Rio's readiness, which you should really read in full. But I'll post some excerpts that caught my eye:

The few projects that have been completed don’t inspire much confidence. In April,a newly built bike path along Rio’s seashore collapsed, killing two people. 

Work on the beach volleyball arena at Copacabana stalled because the organizers failed to get the proper environmental licenses. Then the structure was damaged by waves. Workers erected a six-foot-high sand barrier to protect the site. It also protects thugs; tourists are being mugged behind it. A construction worker told me he’d seen a man stabbed there, and warned me to stay away. The robbers were so comfortable that they had left their backpacks and a beach chair nearby on the sand.

Please tell me that the robbers used sunscreen....that Brazilian sun can be a killer....

Frequent shootouts near the Olympic arenas and on routes to them are also a concern: 76 people have been hit by stray bullets in Rio so far this year; 21 of them have died. On June 19, more than 20 men carrying assault rifles and hand grenades stormed the city’s largest public hospital to free an alleged drug kingpin in police custody, leaving one person dead and two hurt.

And I totally get that the Zika concerns are overblown, as this helps put it in perspective:

In Brazil, these concerns are generally greeted with scorn. First, August is the middle of winter here, so the weather will be drier and cooler, meaning fewer mosquitoes. Second — and more important — the virus seems like a relatively minor problem: According to one calculation, in Rio a woman is more than 10 times more likely to be raped than catch Zika. (Men are more likely to be shot to death.)

So you see, that glass is in fact half full....

Troon, Soon -  Have your ski caps at the ready, as we've several weeks of linksy goodness ahead of us.  And I'm pleased to report that Royal Troon has gotten itself on the right side of history:

There are no longer any golf clubs on the British Open rotation that do not allow female

members. 

Members of Royal Troon Golf Club voted overwhelmingly on Friday to end the club’s male-only membership policy, paving the way for the club to remain an Open site. 

“I think this means that Royal Troon Golf Club is reflecting the society in which we exist in the 21st century,” said Martin Cheyne, the club’s captain and top official, in a telephone interview from Troon on Friday night. “We are not insular, and I’m proud to say that we have made this decision.”

Not insular in the slightest..... And I'm sure that Lady Bonallack will have the good sense not to show up too often...

The reader knows that I find these stories tedious, not least because the history here is not as it seems:

That is in part because Royal Troon already has an affiliated women’s club: Ladies Golf Club, Troon. Its clubhouse is a short walk from Royal Troon’s clubhouse, and the two clubs will work together to stage the British Open. 

“We were a mixed club until the 1890s, when the ladies elected to leave and build their own clubhouse,” Cheyne said. “We have had a very harmonious relationship for 138 years, and the ladies have always been able to come play the Old Course free of charge any day of the week and enjoy our clubhouse.”

But facts that are narrative buzzkills will be ignored.... 

Joe Passov provides a wealth of history in his 13 Things To Know About Royal Troon, such as:

13. A classic out-and-back links, (think Old Course at St. Andrews) where the 9th hole extends furthest away from the clubhouse, Royal Troon features a front nine along the sea with nearly every hole heading in a southeasterly direction. The back nine then comes back to the northwest, with every hole except the 12th playing in that direction. Typically the road home is played into stiff sea breezes, making the incoming nine one of the hardest in championship golf. As Gary Player once put it, the last nine holes at Troon are “the most difficult in the world when the wind is blowing.”

Troon is to this observer perhaps the least interesting of the Open Rota courses.... No doubt that it can provide a stern test, but there's precious little of aesthetic or architectural interest.  Here's Joe on it's most famous hole:

8. Royal Troon’s most famous hole is the par-3 8th, called “Postage Stamp.” At 123 yards, it is the shortest hole on the Open rota and has seen its share of ecstasies and agonies. At age 71, Gene Sarazen aced the hole with a five-iron in the first round of the 1973 Open, then birdied it by holing a bunker shot the next day. Forty-five minutes before Sarazen’s ace, Scotland’s David Russell became the youngest player ever to make a hole-in-one in the Open with his seven-iron effort at the Postage Stamp. Most recently, Ernie Els scored a 1 at the Postage Stamp in 2004. The hole’s saddest victim was the German amateur Hermann Tissies, who floundered to a 15 on this hole in 1950. Rookie professional Tiger Woods took a triple-bogey 6 here in 1997’s final round.

I have a particular fondness for short Par-3's in this era of bomb and gauge (see Thomas, Justin above), and there's nothing particularly wrong with this version of the species.  There's just many others that I prefer, such as the ninth at Lytham.  See if you agree, though you should know that there are nine bunkers surrounding that smallish green:

The Fourth, As Opposed to the Forth - In honor of the 4th of July, folks have been kicking around America's contribution to the game.  Why are you laughing?  Yeah, I get it, let's get this out of the way:

1. Motorized Carts. A nation falling in love with the automobile, when given the chance, was bound to want to drive the golf course as well. Born in the 1930s but not embraced until the 1950s (when you might have driven a Sears Roebuck), the golf car became our foremost addition to the game. And our biggest subtraction: We removed the walk. Though hoofing it -- via caddy, pull cart or bag-on-back -- has made a bit of a comeback among the fitness-conscious, carts are still the norm, with four generations of golfers, fit or not, knowing no other way. Our misgivings about this innovation remain.

I'm not any happier about than you, but it is what it is.... The list takes every cheap shot imaginable at us yanks, but this was unnecessary:

9. John Daly. Let Daly here represent the American public golfer and all the fun he's had learning this country club game. Let him represent league guys. Let him represent hackers who hate dress codes. Let him represent the hat-backward, t-shirt wearing, flip-flop dragging ex- jock who just can't get enough.

 Thunk!

I much prefer this take:

Shipnuck: Not just Tiger—how about Bobby Jones, Big Jack, Arnie, Hogan, Hagen, Sarazen, Lord Byron, Sam Snead, Trevino, Watson, Phil...most of the greatest players of all time are American.

I don't think we should discount Young Tom, Vardon or Bobby Locke either, I just don't feel responsible for John Daly...

Judicial Overreach - You know what else is distinctly American?  Judges sticking their noses into matters on which they should have no jurisdiction:

Earlier this month, Judge Jeanette Irby of the Circuit Court of Loudoun County, Va. entered her ruling in the case of Michael Vechery vs. Florence Cottet-Moine, a dispute over custody of their 10-year-old daughter.

The legal wrangling is now in its seventh year. Among the mundane and stereotypical custody-dispute edicts about which parent gets the kid for birthdays and Thanksgivings, in the latest ruling Judge Irby threw in an odd clause: The child “shall not be permitted to play competitive golf for one year.” 

The ban comes as the kid is thriving on the links. By the count of Vechery, a career real estate salesman and part-time golf coach, his daughter has won 11 of the last 12 tournaments she’s entered in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Now no doubt the parents should be held to account, and there's good advice to similarly-situated folks to be found.  When parents can't work things out in the best interests of their child, that's parental malpractice because they're supposed to be the adults.

But what's frustrating is that the writer doesn't tell us why the mother sought to have her daughter banned from competitive golf, at which she seems to be pretty talented.  

Udder Stuff

Glad we got that Olympic nonsense out of our system....let's move on.

Don't Know Much About History - The PGA Tour has released its 2016-17 schedule:

Golf's inclusion in the Olympics for the first time in 112 years created the most jam-packed summer in PGA Tour history. Players will be happy to know that a return to normalcy is on tap for next season. 

On Monday, the PGA Tour released its schedule for the 2016-17 campaign, and outside of a few sponsorship changes, it's pretty much what you would expect pre-Rio. Beginning with the Safeway Open (new sponsor) at Silverado Resort and Spa Oct. 13-16 and concluding with the Tour Championship Sept. 20, there will be 47 FedEx Cup tournaments.

 Normalcy?  We'll agree to disagree on that one....  Now, here's what's of interest:

The fall portion of the schedule and West Coast swing remain virtually unchanged, with only the addition of a new title sponsor, Genesis which is Hyundai’s luxury car brand, in Los Angeles. Officials are still looking for a replacement sponsor for the year-opening event in Maui, which lost Hyundai as a title sponsor after this year’s event.

As Shack notes here, the Tour would not do the same for the WGC event at Doral, a place the Tour has visited since the 1960's.  Now perhaps funding two events was too much, but Miami seems like a place that should be on the schedule.  That event has been moved to Mexico City, conveniently airlifted onto the schedule between Palm Beach Gardens and Tampa....  I guess we've moved on from agonizing about our carbon footprint.

There's also a game of musical chairs with sponsorships, with Northern Trust taking over the event formerly known as the Barclays and... well, who cares?  The problem is that we lose any sense of history about these events, as per this Shack quip:

So just remember, Ben Hogan won three Genesis Opens and five of those Dean & Deluca's!

Got that, though Ben never struck me as the Dean & Deluca type....

Now I get that these events claim lineage to the previous installments of the event, and in the case of Riviera and Colonial that's a reasonable position, though I'd have left L.A. and Colonial in the event name for reinforcement purposes.  But as I've mentioned previously, the Tour walked away from the Western Open to feed its FedEx Cup beast, only to have the BMW event a few years later attempt to pass itself off as the  reincarnated Western Open..... Ummmm, we're gonna need DNA testing to rule on that one...

Rulesgate, Jaime Weighs In -  While offering nothing new in the way of factual detail, the great Jaime Diaz has written the bible on last week's fiasco....  You'll really want to read the entire thing, but I was most struck by his dissection of the prior incident that fateful day:

THE CASE OF ROMAIN WATTEL 

The Romain Ingredient....

First, in the 10:20 a.m. starting time with Matthew Fitzpatrick, Romain Wattel of France faced a sharply downhill putt of two feet for par on Oakmont’s second green. After grounding his putter while addressing his ball for some five seconds as he looked at the hole, Wattel looked down and determined his ball had moved. He had not actually seen his ball move but noticed that the line on the ball he uses for alignment had changed position. 

The referee in the group, respected rules authority Dr. Lew Blakey, ruled that Wattel had not caused the ball to move. Blakey based his decision on the relatively long amount of time that elapsed from the time Wattel grounded his club to the time that the player detected it had moved, the downslope the ball rested on and a slight bit of wind. After Wattel played on, USGA officials reviewed the ruling via video and accepted it as correct.

Hmmmm.....Wattel played with Englishman Fitzpatrick and DJ played with Lee Westwood, another notorious Englishman, then four days later the UK surprises the pollsters and votes for Brexit..... Coincidence?  I think not....

In case you didn't catch the significance of the description of the Wattel decision, here's the essence of the USGA's call:

A key point of reference will be the Wattel ruling. Blakey, the referee, had considered the five seconds Wattel’s ball presumably didn’t move after he had grounded his club in the address position enough time to absolve the Frenchman from being the cause of the movement, but Pagel would characterize the two seconds that passed after Johnson had soled the toe of his putter next to the side of his ball as “instantaneous” and thus damning.

And this back and forth between rules geeks is all too typical:

Eger believes the right call was made based on the rule as written, but admits his experience writing, interpreting and administering the rules gives him an uncommon perspective. “All the rules officials I know think Dustin broke the rule, but none of my friends who I play golf with think he did. None of my friends have all the information. They use the wrong criteria to judge. But the rules are so fastidious, precise and often complicated.” 

But David Fay, the USGA’s executive director for two decades, who served as the Fox telecast’s rules expert, contends the Johnson ruling was a close one even for officials. “You could get 10 rules experts and show them video evidence of Wattel and Johnson’s actions around the ball. I guarantee some would say Wattel deserved a penalty and Johnson didn’t, or that neither deserved a penalty, or that both did.”

Eger, by the way, is the gent that dropped the dime and dialed the Augusta, GA area code after Tiger's infamous drop on No. 15 at the 2013 Masters....  A message that Fred Ridley ignored to his regret.

Jaime also has a helpful discussion of the evolution of the rule, and thoughts on where to go with it.  As these crazy kids are wont to say, read the whole thing.

Family Feud - I greatly enjoyed this WSJ feature on the rift between the two largest golf tours in the world:

If ever a week could highlight the fractured nature of global professional golf, it is this

one. On one side of the Atlantic Ocean, 61 players will gather in Akron, Ohio, for the Bridgestone Invitational, an event designed to bring the world’s best together on one course. Meanwhile, some of the very players who fit that description, including Rory McIlroy, will be in Paris competing in the French Open, leaving the Bridgestone with its smallest field since 2001. 

It is exactly the kind of conflict that could be avoided under PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem’s big idea for the future of golf: a unified global organization overseeing both the men’s and women’s pro game everywhere it exists. Think FIFA, without the indictments.

When it comes to FIFA, those indictments are a feature, not a bug.... But Tim, who do you see running this unified organization?

But here's where the amusement kicks in, as Tim goes to his default passive-aggressive mode:

“It’s like doing business with a company and for whatever reason, the CEO retires,” Finchem said. “The new CEO wants to take a look at the organization and wants to go to bed at night thinking he’s moving the needle to make it better. That’s where Keith is.”

I've always found that the best way to get to agreement with another party is to call them ignorant naifs in the press... We can only hope that Pelley does the same to Jay Monahan.

But having seen Timmy's version of cooperation on the schedule revisions to accommodate the Olympics, he's on notice that the Commish spells partnership C-a-p-i-t-u-l-a-t-i-o-n.  He can't move from his default patronizing setting, adding this:

Finchem mostly shrugs off that kind of talk, saying Pelley will come around to his idea eventually.

Of course he will, doesn't everybody?  As noted previously, the Bridgestone WGC event is on the calendar this week, and in a bit of cosmic irony provides a vivid illustration of his vision:

It's not breaking news that the purses on the PGA Tour are enormous. Thank Tiger Woods, Tim Finchem and TV contracts. It's really, really good to be a PGA Tour golfer. As it should be. 

Exhibit A was on display on Thursday at the WGC-Bridgestone at Firestone Country Club. Last place at any World Golf Championship event this year has a payout of $50,500. Just tee it up, and you're guaranteed that money.

Daniel Berger withdrew after one tee shot, citing a shoulder injury.

The social media reaction is about what one would expect:

Yes Tim, we'll all come around eventually....

I Might Have Lied - That is, if you interpreted my prologue to mean that we were done with the Olympic Kerfuffle....  OK, that Van Cynical guy has some amusing reactions to readers:

Van Cynical, No surprise there that Jason Day is out [of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio]. Shane Lowry is out. Is Rickie Fowler next? Crime, corruption, disease, safety concerns, etc? No thank you.—John Hobbins via Twitter

I think a number of players are one bit of bad news from bailing, too. As dangerous as Zika is, Hobbitt Master, it may be only the third or fourth biggest reason to not go to Rio.

True that!  Here's a concise summary of the issues:

It's far from the region's only issue, as Rio's rampant water-sewage problems, transportation nightmares, corrupt local and federal government, crumbling economy and rising violence are very real threats to a safe and stable Olympic environment.

Nothing to see here, kindly move along....Back to Gary:

Hey Van Slicely, The men look utterly selfish and foolish.—Brian Rosenwald via Twitter 

I disagree, Rosebud. This is simply putting family ahead of golf. The Zika threat may or may not be small, but it’s real and it’s serious. Golfers are the Olympic athletes most likely to be exposed to the disease-carrying mosquitoes since they spend the whole day outdoors walking through the grass and disturbing the areas where the mosquitoes habitate. It’s personal for each athlete, but I respect and agree with their decisions.

I think it's early to make that call, Van Slicey.  I'm excited to see how those sailing vessels slice through the raw sewage.....

The latest in Olympic golf memes is to compare it to Olympic tennis, which also got off to a rocky start:

Can you name anyone in this photo?

“What’s happening with the golf is a lot like ’88,” Gilbert said. “A lot of the tennis players just weren’t quite sure, and there were some security worries in Seoul.” 

No. 1 Mats Wilander, winner of three of the four Grand Slam singles titles, did not make the trip even though he had long relished playing for Sweden in the Davis Cup. Neither did No. 4 Andre Agassi, who would later win the singles gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and discover that it was one of the most gratifying moments of his career. 

Gilbert was coaching him at the time. 

“When Andre asked me what was the biggest regret of my career, I said if I could change one thing, I would have changed that big penny I had into gold,” Gilbert said, referring to his bronze medal. “And Andre pretty much planned his whole year around the 1996 Olympics.”

Given the sourcing on that item, we have to first address how this article helps drag Hillary across the finish line.... I know, but it's the core of their business model.

Another writer compared dropout rates among the various sports, and tennis features a significant though lower rate of non-participation.  That's fair enough, though I do think that two simple questions highlight the issues:

1. Can anyone identify a significant tennis tournament between the first week in July and the last week in August?
2. is anyone actually excited about 2016 Olympic Tennis?

I understand that the Brits went gaga over homeboy Andy Murray winning at Wimbledon, but that's more about the their and his abject futility than the magnitude of the event.

The only good news thus far is that no American player has announced their intention to skip it, though Jordan seems noticeably evasive since the Dexit announcement.  As for Rickie, as long as there's no cut (we kid because we love) he'll be there.  Or not:

“I’ve always wanted to go but I want to make sure me and my team feel safe on the health and security issues,” Rickie Fowler said. “There’s still some stuff ongoing, some logistics to work out.”

Me and my team?  Sigh.  I understand the fidelity to quotes, but couldn't some editor correct it so that Rickie doesn't sound like a moron?  Or does no one at Golfweek know English grammar?

Shack is taking it hard, as we've noted before, including this dig at Rory:

It appears not many are buying the concerns about Zika, including the readers here. McIlroy has now been questioned by Bloomberg reporter Tariq Panja (here and here), who has asked the McIlroy camp for clarification as to why he vacationed in Barbados two months ago. Barbados is also a Level 2 Zika threat region, like Rio.

We all understand that the guys are to a certain extent hiding behind the Zika threat, but Barbados is far more competent in their handling of raw sewage.  

There's No Place Like Home - Martin Dempster has exciting news:

“In securing third spot behind Swede Oskar Arvidsson and Spaniard Scott Fernandez, the 

big Scot earned a dream return to golf’s oldest major after a six-year absence at Royal Troon, his home club, in a fortnight’s time. 

“‘This was my last opportunity to play in The Open on my own course, so it is very special,” admitted Montgomerie after surviving an agonising two-hour wait in his car before discovering he’d pipped fellow Scot Jack Doherty for the third and final spot at the Ayrshire venue.’”

It's a nice story on its own terms, as his ties to the club run deep.  But I particularly liked that "Big Scot" formulation, and can only hope that the R&A tales a page out of the USGA handbook and pairs him with The Big Fijian and this Big Irishman, assuming the latter ignores the unsolicited advice.

My favorite line about (and in this case from) a fat golfer comes from a former partner in the D.C. office of Touche Ross (and that name will date it as of the Paleozoic Era).  He had a stomach made up of several spare tires and he told me of his problem with his golf game:

"If I put the ball where I can see it, I can't hit it. And if I put where I can ht it, I can't see it."

Well put, sir.

Maltbie, A Retrospective -  Doesn't the roundish Roger seem like a hoot to have a beer with?  In honor of his 65th birthday, Cliff Schrock posts seven classic Roger stories, and they're all good.  I particularly liked this one:

2. In attempting to qualify for the 1984 U.S. Open, Maltbie was at the 36-hole sectional qualifying site, where he employed a caddie to drive a cart for the grueling day. He walked alongside at first, but soon was hitching rides to hunt for lost balls or ride to a green or go uphill. When he got done with the first nine, a rules official asked about a report of him riding a cart. When Maltbie said he’d done it about six times, the official said, “I’m sorry Roger, but that will be another 12 shots on your card.” It gave him 48 for nine holes, and he withdrew for the day. Jolly Roger had failed to remember riding was prohibited under all conditions of play.

But how do you top Cliff's winner?

1. And the reigning champ of Maltbie stories that started his legend is from his win at the 1975 Pleasant Valley Classic in Sutton, Mass. This was in his rookie season, and he had won the Quad Cities Open and PVC in back-to-back weeks. In the evening’s revelry of July 20, Maltbie either left or lost track of the $40,000 winner’s check at T.O. Flynn’s tavern in Worcester. He couldn’t locate the check the next morning and had to ask the sponsors for a new one. The original was eventually found amid the floor debris and was put in a frame on the tavern’s wall.

In terms of actual golf, Roger is best known for winning the inaugural Memorial in 1976.  Though, in reality he's more fondly remembered for his choice of pants than for the win:

 

Well, it was the 70's.... Have a great weekend.