Weekend Wrap

Despite travelling yesterday, I'm well rested after a couple of days break from rigor blogus.  But, there's been 27" of the fresh stuff in the last 72 hours, 11" overnight, so we need to wrap the weekend with dispatch

Desert Daze - I know, the event formerly known as the Hope is a big hot mess these days, but the blowout conference championships allowed me to sneak a few peaks at the play.  But it's never good when an event peaks on Saturday....

More on that below, but first the tourney:

LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) -- A day after making a mess of the 16th and 17th holes on PGA West's Stadium Course, Hudson Swafford birdied them Sunday to take control in

the fittingly named CareerBuilder Challenge. 

A few minutes later, with rain approaching the desert over the snow-capped mountains, the 29-year-old former Georgia player celebrated his breakthrough first PGA Tour title and first Masters spot.

"They don't give them away out here. It's not easy," Swafford said. "I've been close. I've been in the heat lately. Just keep putting myself in position, and this just feels unbelievable."

Given that the chase pack included names like Hadwin, Cauley and Bozzelli, please remember that the mission to make the CareerBuilder.com great again is a three-year plan....  Though the reader might quibble with the use of "again"....

Probably more eyeballs were on this guy than on the final group:

Mickelson finished a surprisingly-good T-21 at 11 under with rounds of 68-66-73-70. He

heads to Torrey Pines next week and plans to play the next four events including the Waste Management at TPC Scottsdale, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club. 

It will start with the driver because it always starts with the driver for Mickelson, who said he made a number of minor adjustments throughout the week at the CareerBuilder Challenge. 

“I had to change my footwork and then, conversely, I’ve been altering the driver to accommodate my inefficiency in my swing,” Mickelson said. “And now that my swing is getting better with the driver, I’ve got to change the driver makeup and setup. So that’s developing a whole other set of things to get used to.”

He mentioned fatigue after the four days, and it seems likely that the "F-word", both the physical and mental varieties, kicked in over the weekend.  Ultimately the only thing that matters is that he got to play four rounds with a scorecard in his hand and his groin and his caddie's knees seem to have survived.

Danny Lee seems to be one of the funnier guys out there, so enjoy his punking Phil by doing the Phil ;leap after holing a short putt...while playing with said Phil.  Though the judges will add a mandatory deduction because his feet actually left the ground....

59 Is The New 62 - I know, this story has to be at least a week old....

As for that third-round 59, just another day on Tour:

Hadwin, 29, holed a three-foot par-saving putt on the 18th hole to complete the ninth sub-60 round shot in PGA Tour history, but the first by a player without a tour victory.

“I walked off 17, and I said to my caddie Joe, ‘It looks like a lot more people than when we teed off,' " Hadwin said. "I was shaking, I really was. I knew what was at stake. The last thing you want to do is miss a three-footer for 59." 

Asked to describe the round, he said, "I don’t know. Perfect, I guess. I got away with a few shots on the back and for whatever reason any time I hit a putt it went in. Everybody talks about you being in the zone, it’s your day. It was my day."

Let's also remember that not only did we have Justin Thomas' 59 last week at The Sony, but we're also seeing an increase in televised 59-watches, or so it seems to this viewer.  And we've become so blase that Golf.com's Tour Confidential panel wasn't even asked about it....

The most interesting item on this subject comes from our Shack, in a post on conditions this week at Torrey Pines.  Here he tries to explain the confluence of factors leading to the lights out scoring:

-Instruction and Trackman have made players better at repeating swings, repairing flaws 

Will we see one of these every week?

and fitting equipment.

--Conditioning of courses has never been better, impacting scoring (though the suggestion that tighter mowing heights leads to more roll was nicely debunked).

--Equipment has never been better made or more effective for all skill levels, giving the players instruments to attack courses like never before.

--Course setup has become more fluid, democratic and interesting in recent years, leading to some thrilling moments and less par-protection.

--Players and caddies have rangefinders and other tools to better understand courses.

Geoff, don't forget all the time they're spending in the gym!  

Now, it should be noted that the weather was quite cooperative at these events, relatively soft conditions with almost no winds.  

So, what's the solution?  Here's Geoff's:

A 59 is still a magical score, especially on a par-72 course (13 birdies by Hadwin!). Lamenting these rounds hurts the cause of those pushing for a competition ball since a 59 is an incredible athletic achievement aided by human progress on many fronts.

Loyal longtime readers who know how long I've been venting about this know that the only genuine solution is a ball that better fits select courses. Because the governing bodies are not going to tell manufacturers to stop innovating and even when they do, the companies are too good at what they do. Players are not going to get less skilled and superintendents, caddies and instructors are not going to be getting worse at their jobs. 

A ball that simply allows course architecture to ask a few more questions of players--in the form of longer approach shots to greens and more drivers off the tees--would do wonders for the pro game. Furthermore, I suspect elite players would actually enjoy employing such a ball at select classics--assuming they are real competitors and not placing themselves above the game. Such an introduction should also usher in a larger ball that goes longer and helps beginning and senior players enjoy the game more. 

I point this out because harvesting rough, while helping to tamp down the current infighting and grousing over great achievements, does little to advance the best long term cause. Keep that in mind this week!

While I don't disagree, I also don't have high hopes that our governing bodies will take on this issue....

The problem, as I see it, is that these technological advantages tend to equalize the field in terms of ball-striking.  It's simply harder to separate oneself from the field tee-to-green, making the performance of the DJs and Bubbas all the more impressive...

All of these advances ultimately diminish in returns, but the cumulative effect may not.  The result is that it pushes the game towards being a putting contest, kind of like the round-belly tour.

Hunky Torrey - Here's the skinny on that Shack post:

The good news for San Diego and elsewhere in California is that the rainfall that has made for an exceedingly wet winter has put a substantial dent into the severe drought that has plagued the state. 

The downside, with the Farmers Insurance Open and Tiger Woods coming to Torrey

Pines next week, is that the storm before the calm won’t begin to abate until Tuesday night, according to forecasts. The sun is expected to return on Wednesday with no more rain predicted through Sunday.

“It’s obvious that it’s pretty wet,” said Scott Bentley, golf course manager for the City of San Diego and a PGA of America professional. "Our thing is that we’ve been in a drought situation, so rainwater is great. But it has changed the way we prep for the tournament. We get out and mow when we can mow to prepare to not mow for a couple of days.” 

San Diego County was inundated with heavy winds and rain , that measured more than 2 ½ inches in places on Friday. What’s that portend for the golfers? Nasty rough and the need to keep the ball in the fairway. 

“The tour was out and took the rough down a little lower, for preparation for not being able to mow it,” Bentley said. “But it’s thick and juicy. It’s healthy. It’s going to be difficult.”

Interesting, considering that we've got a couple of older show ponies not exactly known for hitting fairways....

The TC panel was asked about expectations for Tiger,  and these two guys had seen that report on the rough:

Alan Shipnuck: It's been raining a ton in San Diego so the course will be long and soft - that'll help Tiger hit more fairways but he'll have more lumber into holes than at least a third of the field. I expect we'll see a less exciting version of the golf at the Hero - good shots and mistakes but not so much of either. Making the cut will be a nice accomplishment on this long road back. 

Joe Passov: I'm with John here. Albany did yield some really unusual situations for missed fairways. Those same misses at Torrey won't be quite as penal. And if the rough remains thick and wet, few are better at gouging shots out as Tiger. I still look at 24 birdies in 72 holes and think that if his putter is working even close to that, he'll make the cut.

Well, Joe, he used to be, but wasn't that about two back surgeries ago?  

In tying these issues together, the concern that Shack and I have is the use of severe and dreary set-ups, such as excessively long rough, to control scoring....  We all remember the Tom Meeks era of U.S. Open set-ups, and we'd rather let them play and go low than return there.

Now, let me just add that this was Goeff's header:

Whew!? There Won't Be Any 59s At Torrey Pines

I certainly agree that under these conditions that there isn't likely to be a 59 on the South Course.  But I just don't know how he can be so sure about the shorter North Course?  Probably not, but you heard it here first....

Ratings Gold -  I don't much blog TV ratings for golf, as it bores me terribly.  The numbersd are so small to begin with, so any variability is six guys who watched porn instead....

But Shack had this from last weekend, which wa sjust a howler:

Thanks to the postponement of Sunday's Chiefs-Steelers game originally slated for an early Sunday start, ESPN's presentation of the Latin America Amateur Championship was the top rated golf telecast last weekend. The LAAC averaged 550,000 viewers over a 2:37 window from 1 pm-3:37 pm ET. 

According to SportsTVRatings.com, the next highest rated golf telecast came from Florida, where the Diamond Resorts Invitational drew an incredible average of 350,000 viewers over three hours.

Got that?  The PGA Tour's event aired in Prime Time was only the third highest rated golf broadcast of the weekend.  I suppose I should rejoice that more than a half-million watched an amateur event, but this is what funds the gravy train....  Freakish one-off or harbinger of turbulence ahead?  

Late-Week Laments

A late start to blogging, but let's see what's happening in our game...

Scenes From The Desert - Golfweek used this header:

Phil Mickelson 'phenomenal' in 2017 debut at CareerBuilder Challenge

Whereas Golf.com went this direction:

Phil Mickelson Scrambles for 68 in His Return to Tour

Wow, it's a golf version of Rashomon.... Don't panic, folks, I promise that there will be no further references to any of the Punic Wars.

here's the lede from that first linked piece:

LA QUINTA, Calif. – “Stop,” Phil Mickelson tells an amateur in his group near the green on No. 10 at La Quinta Country Club.

The amateur is contorting his body and standing very awkwardly over a bunker shot that will almost certainly go poorly with or without advice from the five-time major winner. Still, Mickelson tells him to choke up on his club.

On the next tee box, Mickelson chatted with Jerry Kelly and gave a lengthy explanation to a fan who loudly asked if he was half Italian while the group waited to hit.

Yup – Lefty is back.

This comment from our hero makes me side with the second header:

"I struck it horrible, but I scored out of my mind," Mickelson said. "So, I'm very happy with it. My first round of golf was Saturday and I've been able to work out just the last two weeks."

I'm gonna say, though, that this was the bigger debut:

Phil Mickelson, recovering from a pair of offseason surgeries, will make his first start of

2017 at the CareerBuilder Challenge today, but it's also a return for his caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay. 

Both Mickelson and Mackay had surgery on Oct. 19: Mickelson the first of his two sports hernia surgeries and Bones a double-knee replacement. 

Mackay, 51, has caddied for Mickelson since 1992. He told ESPN's Bob Harig that his knees have hurt for years, and, after surgery, the doctor told Mackay his knees were worse than expected. 

"It was a disaster," Mackay said.

Glad they're of pain.... and we have our first postmodern moment of the season.  See if you notice anything here:

Yup, he's sporting a logo of his own self from the 204 Masters.  Either that, or he's a fan of this movie.... Well, they can't you know...

And today's floundering Aussie installment features Stephen Bowditch, my pick of the litter because he doesn't take it out on others (see, Allenby, Robert).  Here's the background on how bad it's gotten:

As a preface, we should illustrate Bowditch's plight. The Australian had a breakthrough campaign in 2015, winning the AT&T Byron Nelson, hauling in over $3 million in earnings and earning a spot on the Presidents Cup International team. The last two years, however, have not been kind to Bowditch. The 33 year old has just two top-25 finishes in his last 30 appearances, missing the cut in his last nine tournaments. He's fallen to 287th in world rankings.

The author links to an old item reminding us of that time our hero failed to break 80 in four rounds at The Blue Monster.  So, what to do?  

Nevertheless, he's clearly a desperate man, looking for anything to revive his game. Including, it appears, putting decade-old clubs in the bag.

GolfWRX took some photos of Bowditch's bag at this week's CareerBuilder Challenge, finding Callaway Big Bertha Fusion irons, a TaylorMade R7 Quad Draw wood from the mid-2000s, along with a Cobra AMP Cell hybrid from 2012. While these clubs have relatively outdated technology (at least compared to the equipment at the tour level), it appears they offer a comfortability Bowditch can't currently find.

 The joke is on TaylorMade, as their paying him to help sell clubs that are no longer for sale....  I remember that R7 Quad, about which I can only say that it's a good dancer and makes all its own clothes.

Last up is another history lesson, a sweet read about The King's last "W":

Against a legacy of green jackets and Claret Jugs, a final-round charge at Cherry Hills

and countless appearances in all corners of the globe, Arnold Palmer’s win at the 1973 Bob Hope Desert Classic would hardly seem to resonate. 

But, oh, how it meant everything to him. 

“The sweetest ever,” Palmer said that February Sunday 44 years ago. 

Sweeter than any of his four Masters? His two Open Championships? His historic 1960 U.S. Open? Truthfully, probably not – except that for all the emotions Palmer harbored in the early days of 1973, it’s understandable he would have expressed such joy after his final-round 3-under 69 at Bermuda Dunes to finish at 17-under 343. 

On so many levels, it was memorable. Partly because of whom he edged by two strokes — the incomparable rival, Jack Nicklaus, and a 25-year-old desert juggernaut named Johnny Miller, who was months away from making U.S. Open history at Oakmont. Partly because it was his fifth win at “the Hope,” a five-day convergence of golf, showbiz celebrities, big business executives and politicians that seemingly was invented for the charismatic Palmer.

I actually watched that final round, and was thoroughly disappointed that my golf God lost.  But upon further review.... Just read the whole damn thing, but how about this photo?

I understand the need to give sponsors their naming rights, but why the Tour turned its back on the glamour of the Hope remains an enduring mystery....

Scenes From That Other Desert - The Euros have taken their walk-up music to Abu Dhabi, and shall we just take a moment to enjoy that little piece of irony?  Muslims do love their music, don't they, especially those girl bands.....

Of course they're without Rory, but through the magic of appearance fees it's a pretty strong field.  Off to a good start is the ever-amusing Henrik Stenson, who attributes his opening-round 64 to clean living and...well, let him tell it:

Coming off a career year in which he captured his first major championship and claimed a silver medal at the Olympics, Henrik Stenson has no reason to change his approach to

golf tournaments. A superb opening round to 2017 that surprised even him, though, might have him re-think things a little. 

Stenson shot a bogey-free eight-under 64 Thursday in the first round of the European Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. When he was asked to explain his strong start, Stenson deadpanned, "It must be the lack of practice that does it. Lack of sleep, lack of practice." 

Funny, that's the approach most weekend hackers take. And we definitely don't get the same results.

Who's got the time for that kind of exacting regimen?

We also had the first caddie emergency of the year, but it's a story with a happy ending:

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Lee Westwood needed someone to carry his 

bag for him at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this week when his long-time caddie dropped out following the death of his father. 

With his options limited at such short notice, the former No. 1 called on someone close to home. 

His girlfriend, Helen Storey, has wanted to try out the job for a while and was happy to help out, especially since she had the week off from her day job as a personal trainer.

 Helen had an intuitive grasp of the job:

"I didn't advise him," Helen said at the back of the 18th green at the end of Westwood's round. "Just keeping up: That was my job. And I made sure he was hydrated.

But to me this was quite an interesting take from the player himself:

''It was good for me, doing the yardage, reading the greens, and taking a bit more responsibility," he marked. "You sometimes lose touch with your game when you haven't got that responsibility.''

I'll let the reader draw his or her own conclusions about the link between reading the greens and the quality of his putting.  I mean, did you watch the Ryder Cup?

How Low Can They Go? - Mark Whicker of the OC Register talks to the players about the scoring tsunami and comes away with some interesting insights.  The piece should carry a metaphor alert, although I mostly enjoyed his wordplay, but your mileage may vary.  He also had some great statistics, such as this:

Last week at Hawaii he shot 253, a PGA Tour record. That’s 27-under on a course that had only two par-5 holes, which he played eight times, at 10-under.

Of course, labeling them a Par-5 doesn't make them, you know, a Par-5....Those two weren't even half-pars in the absence of wind.

First up is The Duf:

“Larry Nelson won the U.S. Open at Oakmont (in 1993),” Dufner said. “He told me that on the first hole, he’d hit four-iron into the green. Last year I hit pitching wedge three days, sand wedge the other day.”

Ya got that?  That's the most feared opening hole at the toughest of all the venues used for the war of attrition called the U.S. Open.  But our betters insist that distance gains have stabilized....

William McGirt, one of Employee No. 2's faves, turns out to be an astute observer:

In 1998, John Daly led the tour by averaging 298 yards. Last year, there were 27 pros who topped 300. This year, Smylie Kaufman leads with an impossible average drive of

322. 

Any course with mundane par-5s is helpless. Luke List is already 50-under-par on the long holes this season. 

“People will say the golf ball doesn’t go any farther, but they’re wrong,” McGirt said. “The drivers can’t get hotter. The ball is the only common denominator with all the shots. 

“They’ve basically taken an old two-piece, hard-brick ball and made it spin. That benefits the bombers. They can get to the core and compress it better than anyone. I can’t do that, but I have a ball I know I can control.”

Nobody said there would be physics in this gig....  This was also quite interesting as relates to the use of Trackman:

“It detects a flaw before it gets out of control,” McGirt said. “If your swing is a degree and a half steeper than it should be, you can fix it before it becomes four degrees. You look at it and scratch your head and say it looks the same, but it’s not. Video doesn’t pick everything up.

“Because of this, I don’t have to have my teacher (John Tillery) with me all the time. I can hit 40 shots and e-mail them, and he can pull the numbers and say, here’s what the problem is. But some guys get caught up in it. They might start playing numbers instead of playing golf.”

It is the 21st century...   this is pretty profound, because the ubiquitous technology allows for incredible control and feedback of the notoriously inconsistent human being....  A Brave New World indeed.

Many, Moe and Jack Cash In - The great Augusta, GA landgrab continues, though where you guy if need auto parts is unclear:

Augusta National Golf Club's land grab continues on Washington Road. In October, it

was a music store. More recently, an auto repair shop. And no, you shouldn't expect to see either still standing by the time the Masters rolls around. 

According to ABC News Channel 6, a Pep Boys is the latest local business to sell its property to Augusta National. Both News 6 and CBS News 12 cite property records that show ANGC paid $6.9 million for the store. That's a lot of oil changes. 

And that's even more than the $5.35 million the club reportedly bought Jay's Music Center for in the fall. That price was more than eight times what the land is assessed for, according to Richmond County records.

For those of you fielding a fantasy real estate roster, here's what's left:

Multiple news outlets say an Olive Garden, a Wendy's and a Walgreens remains as the only three businesses between Old Berckmans Road and New Berckmans Road off of Washington Road, which runs in front of the club. It's probably just a matter of time before they're also swallowed up by ANGC's expansion.

I've got an Olive Garden-DJ parley with good odds....

Misogyny Update -  The IOC has been harshly awoken from its slumbers, and is on the case regarding the Tokyo golf venue:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has reportedly expressed concern over the membership regulations and contacted the International Golf Federation to see if the club can be persuaded to grant female members the same rights as the men. 

The club has 220 female golfers on its books, but they are not allowed to become full members or play on Sundays. Male members face no such restrictions. 

Its general manager, Hiroshi Imaizumi, said the club was prepared to review its membership policy if asked to do so by the IOC or the golf federation. “I think we should keep up with the times,” Imaizumi told AFP.

But he added that the club’s management had been taken by surprise by Koike’s criticism since “we haven’t received any complaints from female members about the rules”.

Cynics will argue that the last bit is because they know their place, but I choose to view this as an opportunity to celebrate another equally-valid culture.  

The Japan Golf Council, a non-profit organisation launched last year with the aim of modernising the game, is lobbying to have the tournament moved from Kasumigaseki to Wakasu Golf Links, a public course near Tokyo Bay. Wakasu was initially proposed as the 2020 golf venue, but was replaced by Kasumigaseki in early 2013, several months before Tokyo was chosen to host the Games.

Shack provides this wonderful satellite imagery of Wakasu's stunning location:

The routing looks as drearily unimaginative as Firestone, and Shack adds these other limiting factors:

Established in 1990, Wakasu was designed by Ayako Okamoto and is 6881 yards with a tiny 20-stall, 200-yard deep driving range. Judging by the aerial, it's a fantastic location severely landlocked and design deficient to handle the competition.

I'm sure the membership policies at Kasumigaseki will be sanitized to get on the right side of history, a phrase I will not miss after 12:01 this afternoon.

Thursday Threads

OK, that rock hasn't gotten any smaller in the last 24 hours....

World Ends, Women Golfers Hardest Hit - The outrage industry is there for us 24/7, and Shack plays Aggregator-Elect...  Who says there are jobs that Americans won't do.  I'm sure it's just coincidental that these howls for respect appear when they do....  

First this from the even-tempered Guardian by a woman named Anya Alvarez (I know, a twofer), allegedly a former Big Break contestant.  Because I'm a more sensitive soul, I'll give her more time to make her case, which starts reasonably enough:

Golf media has a complicated relationship with women: it simply does not know what to do with them. Golf Magazine, Golf Digest and the Golf Channel are all guilty of 

The author, during her Bronze Era.

reducing women to their looks alone. Women Crush Wednesday was a regular feature on the Golf Channel website, highlighting aspiring female golfer pros with racy Instagram accounts; Golf Digest has only had 23 women on its cover in its 66-year history (nine of those covers were shared with men, and three were given to non-golf pros: Sonders, social media starlet Paulina Gretzky and model Kate Upton); Golf Magazine shares the same problem of rarely featuring female pros on its cover and usually gives them coverage when the focus is on physical beauty, rather than athletic accomplishments.

 I don't really quibble with that, assuming of course her data is accurate.  But she does go on, and her grasp on reality becomes increasingly tenuous:

I played on the LPGA tour for one season and the developmental tour for two years before that. During my time on tour I felt better coverage for female golf pros could actually help grow the game for women. Since golf is male dominated, and the recreational golf population is only 20% female, golf media focuses on appealing to men. Perhaps magazines and websites think that if they started providing real coverage on LPGA golfers men would lose interest. Maybe they’re right, but they would no longer be marginalizing women. Women make up 50% of the population, so in business terms it does not make sense to completely undermine us by only viewing us as bodies to be objectified and gawked at.

Fact Check:  Virtually every LPGA event is, in fact, televised, and about six people tune in.  No word from Anya as to whether federal subsidies are indicated.... 

Oliver Brown (in The Telegraph) takes Holly Sonders to the woodshed.... I speak metaphorically of course:

Sonders, predictably, took to Twitter to say she was “humbled” by the accolade. My

colleague James Corrigan countered, quite rightly, that she ought to feel insulted. For if Sonders postures as a progressive force for women for golf – and she does, openly – then she should perhaps question, firstly, why not a single top-50 active player merits a mention in this risible list and, secondly, why an influential magazine insists upon ranking according to aesthetic rather than athletic virtues.

The crassness is overwhelming. In football, Sepp Blatter was all but flayed alive, with some justification, for suggesting that women’s matches could be more enticing if the protagonists deigned to wear tighter shorts. Golf, however, makes a veritable industry out of this casual objectifying.

Does Holly "posture"?  To be honest, since she moved to Fox she's probably relieved that anyone remembers that she's still in the golf industry....  

But it's not just Holly in that woodshed....  Mr. Brown goes after Jerry Tarde as well:

In May 2014 it decided that, all things being equal, it was high time to find a female cover star. There was an eclectic array of contenders: teenage phenomenon Lydia Ko was on the rise, while Lexi Thompson had just electrified audiences in America by becoming the second youngest women’s major champion in history. Instead, the brains trust in residence alighted upon the figure of Paulina Gretzky, whose towering contribution to this great game was that she happened to be the fiancée of Dustin Johnson. Plus, she was glamorous – and amenable to the idea of seductively bending over her club in a sports bra. 

The specious flannelling that Jerry Tarde, the editor-in-chief, used to justify this selection was priceless.

“Paulina ranks at the high end of the golf celebrity scene today,” he argued. “She has a compelling story to tell.” 

Seriously, Jerry? A compelling story? You might care to study what one of your own writers said about Miss Gretzky, in another hit parade headed 'WAGs of the US Open’, to form a fuller sense of her exotic hinterland.

“She is known for posting scantily-clad photos of herself on Instagram,” the caption reads. “And, well, that’s really it.”

Mr. Tarde is in the business of selling magazines, and I understand that it's disheartening to some that Paulina moves more mags than Shansheng Feng....  But Jerry is accountable, and our social justice warriors are not.  Men like pretty women and men buy sports publications, deal with it.

I suspect that the folks at Golf.com thought they would get praised for including several more elderly ladies, such as Julie Crenshaw and Jan Stephenson....  Yeah, good luck with that.

But your favorite blogger missed the funniest aspect of the aforementioned Jan Stephenson photo...You remember, the tub filled with golf balls.  Here's the original:

It made quite the stir back in the day.... Of course, that was pre-Paulina...  And here's the new version:

Kudos to Shack for noticing the comedy gold that your humble servant missed....  Do you see it?  Anyone?  Bueller?

That grab bar is just priceless....  please tell me it was intentional!

Hope Happenings - I know, hard to get too excited, but how about a history lesson?

Every year a Christmas card from Fred Couples arrives at the Nieporte home in Boca Raton, Fla., and therein lies a story about the last club pro to win a PGA Tour event 50 

Make the Hope Great Again!

years ago at the 1967 Bob Hope Desert Classic (now this week's CareerBuilder Challenge). 

Couples was a hotshot Tour rookie when he arrived at the 1982 Hope where a big rope separated the pro section of the range from the amateurs. When he couldn't find an open spot, Couples noticed an older guy hitting striped range balls on the pro side — not the balatas the pros used — and he cockily sauntered over to him. "Excuse me, sir," Couples said. "This is where the pros hit balls. The amateur side is over there."

Tom Nieporte looked up from his bucket with his steely blue eyes and said, "Sonny, I am a pro. I won this tournament in 1967."

At least he called him Sir!  Lots of good detail to be found, so do give it a read....

And while the events field is mostly B-to-C players, there's at least one piece of good news:

Although Phil Mickelson cautioned that playing this week at the CareerBuilder

Challenge was going to be a "last-minute decision," many assumed the five-time major winner would be watching from the sidelines. Mickelson had undergone two hernia surgeries this offseason, and with off-the-course duties as tournament ambassador this week, the setting didn't seem conducive for a comeback. 

Yet, after a successful practice round, the 46-year-old is ready to make his 2017 debut in La Quinta. 

“I feel good and I want to play," Mickelson told the PGA Tour's media staff. "I don’t know where my game is, but I figure the only way to find out is to play.”

Let's hope he can hang until the weekend....

Twitter Spat du Jour - You know that Brandel can't resist, right?  Luke Kerr-Dineen with the details of the Hatfields and McCoys of the golf world:

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee is a bit like Skip Bayless. Bold, smart, and never wary of sharing his often bold opinions. 

Being that Rory McIlroy is among the very best golfers in the world, he's a frequent topic of discussion for Chamblee. The two bumped heads last year when Chamblee criticized Rory's workout habits, and now, their Twitter feud is flaring up again. 

It started when Chamblee claimed that the best drivers of the golf ball actually hit "down" on the golf ball, rather than "up" on it. That may sound stupid and wonky to non golf nerds, but it's actually a pretty contentious take in the golf community. Then, he tried to prove his point by sharing this picture of Jack Nicklaus.

You'll have to click through to see the tweets, the surprise being that they're fighting over swing mechanics as opposed to Rory's lifting regimen.  But Brandel, taking on Rory on the subject of driver swings is like playing Jeopardy against Ken Jennings....

And do give Shack a click just for the gif of Rory taking Brandel into the boards.... 

Can't we all just get along?

Euros Go Wild - What will these wacky Euros do next?  

Looking relaxed in his black shorts and ankle-length socks, Thongchai Jaidee took aim at the range and hit a shot into the cloudless sky to the backdrop of "The Zephyr Song" by

the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 

Minutes later, the playlist had moved on to a dance song by Scottish DJ Calvin Harris.

Welcome to the modern-day European Tour. 

Music is being played on the range throughout the week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. The intention also is for music to be played on the walkway to the first tee, giving it a feel comparable to the build-up to a boxing match. 

The soundtrack to golf will no longer be just the thwack or ping of club on ball, or the ripple or roar of applause from the galleries.

What's not made clear to me is whether, as in baseball, the players will be allowed to choose their own walk-up music...  That might be some fun, as long as Enter Sandman is off limits.  Because, you know, Mariano...

But, of course, it's a generational thing:

"I didn't like it on Tuesday," said Paul Lawrie, a 48-year-old Scot who won the British Open in 1999. "When they turned it down, it was fine. But before that, you couldn't hear your caddie." 

Lawrie is on the tour's committee that approved music on the range. 

"You need to try (these ideas) to see if they work or not," he said. "Everyone seems to quite like it but I'm just old. I'm old-school."

Look at the bright side, Paul...  If this hadn't come up, we'd never have known that you're still on tour.

 On The Cheape - The St. Andrews Links Trust has a wonderful page on the restoration of the highly strategic Cheape's bunker:

Our winter programme has been blessed with some pretty kind weather, so much so that

the recent cold snap and sudden arrival of winter hasn’t impacted greatly on our schedules. Over the low season months one of our main projects on the Old Course was to revisit and restore Cheape’s bunker to a shape more akin to what historical records showed the bunker looked like back in the 1800’s. Positioned on the 2nd fairway, this is the first significant bunker acting as a bearing point. ‘Cheape’s’ defines the leftmost side of the hole, sitting on the corner of the dogleg of the 17th. Named after the family who once owned the land on which the Old Course sits, players are mindful to steer right of this hazard from the tee.

It's one of the few twofer bunkers, affecting play on the 17th as well:

It's right at the dogleg of the famed Road Hole, but it's a must to avoid off the second tee and one of the few times one can get in trouble by going left on the Old Course.

Now they're restoring it to the look of the 1800's, a time when they played the course in the opposite direction.  

Midweek Musings

Sisyphus here, reporting for duty.  So all you need is for me to get this here rock to the top of that little hill?  

RIP, Kirkland Signature - Man, was that a fun ride, or what?  MyGolfSpy has owned this story, so over to you, Tony:

The Costco Kirkland Signature Golf Ball; man what a story. By now you know the deal. It's a four-piece, urethane cover golf ball, with performance that can stand toe to toe with any tour ball on the market today. 

At least he left a good-looking corpse.

All that, and it's only $15 a dozen. 

Our source inside Costco has not responded to our calls; however, a source familiar with the situation has told us that Costco has suspended production of the Kirkland Signature until further notice. Whether you want to call it a shortage or a total outage, the lack of Kirkland golf balls available to the consumer is being blamed on supply chain issues. 

We're told that, internally, Costco is saying that production will resume at a later date (and that an email will be sent to customers when stock is available), but we have good reason to believe that is an unlikely scenario.

Supply chain issues is the "dog ate my homework" of the equipment world...  OK, so how did this happen?

A representative of Nassau Golf (originally listed as the manufacturer of the Kirkland Signature Ball on the USGA conforming list) has told MyGolfSpy that Costco purchased overruns of Nassau's European-market-exclusive Quattro ball. There is some indication the sale was made through a third party, and that Nassau may not have been directly involved in the deal. The same source confirms that while the Costco balls have a different core color, the material composition and layer thickness are absolutely identical to the Quattro. 

With the initial supply of overruns exhausted, Costco effectively has nothing left to sell.

One secret of the golf ball industry is that a small number of factories produce the balls for for all of the "manufacturers".  We got a glimpse of this from Tiger's comments when he signed with Bridgestone, noting that they had actually produced his Nike golf balls.

Geoff is all over this, including this surprising detail on the source of the over-run:

Multiple sources I contacted felt that cores were from an overrun of Taylor Mades that needed to be disposed of when Adidas demanded that their subsidiary squeeze cash out of anything they could. The intent was not to disrupt the industry, but instead to cash in however they could on unused inventory. When GolfWRX noted the initial frenzy and MyGolfSpy's review hit, the ball became a disruptor. 

Covey does note that the Kirkland ball's manufacturing location is now back to its mission of making Taylor Made golf balls and that a similar situation to the 2016 "K-Sig" is unlikely anytime soon, if at all.

Shack notes the timing elsewhere, but I wonder if there might have been more to this than squeezing the last nickel out of inventory.  Could they have concluded the the threat of Costo stealing golf ball m sales was a unique black swan event at the time of Titleist's IPO?  Or am I imagining that second shooter on the grassy knoll?

Shack's post has a lengthy treatise on the takeaways form the incident, including these:

--MyGolfSpy's review was incredibly powerful, GolfWRX once again fueled interest in a product and the tide may have turned for golf equipment reviews. As other sluggish traditional publications sat on the sidelines, perhaps for fear of upsetting major manufacturers or simply because Costco is not a potential advertiser, independent internet reviews fueled the frenzy. (GolfWRX first posted about a "frenzy" on October 28th and while Mark Crossfield only posted a review three days ago, internet influencers established even greater power thanks to the Kirkland ball.) 

--A lot of people don't like Titleist. There was much behind-the-scenes joy at Titleist facing a scary competitive hit around the time of their IPO. Some of the hostility could be chalked up to their longtime spot atop golf ball sales. Some of the glee was over the incredible brand loyalty Titleist inspires. Some of it related to their hostile position toward distance rollback advocates. But most hostility centered around about the price of a dozen ProV's compared to others and was aired on forums. However...

--A lot of people don't know what goes into the cost of a golf ball. The anger ignored how much Titleist and other major manufacturers spend on R&D and manufacturing in the USA. That's right, unlike the Costco ball, we are talking about an American made product. I was amazed how many golfers were not aware that ProV's and Callaway Chrome Softs are made in Massachusetts by American workers. If you like to buy "Made in the USA" products, this episode was an eye-opener.

As for the first, he's spot-on, as to both the impact from websites and, perhaps of greater importance, the compromised nature of reviews from traditional golf publications.

On the second point, perhaps he should have clarified that he means from the other equipment companies.  The Titleist golf ball business is simply the most valuable franchise in the golf industry, and this is how market participants play.  It's actually a very good thing, though that's not to say that every tactic gets that seal of approval.

That last bit is good to see from Geoff, who's business acumen has occasionally seemed lacking to this observer.  Though he's help himself by adding marketing expenses, including player contracts and Jim Nantz.  While the S-1 did not break out the ball business, the entire business (including clubs and FootJoy shoes and apparel) shows strong gross margins of about 50%, but extraordinarily high selling expenses.  In a way it's comparable to the pharmaceutical industry, where folks will scream about the excessive margins when they haven't paid off the billion dollars it took in R&D and clinical trials....

Lastly, Shack reminds of this fun viral video of Titleist majordomo Wally Uhlein reacting to his new competitor:

Interestingly, Shack tells Wally that he's lucky that they haven't done a Downfall version...  are you familiar with those parodies?  Here's a recent example of The Fuhrer dealinh with loss:

Thank God they clearly label this as parody, otherwise we might assume that he was, in fact, a Star Wars fan...  Next up, Hitler is informed that Jordan Spieth made a quad at Augusta National's No. 12....

Euro-Doings - Significant changes on the Euro Ryder Cup front, accomplished as best I know without benefit of a task force....   and, more importantly, without hijacking the post-event press conference.

This is no doubt the most significant change, at least as far as the 2018 installment is concerned:

Membership criteria of the European Tour to be dropped from five tournaments to four tournaments (outside the Majors and WGCs) for the 2018 season.

Can't blame them as far as the Ryder Cup is concerned, looking to set the bar low enough to ensure all their best will maintain membership....  No reaction yet from Paul Casey, who might be the canary here.  

But the long-term issue is their sponsors, with the Ryder Cup serving as the only means to ensure continued support for the Euro Tour from their best players, who know where the money and prestige are.

Other changes:

Ryder Cup qualification points (both R2D Points and World Points) to be multiplied by

1.5 for tournaments later in the qualification process. The starting point for this will be the BMW PGA Championship in 2018. 

No Ryder Cup qualification points will be available from tournaments staged anywhere in the world opposite Rolex Series tournaments in both 2017 and 2018. 

Qualification for the 2018 team to change to four players from the Ryder Cup European Points List, four from the Ryder Cup World Points List and four Wild Card picks for Captain Bjørn.

In no particular order, let me add some reactions.

First, everyone seems to be on the bus on the concept of finding players "on form", the proof of which I've never seen.  My sense is that if forced to choose between the good and the hot player, take the former....  More interesting is the protection afforded the sponsor, Rolex, in denying points for conflicting events.  Let's see how the players schedule, complicated by the fact that their now competing for only four spots on the World Points List.

And get this:

Players cannot be a European Ryder Cup Captain or a Vice-Captain if they decline membership of the European Tour or fail to fulfil their minimum event obligation in any season, from 2018 onwards.

Shall we beat the rush and dub this The Casey rule?

I guess the only real surprise in this is the increase in captain's picks, as that wasn't an area in which Cap'n. Clarke distinguished himself.  The best of his picks, Thomas Pieters, was seemingly forced on him, and I'm guessing that many folks might have preferred Russell Knox to Lee Westwood.... Sorry Euro readers, still too soon?

Phil, Statesman - Fresh off saving the Ryder Cup, our hero takes on a far more daunting challenge:

Phil Mickelson wants to make one thing clear. Just because he has the title of ambassador for the CareerBuilder Challenge doesn’t mean the tournament is a Phil Mickelson tournament. 

“I view it differently than that,” said Mickelson, who was announced last spring as the ambassador for the desert’s PGA Tour event. “An ambassador is not a host. I’m just really trying to help out. But it is not my tournament. What I am is trying to get this tournament to the status it once had.”

Good luck with that son, because your predecessors all failed pretty miserably.  Especially since that double-hernia surgery (the hernia wasn't doubled, but there were two surgeries) has robbed the field of it's biggest name.

“To have a dignitary, icon or current player's name associated with your community tournament is an added benefit,” said Nick Raffaele, in his first year as tournament director of the CareerBuilder Challenge. “To have Phil Mickelson as our tournament ambassador at the CareerBuilder Challenge is a privilege beyond just the naming aspect. Phil's love for the game of golf, compassion for the fans and knowledge of a successful event from a players’ point of view is beyond description. It's a whole new game at this year's CareerBuilder Challenge on many levels."

As I noted at the time, losing the Clinton Foundation was a very smart move....  In fact, did you hear that The Clinton Global Initiative is being shut down?  That's what happens to an influence peddling scheme when there's no longer any influence to be peddled....

Here's the master three-year plan:

"The idea is to create an identity. Our identity is a chance for players to build a foundation for the rest of the year. We want to get a few top players in the field as the

year starts.” 

As the desert tournament evolved in the 1960s and 1970s, it always had top-name pros from Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus to Gary Player to Johnny Miller to Mickelson himself. Getting at least a few names like that back in the field could help push the CareerBuilder to bigger heights, Mickelson said, and maybe even bring back a little of what the tournament was decades ago.

“If we get a few top players, get some top amateurs and in the future some top celebrities out to the tournament, the tournament will be something fans want to come to,” he said.

That celebrity comment is of most interest, as the tourney seemed to relish moving beyond its Hopeful roots in recent years.  I don't know Phil's pull with celebrities, though I'm guessing he can produce Billy Walters if that's any help...  

You'd think as the first tourney on the schedule on the U.S. mainland they'd be lined up at the door, but the best players aren't keen when they know that it takes -30 to win.  There's also those seven events they've tacked on in the prior year, so it's not so much the first, is it?

So, let's treat it as a Harvard Business School case study, and see what our genius comes up with....

Making Scotland Great Again - I hadn't heard that the wind turbines had been dealt with, though low oil prices might be the explanation there.  But jobs are being created:

President-elect Donald Trump is expanding his Scottish golf resort despite a recent

promise to halt “new foreign deals,” raising further concerns about the business mogul’s potential conflicts of interest during his presidency. 

According to the Scottish Sunday Herald, the Aberdeenshire Council has approved a multimillion-dollar expansion of Trump International Golf Links Scotland, including the construction of a second 18-hole golf course, just days after the president-elect sought to quell concerns that he could use his political power to further his business interests. 

At a press conference last week, Trump’s attorney Sheri Dillon of the law firm Morgan Lewis outlined a trust agreement through which Trump would hand over the management of his vast business empire to his two eldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, without divesting his interests, a move the director of the Office of Government Ethics called “meaningless.”

 Are you tired of the winning, yet?

Let me just add that this is from Golf Magazine, not MSNBC.  While the conflict of interest is a fair issue, does it deserve to lede the coverage in a golf magazine?  Someone in this crazy world is building a golf course, that's news enough these days....

I'm a bit surprised, though, that he's going forward with the second course.  After scaling back the associated hotel plans, it's inconceivable that the resort can be profitable.  There wasn't a lot of play the day I was there, and it doesn't seem possible there's enough play to carry the place.

Inevitably the second course will be less interesting than the first, because they used the best of the land, in this case extremely dramatic dunes.  The land where the second course is to be built is far flatter and further inland, but at least it's also further from the turbines.

Rory, Dishing - I like Rory quite a bit...  Oh, he's got that stubborness thing we expect to find in the young, but he does try to answer questions with candor, unlike a certain Nike stablemate.

But Golfweek has comments that I don't think remotely live up to this header:

Rory McIlroy dishes on fiancée Erica Stoll, takes swipe at Wozniacki

Here are those comments:

“The thing I love about it,” he says, “is that we were friends before anything romantic

happened. We met when she was working for the PGA of America, and renting a condo in Palm Beach, and I found it refreshing being with someone who was living a normal life rather than, ‘Oh! My jet is 30 minutes late!’”

That's dishing?  Then this:

“I thought at the time that being with someone that was in a similar position to you was the obvious answer. But it isn’t, because you can never get away from it. You can never detach yourself and try to come back to the real world. And that’s why I feel in such a good place now. I don’t feel Erica wants to change me in any way. I can be myself around her; there’s no bulls–t, no acting, no show.”

It's not a perfect performance from a PR standpoint, but he's making an honest point about how athletes live.  It was hard for two of them to ever see each other, who doesn't get that?

The only swipe at Sweet Caroline is that last bit, and the listener has to infer that it's actually a swipe...  If I were his PR person, I'd have lost the last sentence and thrown in some boilerplate about Caroline being a nice girl, but it's no worse than a B-...

There's more, but I'm afraid that our time together must come to an end.