Thursday Threads

Lots of breaking news, so let's have at it...

Deal, Finally Done - Like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, the cool kids at Adidas have been wearing a dead carcass around their necks for far too long...  Finally, relief:

TaylorMade Golf has a new owner, with KPS Capital Partners LP purchasing the company -- as well Adams Golf and Ashworth -- for $425 million.

The news was announced internally to employees on Wednesday afternoon, completing a year-long search for a buyer. 

The purchase follows an internal announcement in March that adidas AG would begin a formal separation process with TaylorMade Golf which began immediately and would conclude in October 2017. The KPS purchase should be completed in fall 2017, according to company communication. 

The New York-based KPS Capital Partners manages $5.7 billion in investments in several companies, including Chassis Brakes International and Electrical Components International.

Now, before we get excited about that transaction valuation, you might want to see this:

About half of the $425 million will be paid in cash, while the remaining portion will be paid in the form of a secured note and contingent considerations. The final sale is expected to be completed in late 2017.

Secured?  That likely means that it's secured by the shares being purchased, in which case it's secured in name only....

Got a moment for some happy talk?

“This is the beginning of an exciting new era for TaylorMade, and our entire

management team is excited to partner with KPS in this next phase of our growth and continued development of our brands, business and people,” Abeles said in a statement. “The TaylorMade team is deeply committed to making the most technically advanced performance-driven golf equipment, and this mission will never change. Given their strategic vision, operational resources and significant access to capital, KPS is the ideal partner to help TaylorMade build upon its strong momentum.”

Private equity is not a terrific fit for the golf equipment industry, as their hurdle rates are seemingly higher than our niche industry can meet.  For instance, PE firms typically require a 20-25% cash return on invested capital.  We can't do the math because we don't how the deal will be financed by KPS, but those "operational resources and access to capital" will be tightly controlled.

But the obvious conclusion is that there were no strategic buyers and Adidas wanted gone....  So, Mission Accomplished.

TPC Ya - Finally folks are focused on the changes at Sawgrass, including Jeff Babineau, who hears that players are taking a conservative approach to the 12th:

This year’s Players, which begins on Thursday, hopes to infuse even more excitement on the back nine, transforming the formerly pedestrian 12th hole – “a plain Jane kind of a

hole,” says last year’s champion, Jason Day – into something that will get the party started well before players step to the reachable par-5 16th and please-stay-dry, famous island 17th. 

So the 12th hole has been shortened to 302 yards, hoping to lure players to stand on the tee, unsheath drivers, and produce a bold swing for the fences. It may even be shortened for a round or two, putting 3-woods into players’ hands. But the 12th, in its current state, may be far too much risk for seemingly little reward. 

Fowler even has looked ahead at the weather forecast – the first three rounds, winds are expected to be helping, and off the left – but he sounds as if he’ll resist any temptation to make the hero play.

The culprit seems to be the firmness and the slope:

Players have been feeling out the new-look 12th in practice rounds, and discovering quickly that the slope and firmness of the green propels many balls left, down the slope and into the water hazard. The last thing a player wants to do on an already-demanding golf course is be scrambling for par and possibly making 5 on a dinky 302-yard bunny of a hole.

“With regard to the green,” said Day, who shot 15-under 273 a year ago, winning by four, “I was here last Saturday and it was running 12.8 (on the Stimpmeter) and that’s pretty slick. If you hit it right, either on the fairway – the fairway chip is not too bad, but if you hit it in the bunkers or the rough and get yourself out of position, that green slopes away pretty quick. I played it yesterday, and some parts that have slope on the left, if you just dropped a ball and let it just kind of trickle down, it would go in the water. So, any sort of speed with anything is going to go in the water.

Will it be softer in March?  Never mind, Geoff has some great photos, first from the tee:

Looks doable from there, though that's easy for me to say.  He adds this photo from the lay-up area, showing the mounding that can obscure the player's view of the green:

And this view from behind the green:

With the mound shaved, balls will kick down into the water....  It should be a fairly routine up-and-in for par, but they're not in it for fours on this hole.

Shack says the players are griping about the slope, but advocates a wait and see attitude...  Just gotta say, if the geniuses in Ponte Vedra have redesigned this hole, resulting in an endless procession of iron lay-ups, that'll be quite the cock-up.

In other doings, you're no doubt aware of the Wednesday tradition, in which the loopers hold a closest-to-the-pin contest in honor of Bruce Edwards....  Well, this is...errr....highly unusual:

The unofficial estimate is about 102-104 yards for this golf ball toss on to No. 17. Caddies traditionally hit a shot to raise some funds for the Bruce Edwards Foundation. 

James Hahn's caddie, Mark Urbanek, instead threw a golf ball across the lake and onto the island green. I'm not sure how many would understand how impressive this feat is, but my rotator cuff hurts just watching:

Please tell me he spun it back....  Video at the link.

Then there's our weekly installment of players caddies behaving badly.... I'm guessing that's not Henrik's old trusty....

Rory's Feminine Side - I'm pretty sure that Ben Hogan never cried, but just think of the Tour as one big safe space and you won't be far wrong:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy showed up to Augusta, Ga., last month trying to land the final piece in his historic quest to land a career Grand Slam. The Masters is the only championship he is missing, and he tied for seventh. Will McIlroy cry on that day in the future that he finally is fitted for a green jacket? Debatable. But this year’s finish did reduce him to tears, as watching old pal Sergio Garcia finally win his first major really moved him emotionally. 

“I cried. I cried. It was unbelievable,” said McIlroy, who sped down Washington Road after his final round was done on Sunday to get to his rental house to watch the finish. Once there, he was screaming at his television as he watched two good friends – Garcia and Justin Rose – battle for the title. When Garcia missed a putt to win on the 72nd hole, McIlroy was cursing at the TV.

OK, but this is way too much information:

One other nice byproduct of McIlroy’s wedding to American Erica Stoll? It helped to patch up some simmering animosity between former Ryder Cup teammates Garcia and Padraig Harrington, two of the wedding attendees. McIlroy even scrolled through his phone just to show a photo of the two huddled next to one another, Garcia seemingly ready to plant a kiss on the Dubliner’s cheek.

I hope they'll be happy together, but I had naturally assumed that this is what made Rory cry:

The important thing is that they included the FedEx Cup trophy.... 

Did Someone Mention the FedEx Cup? - Shack pulls together a Day-2 post on the FedEx renewal, though his lede seems like mostly wishful thinking:

For fans, there was only one piece of news that should have come out of FedEx's renewal that matters: an improved format and better flow to the PGA Tour schedule.

Given the complex nature of the changes being discussed, neither happened. But it's worth waiting to see how things play out in hopes of turning an odd algorithm-driven competition into one that is a true playoff at season's end.

I agree that it's worth waiting, but only because we've not been given much osf a choice in the matter...  But while Jay Monahan have made it clear that they're looking at the schedule and at their TV contracts, there's not been a word uttered that leads to a conclusion that there's something less than optimal in their format.  Just sayin'....

Adam Schupak has some silliness in his account:

McIlroy took a more pragmatic approach to the FedEx Cup, which has succeeded in bringing the top players together to compete after the major season by dangling $35 million in prize money, including a $10 million payout to the winner. 

"It's brought another dimension to the PGA Tour," McIlroy said. "It's really gained traction. People are excited about it."

Really?  Name five such people.  At least five that haven't won the damn thing...

During his news conference with the media, Monahan kept his cards close to the vest. It has been widely reported that the Tour would like to move the Players back to March and swap the PGA Championship from its traditional August date to May so the FedEx Cup can conclude over Labor Day weekend and avoid clashing with the NFL season. 

"Right now, we don't have any plans on moving it back to March," Monahan said. "That's certainly been part of the consideration set." 

Multiple sources say it is inevitable, but Monahan continues to play coy. 

"You don't know that because I don't know that,” he said. “So how do you know that?"

You people can't handle the truth!

Obviously they don't want to talk about the inevitable contraction ahead:

Q. Can you just ever see a day where a tournament that performs well in its community and charity and everything else, there's not room for it on the schedule?

JAY MONAHAN: No, I think there will always be room. Using that fact pattern, there will always be room because you're talking about a tournament that's performed very well, that's performed well for us and we have got a strong relationship with, so I could see change in the schedule, but I can't see a removal of a partner from our schedule, because we have a duty and a commitment the to do everything we can to build those partnerships. I don't know, but that would be my response to it; we're certainly not thinking that way.

This is a problem entirely of  Commissioner Ratched's creation, so I'm not intending to pile on the man cleaning up the mess.  But the issue is that Doug Ferguson's question above is quite naive.  I'll remind that last week's Wells Fargo event was once the brightest star in the constellation, but moving the Players to the week after cured that...

And while Jay's answer seems sensible, that we're not going to kill off successful events, the rumors about the Boston playoff event might be contradictory evidence.

But kudos to Rex Hoggard for unearthing this somewhat shocking detail:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Along with the announcement on Tuesday that the

PGA Tour has reached a new, 10-year agreement with FedEx to sponsor the circuit’s season-long points race came news that the deal includes a category exclusivity clause. 

According to sources, the clause will keep players from participating in the season-long race if they have endorsement deals with one of FedEx’s competitors. 

“All I'm going to say on that front is when you're in business with someone for 30 years, and you're about to commit to 10 more, you do some things to protect each other on a long-term basis,” commissioner Jay Monahan said. “That's what we've done in this agreement, and our players know that; our players understand it; our players think so highly of FedEx and what they've meant to them in terms of playing financial opportunities. So we do everything we can to protect our partners.”

OK, let's dispense with the first obvious question about the recognizable players in the photo above:

Lee Westwood and Louis Oosthuizen both have endorsement deals with UPS but have been grandfathered in and will not be impacted. Their manager, ISM’s Chubby Chandler, said he has not received any official correspondence from the Tour regarding the sponsorship status of either player.

But the Chubby one puts his rather sizable finger on the issue:

“I’m grateful the two guys are alright and I understand why they [the Tour has] done it, [but] what will they do if MasterCard wants to do the same thing?” Chandler said. “It opens up a bag of worms. Do you go on the amount of money they pay or what? Do you set aside one sponsor for another sponsor? ... Legally, I can’t see how it works. The guys are independent contractors.”

There's another question that no one has thought of, which is how is FedEx's business defined.   Are we conceiving them as a delivery company, with only the USPS, UPS and DHL excluded.  What about ShipSticks and Luggage Forward?  Or, per their amusing commercials, are we think of them as an e-commerce consulting company, where they'd compete with a wide range of players...

But the concept that PGA Tour members would be excluded from the FedEx Cup is pretty crazy, no?  Two classes of members and all... someone needs to look at the language of this provision.

We Have A Wiener - The people have spoken, at least the Internet trolls among them, and there's rejoicing in India:

So you’ve probably heard by now that the ShopRite LPGA Classic is giving its final spot to a player via a Twitter fan poll. You may have some strong thoughts on this matter.

But whatever the case, we have a winner. 

The tournament revealed Monday that Sharmila Nicollet was the poll’s winner, meaning Nicollet has earned the final spot in that field.

Over 25,000 votes were cast, and Nicollet earned 39 percent of the tallies. Her closest pursuer, Blair O’Neal, came in at 30 percent. The other two players fighting for that spot via this poll were Carly Booth (25 percent) and Susana Benavides (6 percent).

Well, that was quite hurtful to Susana to release the vote tallies, but she should realize it's an honor just to be nominated.  And should she need consolation....

Spit Takes - Your mileage may vary....

I Don't Need No Stinkin' Matrix - Golf's Bad Behavior Matrix.  Though it's pretty amusing...

I don't want to play where he does if taking divots in the green is common....

I'm skeptical.... About the Popcorn - John Daly claims he lost 67 pounds by adopting a 'whisky and popcorn' diet.  Alternative take: A mere drop in the ocean.  

Good Call On The Latter - Murray details caddie split, deactivates Twitter account.  That's Grayson Murray, who basically used Twitter to trash players far more accomplished than he.  His description of his mid-round caddie termination makes it seem like just a misunderstanding:

“I thought it was kind of unfair that it happened in the ninth fairway,” Murray said before his practice round Tuesday at The Players. “There could have been a way that we both

managed to get through the next nine and a half holes and figured it out after that. It’s too bad that it happened that way because I had a chance to make some birdies and have a better finish. But that’s beside the point. In my head, I’m upset about it and ready to count down the holes to the finish.”

Murray has known Hicks, who was on the bag for Payne Stewart’s 1999 U.S. Open victory, since he was 10, and their families have been close for several years. Murray says that neither he nor his caddie did a “very good job of separating the friendship and business.”

So, what could have provoked this hot-headed caddie to leave?

Their issues boiled over Sunday, after Murray was talked into hitting 3-wood instead of a driver (wound up short, in a greenside bunker) on No. 7 at Eagle Point and then flew a gap wedge over the green on 8. 

Walking off the green, Murray smacked his putter against his bag, breaking the secondary strap. He received an “earful” from Hicks as they walked to the next tee.

After hitting his tee shot on 9, Murray found his father, Eric, outside the ropes. 

“Dad, I’m done after this round with Hicksy, I just want you to know that,” Murray said.

His father told him to get through the next 10 holes and they’d deal with it later. But Hicks apparently overheard Murray’s comments and confronted him in the fairway.

Yeah, that'll do it....The choice of Robert Allenby as a role model seems curious.... 

Midweek Musings

Yanno, I was pretty sure that the dull throbbing headache was an after effect of the root canal....  But perhaps not.

FedEx Redux - Be still my foolish heart, the FedEx Cup lives:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — FedEx will continue delivering major sponsorship dollars to the PGA Tour. 

The shipping giant and the Tour, who have been partners for more than 30 years,

extended their alliance through 2027, the two announced Tuesday morning. The FedEx commitment includes the FedExCup, the post-season, four-tournament financial boons for the Tour and its players that rewards the playoff victor $10 million of the $35 million in bonus money. Tiger Woods, the only player to win the FedEx Cup twice, won the inaugural playoff extravaganza in 2007. 

Financial terms of the deal, which was set to expire at the end of this year, were not revealed, but PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said “as we go forward, we expect the Cup and the payout to increase significantly.” 

“For now we're just announcing the extension through 2027,” said Monahan, who took over his post Jan. 1. “As we went through this process, we've identified a number of ways for us to continue to enhance the magnitude and consequence of the FedExCup, and that's complicated. There's still some other moving parts that we need to get to before we'll be able to announce any additional changes. ... 

“I’m really comfortable with where the Cup is and excited about the flexibility that this gives us on a long‑term basis.”

Well, as long as he's comfortable... There's some world-class double-speak to be had, including this fine example of the genre:

“Right now the schedule that we play is the schedule we're going with and will be going with for the foreseeable future,” Monahan said. “Whether or not we make any changes, we haven't made any firm decisions, but that is what I'm referring to when I talk about flexibility. ... 

“ I'm not saying we're making scheduling changes. I am saying that we've got a commitment through this agreement to significantly raise the consequence of the Cup.”

But wait, there's more gobbledygook:

“There is some exciting potential when you look at the schedule and other things, but I don't know what the best answer will be yet, and that's why we are so fortunate that we have a close collaborative working relationship with the Tour,” Fitzgerald said. “They have a very clear view of some potential things that could change and how that would affect things. So I'm confident that if the schedule changes, it will be in the best interest of golf and of the FedExCup. ... 

“Because we measure so closely and carefully all of our sponsorship investments, (the extension) is a significant endorsement for the effectiveness of the PGA Tour.”

Investment is used herein roughly as the term is used in political discourse....  FedEx shareholders are hereby put on notice.  Shack has some fun with the announcement, including this no-doubt-by-now trending hashtag:

#pgachampionshipmoving

Here are his takeaways from the announcement:

1. The PGA Championship is moving to May.

Yeah, I think you mentioned that one already.... He's probably right, but wouldn't you have thought that would be locked down before FedEx would sign?  I think the PGA would be foolish to do so, but that might mean only that a significant amount of money will change hands.

3. The PGA Tour calendar will be contracting by a few events, including, most likely, one playoff event to get the entire thing finished by Labor Day. Sorry Boston, even if you put on a great event every year.

4. The Florida Swing will still be a giant mess thanks to Tim Finchem wanting to get away from Doral's owner and insisting Cadillac pay WGC prices and...

5. No-cut, limited field WGC events will remain while some regular stops seem almost certain to go.

Obviously there's weaklings on the PGA's calendar, but those typically are in weak weeks, if you follow me.  For instance, last week's Wells Fargo isn't yet a weakling, but it's been weakened by moving The Players to the week following.  Slot the PGA into that week, well, you can do the math...

Boston is by far the best of the three weeks, so it of course has to go.  You wouldn't give up NYC, and the BMW has the historical tied to the Western Open...  Yeah, I'm pulling your leg.  But you could have both events leading to East Lake in the Northeast, so thanks for playing, Boston.

But this I assume is just wishful thinking:

9. If it took this long to get the deal done, hopefully FedEx asked for concessions such as a more interesting, sensible format that is a true PLAY-OFF.

Heaven forfend the thought that we'd end up with an unworthy FedEx champion, say a golfer with the limited resume of a Billy Horschel.  I know, could never happen...

I've assume that it's the negotiations with the PGA of America that have prolonged the negotiations.  Either that's the next shoe to drop, or the contract somehow incorporates that uncertainty.  Stay tuned...

The Sawgrass Shuffle - It is amusing that the FedEx Cup announcement comes during Players week, almost as if the Tour considerately avoided stepping on another sponsor's event....  Nah, probably just a coincidence.

I'm having trouble finding any insightful coverage of the important change, the new driveable Par-4 12th.  I'd guess something will pop up in the next day or so.  I thought the old 12th was a perfectly fine, though not memorable, shortish Par-4.  The second shot played uphill, about the only elevation change on the entire property.  It was clever of Pete to so use that unusual land form... What?  Of course, I was joking.....

The TC panel did get this question on the subject:

5. TPC Sawgrass, site of this week's Players Championship, has undergone more changes. Most notably, the par-4 12th is now drivable. Course architect Pete Dye says he's not a big fan of drivable par-4s, contending they are nothing more than longer par-3s. Where do you stand? And what's the best short par-4 on Tour?

I hate to answer a question with a question, but why should it matter what the par is?  

Bacon: Sawgrass is tough enough, so any scoring opportunity and excitement early on the second nine is a good move to me. 

Bamberger: If Pete Dye were trying to break 90 like the rest of us, he'd welcome the drivable par-4. If he were putting on a TV show as NBC will be doing next week at the Players, he'd welcome the drivable par-4. They are one of the coolest things in golf. Merion had one at the U.S. Open on Sunday, the 3rd hole. The only problem was that they called it a par-3. 

Shipnuck: Yeah, Pete is apparently getting a little crotchety—everyone loves drivable par-4s and they make for great TV. Riv's 10th is great, even though the green has gotten too extreme. I'll go with the 17th at TPC Scottsdale. The fact that it comes so late in the round makes it the ultimate risk-reward hole.

Getting crotchety?  Actually Pete's one of the great sweethearts of the golf world, but he's wrong on this one.  There are so few opportunities to give these players choices of strategy, that we have to create them where we can.

From what I've heard, I'm not sure they've achieve this objective on No. 12.  The man that totes Kooch's staff bag seems to agree:

Wood: Having seen it just today as I walked the course—I really like the look of it. Standing on the tee, the most attractive option visually is to hit driver or whatever club gets you up around the green. The layup doesn’t appear to be an easy shot, with a sloping fairway and a target that just doesn’t look that big. I’m a big fan of drivable par-4s—they're usually the holes that can really frustrate both caddies and players. These guys are so good and so long, it's my opinion that the best way to defend a course is with options. "Am I making the right play here?"

The other factor is that the water to the left of the green does not extend back from the green very far.  Any player finding the hazard will drop quite close to the hole, from which they'll have a good chance to get up-and-in for par.  

Wood goes on to answer to last question in a predictable fashion, but adding a wonderfully funny story from that hole.  Given the depressing opening item today, I figure you guys deserve laugh:

PLUS, 10 at Riviera is the site of perhaps the greatest caddie-player exchange in the history of the Tour. This is the gist of it. Geoff Ogilvy and his caddie, Alistair Matheson, or Squirrel, as everyone calls him, were playing the 10th at Riviera on Saturday, their third round of the L.A. Open. In the first round, after consulting with Squirrel, Geoff hits a 3-iron off the tee, wedges it close, and makes a birdie. In the second round, Squirrel again suggests laying up. Geoff agrees, lays up, wedges close and again makes birdie. Day 3, Geoff consults with Squirrel before hitting his tee shot, and based on the day’s pin location, Squirrel answers Geoff with, "I actually quite fancy driver today." Geoff took the advice, hit driver, and while I'm not exactly sure HOW it occurred, I know a double bogey was the result. Geoff and Squirrel were walking off the green, and Geoff was letting it be known he was displeased with their decision. Let's just say it was an animated conversation. All of a sudden, their exchange is broken up by a phone ringing—from inside the bag. It was Squirrel's. Geoff is gobsmacked, and Squirrel (you have to know him to understand completely) calmly puts the bag down, unzips a pocket of the bag and ANSWERS the phone. "Hello? No. No, I can't talk now I'm working. OK? OK, bye." Geoff, in awe, says "Squirrel, who was that?!" Squirrel, with a slight smirk on his face, says: "That was my mum. She wanted to know why we hit driver on 10 today."

Love it.  Absolutely love it....

That Shipnuck fellow got a couple of related questions in his weekly mailbag:

Is The Players a major? I mean I know it's not, but you? -Wyatt (@wjzangl) 

I must be getting old—I remember when Quail Hollow was the fifth major. Although a few players considered Doral the real fifth major. Whatevah, if you can wade through the endless hype, the Players is a pretty good little tourney. And that's enough.

Does your West Coast/TPC/modern tracks bias make an exception for Sawgrass? That should be anti-TPC, etc. I don't have to tell you what you hate, I suppose. -Will (@willbardwell) 

It's true, I have often pointed out how flat Florida courses bore me, and expressed disdain for the artifice of much late-20th century architecture, and I do find it irksome how the majors, WGCs, Ryder/Presidents Cups and other overhyped events rarely visit the Best Coast. But I will admit a grudging appreciation for the Stadium Course. It's so over-the-top it somehow works. If I had to play Sawgrass every day I'd certainly quit the game but as a high-stress tournament venue it's pretty fun once a year.

I agree with both answers....  The over-hyped event was the Tour's first attempt to solve their ongoing problem, to wit, that they don't control any of the 4.5 events per year about which golf fans actually care.  They've been fairly successful in that to this observer, the shame is that it didn't slake their appetite...

I'll also add that I liked the course much more than I expected to...  It's much more playable than it seems, with extremely wide playing corridors.  Pete's a master of the angles, and some of the lesser-known holes provide challenges because of that, such as the second shot on No. 2.  You'd never want to play there every day, but that wasn't the objective...  

The one mistake they've made is in making the place too green.  Shack has been all over this over the years, referring to the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" look of the place....  Adding, correction, restoring, that dune scrub surrounding the playing corridors would be consistent with the original vegetation and make it visually so much more appealing.  Trump would hate it, but win-win, baby!

Rory Stuff - By now you've heard that Rory has joined Taylor Made for $10 million large per year.  Color me skeptical about the value of such deals when the player is swooshed from head to toe, but this is the bit I found most curious:

McIlroy, fresh off his wedding to Erica Stoll and their honeymoon, said the TaylorMade ball was the most important factor in his decision to sign the undisclosed deal. 

“I wasn’t really happy with the golf ball I was playing, and I needed to do something,” McIlroy said during his press conference Tuesday at the Players Championship. “I felt like I struggled in the wind. So I sort of went back to the drawing board and tested for about 10 days pretty extensively after Augusta. (I) worked with a lot of different things, but I worked with the TaylorMade guys one day and started just on TrackMan (launch monitor) on the range and saw stuff with the golf ball, that new TP5x ball that they have. I thought, ‘Wow, this is what I need.’ This is exactly the thing that I’ve been struggling with, and this is, I feel, what I need.”

That golf ball was the Titleist Pro-V1, which Jim Nantz had assured me was perfect for any player.  

There's a lot of interesting technical detail to be found, as Rory was unhappy with how he was playing in the wind.  Welcome to the club, Rors, because I've also been unhappy with how you played in the wind.

Gotta run... Same time tomorrow?

Tuesday Tastings

It's follow-up day, in which we present addenda to previous items...  Don't fret, we'll have a couple of new bits as well...

Russian Rebuttal - It didn't take long for the paper of record to respond to yesterday's non-smoking firearm:

Eric Trump on Sunday condemned a report that claimed his father got funding for his golf courses from the Russians. 

“It’s a recollection from some guy three years ago through a third person,” the president’s son told The Post, in reference to an interview that golf writer James Dodson gave to the Boston public radio station, WBUR-FM, about the alleged backing from Moscow. 

“We own our courses free and clear,” Eric said, insisting that the report was “categorically untrue” and “complete garbage.” 

“We have zero ties to Russian investors,” he added.

There wasn't much there there, even if the story was true....  And just a reminder, folks, that Russian influence didn't seem to be a problem until the morning of November 9th. 

Grayson Murray, Unhinged - When we last saw Grayson Murray, he was picking fights on Twitter with his peer group... wait, correction, he was punching up against those with actual success on the PGA Tour.  

Unfortunately, he's taking all of the drama out of the contest for the Robert Allenby Lifetime Achievement Award:

WILMINGTON, N.C. — After sliding down the leaderboard and falling out of

contention at the Wells Fargo Championship, Grayson Murray decided to part ways with his caddie – mid-round. 

Murray, and his caddie Mike Hicks, got into an altercation on the ninth hole Sunday in the final round at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington. Hicks then dropped the bag and handed his smock to a replacement caddie selected by Murray from outside the ropes.

According to sources, the replacement caddie was a friend of Murray named Alex. 

The altercation came following a bogey on No. 8 that sent Murray to 1-over for the tournament. Murray then bogeyed Nos. 11, 15 and 18 to finish the event at plus-4.

That's an amazing homage to the late-period Allenby....  I'm just in awe of the young man's maturity and situational awareness.... I do hope he'll be in the field at The Sony, as the Amuse Wine Bar is his kind of place.

Wither Taylor Made - OK, so this is making the rounds:

Golf's newest newlywed, Rory McIlroy, appears to have a new TaylorMade driver in his bag in advance of this week's Players Championship.

On Sunday, he posted an Instagram video of himself swinging what appears to be TaylorMade's M2 driver. Before taking time off for his wedding, McIlroy had been playing Callaway's Epic Sub Zero driver. The game's ultimate free agent has been experimenting with various clubs since his former sponsor, Nike Golf, announced last summer it was exiting the equipment arena. 

On Monday morning reports surfaced that there might be more to the world No. 2's driver swap than a simple trial run. Both Golfweek (subscription only) and Geoff Shackelford are reporting that McIlroy will be announced this week as a TaylorMade brand ambassador. McIlroy would continue to wear Nike apparel under the reported 10-year contract he inked with Nike earlier this year.

They certainly seem to be maintaining their aggressiveness in signing players, even those that will be swooshed from head to toe.

But from February via the Waybac Machine:

The golf division that Adidas announced was for sale last May — which includes golf club maker TaylorMade, and the much smaller Adams and Ashworth brands — is losing between $75 million and $100 million a year, according to sources close to recent deal talks. 

That is quite a fall from 2013 when TaylorMade was posting $1.7 billion in sales and a healthy profit, sources said. Today, sales are a little better than $500 million.

When I was back at Willow Ridge a couple of weeks ago, John Reeves (head pro and long-time TM player) said that his rep was say that they're doing quite well.  You'll notice a certain inconsistency there, combined with inactivity on the sale front...

Social Media, The Dark Side -  No doubt we should have seen this coming.... Young women sharing personal information over social media.  What could go wrong?

Funk also warns against players posting too much private information about their

schedules. Geotags, for example, make public the real-time GPS location of a player’s whereabouts. 

Though in the case of four-time winner Wie, something as innocuous as a Tweet about a sunrise practice session at the LPGA stop in Portland, Ore., a few years back turned alarmingly bizarre. 

It didn’t take long for security to notice the man in the powder blue suit and floppy hat at 6 a.m. Turns out he took a bus from Iowa to Portland to propose to Wie. 

“We took him to the hotel and put him on a bus back to Iowa,” Funk said. The man showed up once more in Rochester, N.Y., but hasn’t been heard from since.

So, did she accept?

You see the recipe for disaster no doubt.  The struggling tour looking for inexpensive ways to promote themselves...  You could see where this young lady would be at the epicenter of it all:

Natalie Gulbis was the first LPGA player to join Twitter in 2008. Gulbis’ P.R. firm advised her to join Shaquille O’Neal and Jimmy Fallon as early users, saying she’d land a back-page story in the Wall Street Journal if she tweeted. 

Now she’s entertaining 142,000 followers on Instagram in addition to the 263,000 on Twitter. She’s been the victim of identity-hacking issues on social media as well as cyber-bullying. Gulbis prefers the kill-them-with-kindness approach when addressing Internet trolls and keeps a healthy perspective on how few followers really seek to spoil the fun. Still, she’s quick to delete the ugliness from her page. 

“My mom reads them all,” she explained.

Not a side of humanity anyone should have to see.

A Quick Look at Slow Play -  New Commish Jay Monahan spent some quality time with ESPN's Bob Harig, and generated some buzz with these comments on pace of play:

"I'm not so sure I agree that anything beyond what we're doing is going to deter the behavior you're asking us to deter,'' Monahan said. "As it relates to slow play, a lot has

happened behind the scenes in the last 12 to 18 months. We've developed a Shotlink dashboard for our rules officials where you can at any point in time see where a player is relative to time-par, see where a player is relative to their own historical averages. And we disclose all that information to the players, and so the players are well aware. (Players are only given information about themselves, not other players.) They have access now. 

"And we're in the midst of a comprehensive review on pace of play. It's not something that we just say it's our policy and that's how it's always going to be. We recognize that with technology, we can be far more intelligent about what's happening. Now what do you do with it? I would venture to say at this point we are taking a good hard look at it.''

It's hard to know how to interpret this, as He's previously brushed off any suggestions to address this issue.  But color me surprised that the problem is really that the guys play too quickly:

"In pockets, there are problems,'' he said. "We have a mechanism in place to address it. The question is really, where are you trying to get to? If it's 3:45 (for 18 holes), what is the time frame you are trying to get down to? What is the balance? In the last couple of weeks, ironically, we've been playing too fast and finishing too early. Relative to the world at large via television, that's not good, either.''

That's actually easier to fix....  Just send Ben Crane out in the first group and that pesky issue will be resolved.

To me there's a far bigger issue that he addresses, and it's one on which I strongly disagree:

The PGA Tour almost never discloses discipline of its players for transgressions outside of failing a performance enhancing a drug test, often leaving it open for criticism given the lack of transparency. 

If a player tests positive for recreational drugs -- or gets arrested or runs afoul of various tour regulations -- the penalties are not disclosed. This is in contrast to the major U.S. sports leagues that not only reveal penalties, but often announce them before any appeal is heard.

 If it's important enough to test for, then it should be disclosed....  Let him finish his thoughts:

"I think we look at player discipline as a family matter,'' Monahan said. "If a player is not representing themselves and is not representing the tour well on the golf course through their actions, then we have a system in place that corrects that. This system has worked very well. For us and I think for the player. Our players are well aware there are consequences for their actions. 

"Because we don't disclose it, we tend to get a lot of questions. But you have to ask yourself, what is in the best interests of the player and the tour? And I think that the way we're handling it -- particularly as it relates to player discipline and what's happening inside the field of play -- we handle well and we're comfortable with. But I understand the criticism. It's something we talk about and think about for that reason.''

While I'm guardedly optimistic about the new Commish, so much so that I've refrained from giving him a nickname, I do hope this is an area that he can see his way to parting with his predecessor.

The libertarian in me wouldn't mind if they stopped testing for recreational drugs, but incidents like the DJ "Jet-ski accident" put the lie to their process.  They're not just keeping things in the family, they're lying to us....

And I love that assumption that the best interest of the tour and the players are simpatico.   If after DJ's first violation for recreational drugs he had been named and shamed, would there have been a second and third?  We can't know, but combined with the refusal to do blood testing, it all seems rather well-designed to maintain a certain fiction.....

He's still quite new at the helm, and I'm prepared to let him feel his way along for a bit.

You want to know what offended me most in the piece?  TPC Sawgrass is closed for play, yet Harig and Monahan played the empty course.  Jay, a word to the wise...  If it's closed to the public, you shouldn't be out there.  Bad optics...

The Distressed South Side - It turns out that there's more to concern us in the Chicago project combining a Tiger-designed golf course with Obama's Presidential Library.  That would be the library itself:

A discarded Chinese take-out box. The backside of a Star Wars sand crawler. The Washington Monument with the interesting bits lopped off. That’s what sprung to mind when confronted with the initial design of the Obama Presidential Center. 

In addition to the tall stone museum with notches and windows cut out at random, the proposal calls for a low-slung forum and library with greenery on the roof. It will be built in Jackson Park in Chicago’s South Side, not far from the Museum of Science and Industry. 

According to the Obama Foundation, this will be much more than a mere presidential library. “Through participatory and immersive experiences,” the website says, “the Center will tell Barack and Michelle Obama’s story, while lifting the hood on the mechanics of change and inspiring visitors to spark their own.” 

No, I don’t know what that means either.

I wanted you to read that before seeing the image....  We shouldn't be eating Chinese take-out in any event, because cultural appropriation.

Here's what it looks like:

Jon nailed it, no?  Now Gabriel is not an agnostic when it comes to Obama, so take it for what it's worth.  Jon penned (though that's perhaps not the word) the single best tweet of the eight years of Obama:

That's a lot of RT's.

I'm off to finish my root canal....  Try not to be too jealous.

Weekend Wrap

Lots to talk about folks, tough we are on the clock....  Anything we don't get to will be teed up for tomorrow....

A Roccaco Finish - From the Italian word Rocca, meaning to chunk a chip but then save the day by darining a snake:

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) -- Brian Harman made a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday to win the Wells Fargo Championship and deny Dustin Johnson the chance at a 

He plays left-handed, but fist pumps with the right.

fourth straight victory. 

Johnson, in his return from a freak back injury that knocked the world's No. 1 player out of the Masters, went from making the cut on the number to a 67-67 weekend at Eagle Point and appeared headed for a playoff with Harman and Pat Perez. 

Harman won it with a birdie-birdie finish, none bigger than the par-5 18th. 

After going so long on his second shot that he needed relief from behind a corporate tent, Harman hit a heavy chip that barely got onto the green. From just under 30 feet away, the putt dropped into the center of the cup and set off a wild celebration, with Harman repeatedly shaking his fists and leaping to share a hard hug with his caddie, Scott Tway.

It was a reasonably entertaining finish, seemingly headed to a fourball playoff, until Harman made his unlikely putt.  DJ made the cut on the number, then almost stole another one.  

The funniest moment of the day was Pat Perez walking his putt in.  

The Tour Confidential panel is hard-pressed to draw any conclusions from it all, though you'll agree that this is a pretty funny story (regardless of how the fact check pans out):

Bamberger: On Saturday, I heard a good one: Harman was playing in the Walker Cup at Merion. On 14, he holes out a ridiculous pitch from the rough. He tips his hat and says, "Brian Harman, ladies and gentlemen. Brian Harman." Can't vouch for it but it sounds right and reminds me of this: these guys know they are good. That putt. OMG.

But this is likely the takeaway of greatest import:

Shipnuck: The big story for me is that Dustin is still playing lights-out golf, despite missing a month. I can't wait to see what he does this summer at the majors.

Yup, though not necessarily next week.... But the big ballpark that is Erin Hills should suit his game, no?

Patrick Reed remains a story though, as trained his newfound minimalist eye on fairways and greens yesterday.  As in, no need to visit them on a timely basis...  But channeling my inner Marty Hackel, who's dressing the boy these days?   he's got flaps on both back pockets of his trousers, adorned with some sort of Scotch plaid....  the result of said adornment is to draw eyes to his buttal region, thereby requiring CBS to employ the widest lens in their quiver.  Not a great look for anyone, but for Patrick?

Tree, Forest - Not gonna spend to much time here, but a compelling week happened without anyone the wiser:

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Sei Young Kim held off Ariya Jutanugarn 1 up to win the 

The winner, coming soon to a milk carton near you.

Lorena Ochoa Match Play for her sixth LPGA Tour title.

After Jutanugarn won the par-5 17th with a birdie to force another hole, Kim finished off the match with a halve for a par on the par-4 18th. 

In the morning semifinals at Club de Golf Mexico, Kim beat Mi Jung Hur 5 and 4, and the third-ranked Jutanugarn topped Michelle Wie 4 and 3. Hur won the third-place match, overcoming a five-hole deficit to beat Wie in 22 holes.

Just a horrible missed opportunity, especially since it was against a middling-at-best big boy tour event.

Telling, the TC panel gets an LPGA question, just not about their, you know, golf:

4. The LPGA Shoprite Classic turned to Twitter to hand out a sponsor's exemption, inviting fans to vote on one of four players. Like it?

Don't you like how they phrase the question?  It's almost like MSNBC questioning Hillary...  And how do those accusations about your e-mail make you feel?   

But this answer kinds of captures it all:

Wood: Uh, no. But we are discussing the LPGA in a way that doesn't involve a rules controversy, a Groundhog Day-inspired playoff, or deliberate slow play. So, I guess it's a win?

Ahhh, the soft bigotry of low expectations....

 A Blogger's Remorse - Headers I never expected to have to acknowledge:

John Daly wins 1st PGA Tour Champions title

OK, here's the game piece...  while you're reading the excerpt I'll try to gather myself:

It took 22 starts, but John Daly is now a winner on the PGA Tour Champions. 

Daly, 51, won the Insperity Invitational on Sunday at The Woodlands (Texas) Country Club. Despite closing his tournament with three straight birdies, Daly shot a closing 3-under 69 to finish at 14 under, a shot ahead of Tommy Armour III and Kenny Perry.

Despite?  Shouldn't that be because of?

Daly began his day with eagle at the par-5 first hole. He added five birdies on the round. But he bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17, and led by just a shot late in the round. After Armour

bogeyed his final hole, Daly had a two-shot lead entering the closing par 4. 

Walking down the fairway, Daly bent down and kissed the grass, which had a large Arnold Palmer umbrella logo painted on it. He made bogey on the hole, but it was enough to close out the win.

I gather he finished with three straight bogeys, not birdies.... What the hell is going on at Golf.com these days?  But if I were the grass, I'd immediately gargle with hot salt water.....

He's always had talent, including a great set of hands.  And there were some great photos:

Is this wise?

The TC gang was asked whether Long John still moves the needle:

Shane Bacon: Anything John Daly has done his entire career moves the needle. He's the anti-modern golfer in every possible way and that fits perfectly on the PGA Tour Champions. In a stretch of golf where the PGA Tour, the European tour and the LPGA tried out different formats, a man in American flag pants with a cigarette dangling took down his first trophy on the 50-plus tour. It seems to fit all too perfectly. There are few names in golf that force the general public to do a double-take when scrolling the Internet like "John Daly" does. Good to see him close that one out.

I don't want to live in that world, but so be it....

Michael Bamberger: The only thing I get from it, and I have been mocked for saying this by people who know of what they speak, that Daly, along with Fred Couples, is likely the single most talented natural golfer I have ever seen.

My point exactly....  The squandering of those gifts is very sad.

Did The Earth Move for You? - It's called Sixes, and Denmark reigns:

ST. ALBANS, England (AP) -- Denmark won the inaugural GolfSixes tournament as 

Speaking of milk cartons...

Thorbjorn Olesen and Lucas Bjerregaard teamed up to beat Australia's Scott Hend and Sam Brazel in the final of the six-hole match play event on Sunday. 

Victories over France in the quarterfinals and Italy in the semifinals earned the Danes a place in the title match at the Centurion Club in southern England, and Olesen and Bjerregaard won the last three holes for a 3-1 victory.

Seeking to broaden the appeal of golf, the European Tour was experimenting with GolfSixes, which featured walk-out music on the first tee, long-drive competitions, pyrotechnics and shot clocks. A pink mascot followed teams around the course.

As you can tell from the names cited, they didn't draw much of a field.  The top Euros are stateside for next weeks Players, and it's not a format designed for the creme to rise....  But they seem to have had some fun....

Gun, Not Smoking - The shrieking left, but I repeat myself, continues to grasp at anything that begins with an "R" as part of their #resistance.  It's going to be a long eight years....

See what I did there?  Just the assumption of his reelection and heads on the Upper West Side are spontaneously combusting....

James Dodson, who penned a biography of Arnold Palmer, played golf with POTUS and son Eric, and has the goods on the Russian collusion story:

“Trump was strutting up and down, talking to his new members about how they were part of the greatest club in North Carolina,” Dodson said. “And when I first met him, I

asked him … you know, this is the journalist in me … I said, ‘What are you using to pay for these courses?’ And he just sort of tossed off that he had access to $100m.” 

Eric Trump, the president’s younger son who is now executive vice-president of the Trump Organization, was also present. 

Dodson continued: "So when I got in the cart with Eric, as we were setting off [to play], I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks – because of the recession, the great recession – have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.’

"And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time.'

So, the answer to an interesting question asked three years ago has now achieved Great Significance, because, you know, RUSSIANS.  Yanno, you're gonna need a little more than that for this to stick, unless he also was financed by James Comey.

"I knew Trump was very interested in golf," Dodson says. "I knew he was buying up golf courses. His M.O. was to find a financially distressed property, buy it, keep it in bankruptcy, do a half-a-million-dollar renovation, fire the entire staff and hire a third back." 

So James Dodson, who grew up a Republican but currently describes his political stance as "radical centrist," knew that. And maybe he thought that’s all there was to know about Donald Trump. But that was before they’d met. Which, as I’ve suggested, wasn’t Dodson’s idea.

I love the melding of these two 'graphs....  But has the writer ever considered that there was areason those projects were in bankruptcy and sold out on the cheap?  I'm glad to know that Dodson grew up a Repub, but you know who didn't?  Yeah, that Trump fellow.... 

I'm Going With Yes - From Pravda, this query:

Can Sand Valley Make Wisconsin the Next Golfing Destination?

Mind you, they don't exactly approve of golf, because...well, Trump, or something.  Here's what should have been the lede:

But nestled near the tiny towns of Rome and Nekoosa, about 100 miles from Madison, hidden away for decades under vast rows of red pine trees planted to produce pulp, was

something extraordinary: a stunning section of the exposed sandy bottom of a prehistoric glacial lake that, geologists say, flooded a large area of central Wisconsin about 18,000 years ago, when an ancient ice dam collapsed. 

Mike Keiser, who made a fortune in the greeting card business, is known to avid players for creating the golf mecca Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast, a long 250-mile drive from Portland. He found his way to this equally far-off-the-beaten-path spot in Wisconsin in 2013. It lacked the year-round playing possibilities of places like Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Scottsdale, Ariz., and the picturesque seaside locale that Mr. Keiser had considered essential to luring golfers away from home, but he fell in love with the place anyway.

What the land had, in spades, was immense tumbling dunes, some 50 feet high or more. And the potential, once the nonnative trees were cleared, of becoming home to not just one but four or five spectacular courses. The firm, sandy fairways, long open views, and exposure to strong winds would evoke the famous links of Scotland and Ireland and pay direct homage to the less well-known but well-loved “heathland” courses outside London. Mr. Keiser bought 1,700 acres from a tree plantation owner. He commissioned the golf design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, a former touring pro, to create a new course, to be known as Sand Valley. It opened last week.

Given the source, we need to wade through two graphs and multiple sightings of the term "dirt-poor" before getting to the interesting part...

And let just share this with you before we move on to our next story:

Mr. Coore, in a later telephone conversation, said Sand Valley was one of those relatively 

rare sites that “feels like golf in a natural state. You can lay it out pretty quietly on the land to bring the golf course to life.” 

The course, he said, is intended to appeal to players of any caliber, particularly those with average skills. When he and Mr. Crenshaw started designing golf courses decades ago, “everybody was trying to build courses to test the best players.

The point that eludes the writer is that if not for golf, no one would ever see this majestic scenery....

But yes, combined with Whistling Straits and Erin Hills, Wisconsin is very much on the map.

Stopped Clock - Mark this date on your calendar, I'm going to largely be in agreement with the NY Times.  I know, blind squirrel and all,,,

Lots of folks, our Shack included, have been excited about the Chicago project involving Tiger and The Obama Presidential Library, and I just don't get it.  Watch as Pravda does their "Women and minorities hardest hit" thing to it:

On a recent morning at the 18-hole Jackson Park Golf Course, two employees lingered in the building near the first tee, where golfers could buy a $1 cup of coffee and a $6 Polish sausage at the snack bar. 

Keith McGrue, 60, a South Side resident, said he had heard chatter from regulars who wonder what a Tiger Woods-designed course could bring. 

“A lot of people have been playing here for 25, 30 years,” Mr. McGrue said. “The question becomes, Who benefits from the change? Who loses out and who wins? Most people that play here, especially the black folks, live in the neighborhood. This is our golf course.” 

Alan Brothers, 71, who was playing at the South Shore course, said that he was hoping for the sort of growth that a new facility could bring to the South Side.

“This neighborhood has been in need of economic development for a very long time,” he said, pointing to the south, where several blocks away, four people were shot dead in a restaurant in March in an apparent act of gang retribution.

They're taking two course played by locals and converting them into one course so they attract the Tour once every 5-6 years.....  

They're paying lip service to affordability, but so did NYC when building Ferry Point.  Color me as highly skeptical that this will pan out in way that those currently playing the course will appreciate.

Now if they could spruce up the two courses in conjunction with the Obama Library, more power to them.  But the last thing we should be encouraging is the creation of another 7,500 yard monstrosity.