Thursday Thoughts

But just a few quick ones....  We've had 3" of fresh snow and our standards have been lowered to the point where this qualifies as a powder day.  I acknowledge that it's a first world problem, but it's MY first world problem....

You're Gonna Need a Bigger List - See if you don't agree:

Top 10 golf controversies of 2017

Alas, it's a curious list for sure....For instance, this was curious and amusing, but has nothing to do with, you know, golf:

8. Disappearing act

Brent McLaughlin made for a fun story as the tattooed, Harley-riding tournament director for the RBC Canadian Open. That story took a hard left turn when McLaughlin lost his title midway through the tournament for reasons which remain unclear.

Gotta be sexual harassment, right?  After all, 'tis the season...

This is overly broad, as the Irish Open incident was the more important one:

6. Rahm Rules

Jon Rahm enjoyed a stellar season 2016-17 season, during which he rose to No. 4 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He also found himself at the center of several controversies including salty on-course behavior and two separate rules issues. Lee Westwood called him out mid-round for a possible infraction at the British Open, which came just one week after a ball-marking issue at the Irish Open.

And, the question begs itself, where's Hideki?

This was heartbreaking, but not the least bit controversial:

2. Concession controversy

“I didn’t say that was good.”

A simple statement from Erica Shepherd in response to her caddie’s question at the U.S. Girls’ Junior led to a really ugly situation. Shepherd, a 16-year-old Duke commit, was viciously attacked on social media regarding the conclusion of her semifinal match and ultimate victory in the event.

The winner is no surprise, but see if you find this Sam Weinman column as curious as I did:

But what did Lexi learn?

An otherwise successful year for Lexi Thompson was still marred by two painful losses. Whether they end up helping or hurting in the long run is mostly up to her

We saw her reaction to the most painful of those through her play for the remainder of the season.   

Just curious, but see if you enjoy this no-good, horrible appeal to authority:

Failure. Loss. Disappointment. Setbacks. The sports psychologist Jonathan Fader, who works with the New York Mets and New York Giants, puts them all under the broad clinical umbrella of “unwanted outcomes.” Implicit is that no athlete welcomes these episodes, and understandably so: it’s far easier to just win. 

It’s when you don’t, though, when athletes are posed with a choice, and Fader detects a healthy divide depending on what happens next.

I'll grant that the Mets' sports psychologist might have a passing familiarity with Failure.  Loss.  Disappointment.  Setbacks.  Just curious as to his quals in the recovery therefrom?  

And this unfortunate news from the girl:

The 22-year-old announced Friday that a wrist issue flared up and she has been advised not to hit golf balls until mid-January. That meant Thompson was forced to withdraw from the Diamond Resorts Invitational (a combination players and celebrities event that will take place Jan. 12-14).

Ugh!  Forget the psychological drama, if there's a concern about Lexi (other than her putting, of course), I'd worry about the health of her wrists given the amount of earth she moves on every shot.

Racist Trees? -  Honest, kids, I didn't come up with that:

City officials commit to removing 'racist' trees from golf course in Palm Springs

Did they catch them wearing Make America Great Again hats?

A longtime symbol of segregation that has stood alongside a golf course since the 1960s will soon meet its end in one California town. 

Decades ago, a large grove of tamarisk trees was planted on the border between Tahquitz Creek Golf Course and a historically black neighborhood, along with a chain link fence. But at an informal city meeting this week, officials promised residents that the trees and the fence would be removed. 

According to USA Today and The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun, the residents of the bordering neighborhood "said the invasive tamarisks, which block views of the Tahquitz Creek Golf Course and San Jacinto mountains, have artificially depressed property values and prevented black families from accumulating wealth in their property over the past half century."

As long as everyone's happy....  Personally, I didn't realize that blacks were allowed in Palm Springs.

The Year in Review, Lucky Bastards Edition -  You know the type, guys that get paid to travel and play great courses.  First up is Travelin' Joe, a favorite pinata.  Though, to be fair, I don't have much to criticize in his performance of his primary job....  Here are some highlights, first as relates to a new Tour venue:

Trinity Forest GC

Dallas, Texas

Situated 10 miles south of downtown Dallas, Trinity is a private club that opened in

October 2016 and counts Jordan Spieth among its members. It was built on old landfill, and lacked much of anything in the way of natural features. Coore took a look, and ultimately discovered some intriguing contours. Bill and Ben then did what they do best, utilizing the best natural pitch and roll the terrain offered, and molded the rest to create a truly wondrous track. Typical of a Coore-Crenshaw layout, strategic options and ground game emphasis predominate, leading to tremendous variety. Also noteworthy are the shapes, sizes and placements of bunkers — as well as nary a water hazard, virtually unheard of on the PGA Tour these days. When I launched one of my rare quality strikes on the chilly day I played Trinity, I found the left side of the green complex at the wild par-3 17th, and watched my ball doink to the right, creep along the giant, sectionalized green and settle eight feet from the pin. All the while, Coore cooed appreciatively, "That's how to play it!" Naturally, I missed the putt, but I can't wait to see the PGA Tour tackle this unusual firm, fast-running, cunningly contoured test in 2018, when it becomes the new host for the AT&T Byron Nelson.

It will be very interesting to see how the spoiled children of the Tour take to it....  especially if the conditions are indeed firm and fast.

This one just pisses me off, the fact that others get to go to places such as this:

Kingston Heath GC

Melbourne, Australia 

It's not as if Kingston Heath's greatness should have surprised me. I had walked a few holes at this Melbourne, Australia-area layout back in 1992 and was immediately smitten with the most remarkable bunkering I had ever encountered, in my then-young career. I

didn't play it, and didn't really explore it, but felt like I got to know it through tournaments on television. I heard Tiger rave about it, and saw it rise to No. 20 in the World in GOLF's 2017 Top 100 Courses ranking. Could it really be that good? I wasn't convinced, even after I asked Gil Hanse what course he considered to be the best ever built on modest or mediocre terrain. "Everyone points to Kingston Heath as the perfect example of a great golf course on a fairly uninspiring piece of land," said Hanse. "The architect (Dan Soutar with Alister MacKenzie on bunkers) took what the site possessed, the sand, the scrub, the vegetation and enhanced that property by features that sit down at ground level. Truly great work."

What I learned was that you have to see it, walk it, and play it for yourself to fully appreciate its merits. I did that in October. For me, Kingston Heath still doles out the best-looking bunkers I've ever seen. Now, however, I know that they're more than just pretty faces. They intimidate with steep lips and with positions that obscure fairway landing areas and seemingly block green entrances. In truth, you ultimately discover there is sufficient room to play, accessible avenues where you can avoid the bunkers and scrub, but that there is a preferred angle, and corresponding risk/reward at every turn. This is a small, easily walkable property, without a water hazard, yet it delights and confounds throughout the round. Kingston Heath is superior architecture, period.

I'm just gonna sit here and pout.

Also making the Grand Tour was Martin Kaufmann, who typically handles the TV beat at Golfweek (and we have his thoughts on that in a bit).   

First, this note is near and dear to my heart:

If you want to drink well, go to Islay. This island off the west coast of Scotland, at the southernmost end of the Inner Hebrides chain, is the country’s greatest scotch

destination. There are eight – soon to be 10 – active distilleries on an island of slightly more than 3,000 people, and they are some of the genre’s greatest brands: Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Ardbeg and Bowmore, among others. The smoky, peaty character of these whiskies sparked my love for scotch and, by extension, Scotland. 

Truth is, my stated reason for visiting Islay was to see the recently renovated Machrie, a links that dates to 1891. The fact that my trip corresponded with the annual Islay Festival – a week-long celebration of scotch and music – was less than a coincidence. 

I’m a big fan of D.J. Russell’s renovations to The Machrie – I’ll have more on this in early 2018 – and hope to get back later this year to see the new hotel that is nearing completion behind the 18th green. 

This is a real sleeper destination, particularly for those who are well traveled. If you’ve been everywhere on the Scottish mainland and are looking for something different, take a ferry or flight from Glasgow to Islay.

Having previously made it to Machrihanish and Ashkernish, The Machrie is my great white whale du jour.  It's supposed to be a hoot, with more blind shots than the player can count....  And it should work, in theory, as a destination, because Employee No.2 has a fondness for brown liquor.   The dilemma is that we've talked about parking ourselves in one spot on our next trip...  Islay isn't the easiest place to get to....

You'll want to scroll the entire piece, to read about how David Maclay Kidd works and grills, as well as his thoughts on the revise Ailsa Course at Trump Turnberry.  I did like these thoughts:

A note: I write all of this, fully aware that praising anything that carries the Trump name is verboten in some circles these days. Frankly, I don’t care. All I care about is that new ownership took over an iconic, but troubled, property, poured a lot of money into it, and put it on par with the world’s greatest golf resorts.

If only others would see it that way as well.... Of course, he's likely comped.

I Saw It On TV - As promised, here are some of Martin's thoughts on televised golf, first that which he thought worked:

David Feherty: After Feherty’s disappointing first year with NBC in 2016, one got the sense during the Florida Swing that the game’s most prominent cut-up finally was beginning to find a home on the dead-sober NBC crew.

Meh!  Still seemed an awkward fit to me.... 

You'll not be surprised that I'm more focused on that which didn't work:

Lack of consistency: This is a continuing industry problem, from week to week and year to year. One obvious example is the use of tracers and other helpful technology. CBS won’t use tracers at the Masters, insisting it’s better without, but it boasts about using tracers on every hole at the PGA Championship. NBC used tracers sporadically, at best, during the British Open and Solheim Cup, but was much more aggressive with this technology at the Tour Championship. The point is, when we get to these big events, I’d welcome a little consistency.

OK, my understanding is that CBS is not allowed to use tracer on their broadcast, just as they're not allowed to have a blimp or on-course reporters.  Tracer was used on the streaming coverage, making all the more frustrating.  Is there a golf hole more in need of a Tracer than the tee shot on No. 13?

Now CBS does deserve blame for their treacly coverage and the limited actual golf shown, but this apparently isn't an issue for Martin.  And calling out ESPN for excessive Tiger coverage?  Even is true, isn't there enough to critique in those networks that actually broadcast golf?  Fox isn't even mentioned....

And this is one of his TBD's:

Fall schedule: The quality of the fall events, across all of the tours, has greatly improved over the past 15 years. But the reality is that, for most sports fans, the only must-watch event of the past three months was an 18-man tournament, the Hero World Challenge – and only because Woods played. That’s a lot of time and money spent airing tournaments toward which the American market has little interest. It just feels like something has to give.

Let me explain it to you, Martin.... It sucks and it isn't going anywhere.  But before we leave the TV beat, how about these boffo ratings?

Here's Shack's take:

Yes, golfing royalty was in attendance and there is undoubtedly something special about the PNC Father-Son, but the final audience size for NBC's weekend coverage triples or quadruples most fall PGA Tour events on Golf Channel.

Given the demise of Skins and other silly season events, maybe there is just a thirst for some non-stroke play viewing in December?

It's all of the above, but also that most of the country is housebound and there is nothing else worth watching on TV....  Golf in December actually makes more sense than golf in September.

You Wynn Some.... -  perhaps my favorite story of the day:

Golf lost a friend this week, and I did, too. On Dec. 17, Las Vegas's 12-year-old Wynn Golf Club closed. It died with a whimper, without fanfare or a funeral. Some —

including the man who conceived of and built it, casino and hotel magnate Steve Wynn — say it simply outlived its usefulness. Others, citing its outrageous price tag of $350-$500, argued that Wynn epitomized what was wrong with golf. 

Me? I'm bummed. I hate to see good golf vanish, especially golf as attractive and unique as Wynn. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Or was it? 

Wynn Golf Club was the owner's response to scratch an itch. He had poured his heart and soul into his co-design (with Tom Fazio) of Shadow Creek in 1989, only to see it snatched away during a hostile takeover of his Mirage Resorts, in March 2000. Wynn plotted his comeback and emerged in April 2005 with the Wynn Resort and Country Club, which featured a stunning hotel, luxury golf villas and a Fazio-designed course draped atop the remnants of one of the Strip's most revered layouts, the Desert Inn Country Club.

That's Joe Passov again, and he doesn't exactly pay full retail....  

Projects such as this don't offend me, but those that are have no shortage of targets for their criticism.  My question is how is this any different than the Obama-Tiger course in Chicago?  Trick question, because there's one humongous difference....  Wynn Used his own money and, most importantly, didn't build on a site holding two course played by the local citizenry....  Just sayin'. 

Midweek Musings

It's still dark in Utah and there's still no snow, so what would you folks like to talk about?

The year in Social Media - I hope Kevin Casey got hazard pay for reviewing the year in social media, golf division of course....  Though it's far better than expected, likely because that stuff is on the come:

This list also won’t include any social media spats, as those will be detailed in an upcoming list. Anyway, here are golf’s top social media content/posts of 2017…

CTR-F: Grayson Murray yields 0 results, so it's safe for the children....

Sergio Garcia lets fan caddie for him after 206 straight days of tweets 

We’ll be honest, we didn’t expect this gambit to work. But shooters shoot. Mark Johnson, an English mailman and huge Garcia fan, tweeted for 206 straight days at the Spaniard, imploring each time to let him caddie when there was a short-term spot open.

That was nice of the Spaniard, though an English fan's attachment could keep a team of Viennese psychiatrists gainfully employed for their natural life expectancy.

The Euro Tour are the Jedi Masters of social media, and I had missed their Awkward Reporter series.   As for "Si Woo shaking that a**", I guess you had to be there.

As for the Boo Weekley-Beef Johnston 40-yard dash, we have a no spoiler policy just for these occasions.

This from ClubProGuy was my favorite tweet of the year, a heartfelt acknowledgement of his club's member's generosity:

Hmmm....overall neediness?  Do I know you?

More Rules Stuff - Alistair Tait with another reaction to the recent rules changes:

The level of ignorance of the rules among tour pros has amazed me over 25 years of covering this great game. It’s absolutely staggering. Tour pros will spend eight hours a

day working on all aspects of their game yet can’t find 10 minutes to read the rules. It’s not as if they don’t have enough down time on flights, in courtesy cars and in hotel rooms. As European Tour chief referee John Paramor once said, even 10 minutes a day learning the Definitions would go a long way toward increasing their knowledge and stopping violations.

Get in line, bro....  But the thing is, you don't really need to read the rules, you just need to pay attention to the things that inevitably come up as you play.  These guys have come up as juniors and taken a million drops, but somehow their minds are blank when they come out on Tour.

Talent, Final Answer - Brian Wacker with the deep dive into a rather obvious question:

What’s driving the remarkable resurgence of American team golf?

You know what's coming:

The contrast to three years earlier couldn’t have been more striking. At Gleneagles in

2014, the U.S. couldn’t get out of its own way when it came to another international team competition. The American Ryder Cup squad was in utter disarray, losers of three straight and eight of the previous 10 biennial matches against the Europeans. The ineptitude and dysfunction going on behind closed doors reached its boiling point publicly in the form of Phil Mickelson’s verbal takedown of his own captain, Tom Watson, in the post-event press conference at Gleneagles. 

The scene was tense, awkward and embarrassing. It was also probably the best thing that could have happened. 

“We needed it,” Davis Love III says now. “It was unfortunate for Phil and Tom that it got out of the locker room, but in the long run it was great.”

That was a dark moment for sure, but who's responsible for it getting out of the locker room?  I'll spare you the details, but Phil told several meaningful lies that day, of which people should be reminded.

Brian finally gets to this:

Yet just how did this transformation happen so quickly? Of course, while the infrastructure changes made were timely and necessary, it didn’t hurt that they coincided with a critical shift in American golf from one generation to the next.

 Ya think?

But let's also note for the record that this triumphalism is a tad premature.... Those kids have won exactly one Ryder Cup, and a home game at that.  Let's see if they can live up to the loft expectations in France, a tie that they should win.

We're All Trump Now - Todd Warnock is a partner in the proposed Coul Links, and pens a guest item for The Scotsman in which he accuses certain Scots of tarring him with comparisons to the dreaded Trump:

However, I’ve also noticed a growing and unsettling trend here in Scotland where some people, the odd politician, and some environmental organisations, when it’s in their

interest, have taken to likening Americans to Trump. 

I should say that I have never worked with, supported or agreed with Trump. I could never give my backing to his policies or actions. Yet my partners and I find ourselves described as “peas in a pod” with Trump by a Scottish MSP, John Finnie. He has never met me, my partners or responded to my calls, yet he seems content to use Trump as a stick to tar me with, regardless of my actual beliefs.

I’ve also noticed this approach has been taken up at an organisational level. RSPB Scotland and SWT, for example, continue to focus on my nationality rather than the environmental facts of our strategy. They ignore the substantial environmentalist accomplishments of Mike Keiser and I while taking every opportunity to simply label us as “American millionaires”. In my view, they are endeavouring to whip up anti-American feeling – just go read some of the objections to our proposal on the Highland Council website. This is not unlike the way the Trump singles people out by their nationality or belittles their intentions. Similarly, the small group of locals self-named “Not Coul” try to paste the Trump scarlet letter upon us. A sensationalist video features Trump more than it does me or my partners.

Me or my partners?  Perhaps they're just offended by your mangling of their language? 

Warnock makes his home in The Highlands and his love for the country and its people is readily apparent.  Politicians taking cheap shots is an obvious dog-bites -man story, but I wonder if there's some wounded pride involved as well.  The Scots feel a proprietary interest in golf and links, and the colonists and their money developing this site has to sting a bit.  That said, give the involvement of Mike Keiser and C&C, I'd like to see what might come of this.

Best of 2017, Major Division - Things are slow, so lots of rehashes to sort through....  Golf Channel has a slideshow of major moments, including this one for which Sergio remains grateful:

You never know, but he seemed like he couldn't lose at that moment in time.  

Doug Ferguson talks to the four major winners, with some interesting reflections.  First, Brooks Koepka with a shot that no one but he and his caddie were focused on:

“The tee shot on the par 5, No. 14,” he said. “We could hit 3-wood and get to the bunker, but driver was no good because we couldn’t carry it or we had a 20-yard fairway. We actually had to cut this 3-wood up into the wind. We had to take a lot off it. It only wound up 4 yards short of the bunker. We were walking up and I said, ‘I think we can go for that par 5 in two.’” 

He put it in the greenside bunker and got up-and-down for birdie. 

“That’s probably a moment a normal person wouldn’t think anything of it,” he said.

Love to know what his longest iron was, and how far back that would have left him.

As for Jordan, he focused on an early-round piece of magic:

The finish is famous. Overlooked was a shot in the second round that Spieth felt kept

him from a mini-meltdown. Right when the rain started pounding, Spieth drove into a pot bunker on No. 10, punched out and then hit his third shot long and to the right. Facing bogey or worse, he chipped in for par. 

“I hit a beautiful chip that went in that kept momentum going in the worst of the weather that we experienced that week,” Spieth said. “That chip shot was massive at that point because I was faltering. I could have made bogey or double easy.”

Before we move on, Dave Shedloski had an interesting take on Spieth's 2017, including this acknowledgement of that which we've all noted:

“Yeah, it’s been a really exciting career,” he conceded recently at the Hero World Challenge. “It’s been exciting in both ways, in the bad and in the good. I don’t know why I have a knack for the craziness, but it just seems to take shape. I’ve had boring wins, too. You could argue the Masters in ’15 was a boring win. This tournament was a boring win [in 2014, by 10 strokes]. But unless I’m really on, I struggle with the full commitment in my game that produces that three-, four-, five-shot win.”

Yes, you do, for which the rest of us are quite grateful.  

Shack and Matt Adams take on the question of most significant major moment, and while there's video at the link, here's Geoff's take on their choices:

Matt Adams and I debated this for Golf Central's Alternate Shot, with some footage included. While Adams took Sergio's second shot into Augusta National's 15th, I selected Jordan Spieth's wedge shot following the driving range recovery. Why? It was a tight lie over a pot bunker, his heart rate had to be off the charts from climbing dunes and taking drops, and it put a bow on the greatest bogey you'll ever see.

Can anyone think of any other memorable bogeys?  

Time to think about skiing.... 

Loose Threads

How I've missed you all....  yesterday was a travel back to Utah, where there is still exactly no snow....  One ski buddy described the trails as "White ribbons of death."  We'll see about that later this morning.....

Fill Out Your Dance Card - Joel Beall files a long item on what the schedule might look like in 2019.  I'll try to grab those bits that might be new to the reader:

Speaking of FedEx, which re-upped its sponsorship of the Playoffs through 2027, reports are that the company, in leveraging its strengthened partnership with the tour, wants a

WGC competition in its Memphis backyard. The idea would be dropping the St. Jude Classic, which often attracts only a handful of marquee names because of its spot the week prior to the U.S. Open, in favor of the Bridgestone Invitational’s WGC halo. Firestone C.C. has a rich history and is considered a favorite by the players, but potentially it could fall victim to corporate synergy.

I shan't mourn for the soporific Firestone, but Memphis?  Other stuff:

Although Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth is a celebrated venue, sponsorship issueshave cast a cloud over its future. Accusations that the tour is OK letting the Colonial fade away may well be exaggerated, but one could understand—against the backdrop of 2019’s change—why securing long-term financial backing could be problematic. Throw in the buzz surrounding the AT&T Byron Nelson’s arrival at trendy Trinity Forest in Dallas in 2018, the folks at Colonial find themselves in a pickle. (For what it's worth, the Nelson is expected to move before the PGA. But the idea that a major would separate the Texas stops does little to alleviate Colonial worries.)

They're hardly the only Texas venue without a sponsor, but it's Hogan's Alley for Chrissakes!

We've discussed this one previously:

Meanwhile, some industry insiders wonder about the status of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. With its namesake gone, the tournament struggled somewhat to draw big names in 2017, and Bay Hill's layout is one that some tour pros aren’t fond of. The tour isn’t expected to pull the plug on the API, but the tournament needs to show signs of life this year to ensure its future.

It's the worst venue in Florida, but it's The King.

Also in the spring fog: the Houston Open. Shell dropped out as sponsor, and the event, which has settled into a spot the week prior to the Masters, does not have a title holder for 2018. Redstone G.C., which sustained damage during Hurricane Harvey last summer but should be OK come spring, is a course that some players like because it is set-up to resemble the conditions they'll see at Augusta National. That said, if it returns in 2019, it looks likely to lose its pre-Augusta setting, with the Valero Texas Open moving to the first week in April.

Houston only works in that week before Augusta....

But this one might be the wackiest:

There’s also rumblings that Quail Hollow, set to host the 2021 Presidents Cup, might be willing to forgo hosting the Wells Fargo Championship on an annual basis in favor of being one of a handful of rotating courses that holds the FedEx Cup’s BMW Championship.

It was only a very few years ago that the Wells Fargo was the hot event....all it took was a bad date and a worse restoration of the golf course.  But for those of you who remember my outrage as the BMW has tried to claim lineage to the Western Open, enjoy watching my head explode as that venerable event is held in North Carolina.

There's much more, including speculation that the Innisbrook event, the best course they play in Florida, could move to the Fall...  Oh, and the Fall will still wrap around, but we all know what happens when a tree falls in the forest.

Shack opens with this non sequitur in his post on the item:

In reading Joel Beall's Golf World look at a potential version of the PGA Tour's forthcoming 2019 schedule revamp, it's hard to look past the huge name, foundational events in danger. The likes of Colonial, Bay Hill and Houston, each important and steady presences on the PGA Tour schedule, all face uncertainty going forward.

Oh sure, Colonial and Bay Hill are just the same..... His conclusion is better, though still a bit curious:

Market forces certainly dictate the status of some of these events, but knowing that World Golf Championship events have taken sponsor possibilities away and weakened fields for non-WGC events, it's hard to pin any blame on these longtime PGA Tour stalwarts for struggling.

I have no doubt the PGA Tour brass is working to save all events. However, the potential demise of events that build the Tour could undermine any sense of connection to the distance or even recent past. You just can't put a dollar figure on those connections, but the legacy of the Finchem era is that no one's place in line matters. Whether that's the legacy of the Monahan era remains to be seen.

The slam at Finchem is well-deserved, and Jay is being well-paid to clean up the mess.  But the Tour brass can't be working to save all the events, because they need about four of them to go away.  It does seem that two are in the bank, those being the best of the playoff events (Boston) and Tiger's D.C. event.

Logically one needs to come from Texas, and Florida seems ripe to make a contribution as well.  

The Year in Review - The Tour Confidentialistas are asked for the most significant story or development in 2017.... well, you be the judge:

Michael Bamberger: I think Spieth's winning of the Open, giving him three legs of the

career Grand Slam. Rory and Phil of course have done the same. To win all four is an immense achievement, done by Sarazen, Hogan, Nicklaus, Player and Woods. That's really a timeless list of greatness. For some years to come, we can enjoy the prospect of watching Spieth try to win a PGA Championship, Phil try to win a U.S. Open and Rory try to win a Masters. Spieth's win in the British Open makes the golfing landscape just more interesting.

How about the fact that he went over a week early, something he was too stubborn to do in 2015 when he was gunning for the calendar-year slam.  Not that I'm bitter....

I'd argue that given the relative stages of their careers that Sergio's breakthrough was the more significant, but the Spaniard got no love....  Most of the guys went this direction:

Josh Sens: That's a great call, Michael. I hate to go the obvious Tiger route, but it's hard to ignore the continuation of a narrative that pulls in two directions: the game's ongoing attempts to move beyond Tiger and Tiger's continued attempts to get back in the mix.

God, no!  Will this be a big 2018 story, sure....  

This query gets a little more interesting:

2. Please also anoint the most underrated and overrated stories from the past year.

Bamberger: The most overrated story was any that claimed Donald Trump was going to be good or bad for golf. The game prospered long before his Oval Office arrival and will continue to do so when a new person sits there. The most underrated story was Spieth's Open win. In a lifetime of watching golf, I never saw anything like it, and the aftermath — how he and Kuchar handled it — was every bit as good.

Trump was certainly the most tedious.... I think we can find common ground with this one:

Sens: I don't know if it was overrated but it got more play than warranted. Four young Tour pros go on a spring break trip together and film themselves yucking it up in the tropics. Sorry, but I couldn't have been more bored.

Clearly Josh has entered the "Get off my lawn" stage of his career, though my head is involuntarily nodding....

In this vein, Golf.com awards its prestigious Golfies.... remember, it's an honor just to be nominated:

THE STUART SMALLEY AWARD FOR BEING GOOD ENOUGH, SMART ENOUGH AND GOSH DARN IT FINALLY WINNING A MAJOR 

Winner: Sergio Garcia 

For gutting it out down the stretch at Augusta to claim just the kind of victory that he once said he didn't think he could win.

Speaking of Stuart Smalley, has he actually resigned yet?

As for this?

THE MAYBE THAT SHOULD BE AN OLYMPIC SPORT AWARD FOR ATHLETIC INNOVATION 

Winners: Jordan Spieth and Michael Greller 

For their synchronized wedge-and-rake toss-cum-leaping chest-bump celebration of Spieth's hole-out from the greenside bunker in a sudden-death playoff at the Travelers Championship.

Excuse me?  This is the event in question:

Pulleaze!  Spieth's lines are all wrong and Greller is hopelessly back on his heels.... How our standards have been debased.....

Cry Me a River - The Chicago Tribune's Teddy Greenstein brings us up to date on developments related to the Tiger Woods-designed course planned for Chicago's South Side in conjunction with the Obama Presidential library:

One year ago Saturday, the Tribune broke the news that Tiger Woods, at the request of former President Barack Obama, would be the lead designer of a South Side project that

has the blessing of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. 

Woods. Obama. Emanuel. That’s a pretty impressive triumvirate culled by Mark Rolfing, the NBC/Golf Channel analyst and DeKalb native who is spearheading the plan via his group, the Chicago Parks Golf Alliance. 

But one year later, there has been little tangible progress.

Mike Kesier, a Chicago guy, is involved, and the difficulty is explained in four bullet points, the first of which is to me the most significant:

•This isn’t merely adding a course. Golfers loyal to the Jackson Park and South Shore courses fear something will be taken from them. Or made more expensive.

Gee, what would make them think that?

Friends of Obama’s say the former president has tremendous enthusiasm for the golf project, peppering associates with questions about the course design. Woods’ TGR Design team envisions a 7,354-yard, par-70 course that has views of the Chicago skyline and will be playable for both major champions and major hacks.

Major hacks?  That'll help placate the locals, who see their two local tracks being combined into one gargantuan championship course....  No doubt they'll be given some green fee concession, but for how long?  Sure Obama is enthusiastic, but he still lives in D.C.

Isn't this exactly the type of project that has come into disrepute in recent years?  The only difference here is the involvement of Obama and Tiger, neither of whom seems terribly concerned about those affected.

Udder Stuff - A few items I've missed during our brief hiatus.  First, one last fun item from the Tour Confidential above:

6. One of golf's feel-good tournaments, the PNC Father-Son Challenge, wrapped Sunday with Angel Cabrera and Angel Cabrera Jr. raising the trophy. Commissioner Monahan taps you to create another out-of-the-box event for 2018. What's your pitch?

Bamberger: An oldie but goodie: a mixed-team event. PGA Tour players with LPGA players. 

Ritter: Bamberger nails it. And let's make it a coed match play.

Good one, though match play would require quite the small field size....

Sens: The one-club challenge. Play it with the same equipment Faldo and Seve used when they went head to head using only a five-iron. So many golf arguments these days revolve around whether modern players are as good as past generations. Let's put their ball-striking to a classic test.

How great would that be?  Good stuff all around....

In a prior version of his weekly mailbag feature, Alan Shipnuck was asked a series of question about you-know-who:

Given that his Ryder Cup record during his prime was average, would Tiger weaken or strengthen the 2018 team? #askalan -@TigerPencil

Doesn't it kind of depend on how he's playing?  Alan has a rather lengthy take on this:

A similar question was asked by Nick Blauw (@NickBlauw2), who wondered if Tiger is a better asset as an assistant captain. It's true that even when Woods was playing the most 

dominant golf of all time he struggled at the Ryder Cup, a big reason why those U.S. teams usually lost. This goes back to the Tida/Earl influence – Tiger was taught to separate himself from the competition in every way. His inner-self was a well-guarded fortress. No chance was he going to give away secrets, or a chunk of his aura, in the team room to guys he would be trying to beat for the next 103 weeks.

But ever since Thanksgiving 2009 the team events have taken on a different meaning for Tiger. The players and leadership of the U.S. teams offered him camaraderie and brotherhood and acceptance, all of which he desperately needed. This allowed Tiger to let down his guard and fully integrate himself into the teams, whether as a player or assistant captain. This is a huge part of his transition into a beloved elder statesman. So, if Tiger can piece together enough game he will be a powerful asset at the Ryder Cup. His younger teammates grew up idolizing him and any of them will play their ass off if paired with Tiger. And, having now realized that he needs the Ryder Cup more than it needs him, a humbled Tiger would be able to bro up in a different, more generous way. If Tiger's health or poor form keeps him off the squad as a player he will certainly be an impactful vice captain, commanding respect in the team room and offering a wealth of knowledge and experience, which he now liberally shares.

That's way too long and greatly overstates things, but there's certainly an interesting point there.  Tiger's Ryder Cup record during his peak years remains an enigma....  My experience is that guys that hate losing hate losing anywhere...  Think about the LaCava story about their games of H-O-R-S-E.

Of course, this was the prior query:

Is Tiger going to win the Masters in 2018? -@JimmyLobus 

No.

That sounds right to me...

Tiger was dissed by a guy named Jack as well....  It wasn't really a diss, but was played as such:

The Golden Bear, in Orlando competing with grandson Gary Nicklaus Jr. at the PNC

Father/Son Challenge, was quite clear Friday when asked if he was interested in watching Woods’ attempt to reclaim his stake in the game. 

“I’m not interested at all,” Nicklaus said. 

Tell us how you really feel, Jack.

Turns out that Jack isn't watching much golf these days.... He must be as sick of Sir Nick as I am.  Though I assume there's a carve-out for The Memorial.... 

Leftovers

Just a few trifles so you'll know I've not forgotten you....

The Calendar - The ladies have announced their 2018 schedule, taking them hither and yon:

The LPGA has made official what Mike What laid out last month at the CME Group Tour Championship. The 2018 LPGA schedule features 34 events across 14 countries,

including the UL International Crown, and a record $68.75 million in prize money, up from $65.5 in 2017. 

Two events are gone from the ’17 – Lorena Ochoa’s event in Mexico City and the Manulife in Canada – but stops in Shanghai, Los Angeles and San Francisco have been added. 

“Perhaps the most important aspect of our schedule is the consistency – continuing to deliver strong playing opportunities both in North America and around the world, while growing overall purse levels every year,” said LPGA commissioner Mike Whan. 

Twenty-three new title sponsors have been added to the LPGA portfolio in the last six years, including South Korean skincare company L&P Cosmetic, which will sponsor the new event at Lake Merced outside San Francisco. Swinging Skirts hosted an event at Lake Merced from 2014 to ’16 but now sponsors the LPGA’s event in Taipei.

I'm glad to see them back at Lake Merced after a one-year absence.  It's a fine venue and allows for a prime-time broadcast.  The state of journalism being what it is, not only doesn't Beth Ann Nischols tell us how many events there were in 2017, but she notes there are two events with new formats, without, you know, informing us what those new formats might be.... Sigh.

Keely Levins at Golf Digest has a wistful look back at the most significant event of 2017, Stacy

Lewis' win in which she pledged her check to her hometown of Houston.  Fair play for sure, though my take-away from the accompanying photo was how meager their purses are.  And yes, I did take Stacy to the woodshed when she whined about it, but it's OK when I do it on her behalf.

As for the men, saviors are on hand for the Colonial event:

FORT WORTH Calling the Colonial Golf Tournament “a Fort Worth institution,” American Airlines confirmed Friday it will financially support efforts to keep the prestigious Colonial Golf Tournament as a stop on the PGA Tour in 2018.

“We are delighted to do so,” spokesman Matt Miller said. “Colonial is a Fort Worth institution and as a Fort Worth-based company, American is delighted to support the tournament in 2018.” He declined to disclose an amount. 

Landing American Airlines support for the May tournament is part of a behind-the-scenes effort by civic leaders, including U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and Mayor Betsy Price. Price was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment.

Additionally, XTO Energy and AT&T are also likely to financially support the event.   Nice to see local companies stepping into the breach to save the event at Hogan's Alley, though get a load of this reaction from longtime Dallas-based golf writer Bill Nichols:

That would be fantastic news for the event and North Texas. It’s also gratifying to see that officials were able to get it done when the PGA Tour essentially drop-kicked them to the curb.

Hey, once the check clears....The Tour had hooked them up with Dean & DeLuca, but hasn't been very helpful since D&L pulled out.

Today in Statistics - It's been a bad week for New Jersey....  First came word of the closure of the iconic Bada Bing, just down Route 17 from my old workplace.  Now comes this, a 75-year old 15-handicap claiming to have eighty holes-in-one.  It's an amusing piece, especially since he's also claiming three albatrosses..... albatrossi?, which to me seems even more unlikely....

It's a bit long, but if you're reading this blog you've obviously got time on your hands.

Tiger Scat - Just a couple of silly items, first this guy that likely didn't get his money's worth, though a good cause and all:

How much would you pay for a lesson with arguably the greatest golfer of all time? One person has now provided an answer to that question, and the figure is staggering.

A draw party was held at the Tiger Woods-designed Bluejack National Tuesday night, and one auction item jumped off the page: a private lesson with Tiger Woods himself. 

The winning bid? $210,000, according to ESPN's Bob Harig.

Scroll up and you'll be reminded that that's $15K more than Stacy contributed....

And Joe LaCava with this story of Tiger, the intense competitor a sore loser:

Woods' caddie, Joe LaCava, appeared on SXM PGA Tour Radio on Wednesday night

and he shared a hilarious story about their heated hoops battles. More specifically, Woods takes his games of H.O.R.S.E. very, very seriously.

"Then I get him on the baseline from 10-12 feet, and I beat him nine games in a row, this is a true story, nine games in a row. He did not talk to me the rest of the day," LaCava said. "I didn't even get the old text, 'Dinner is ready,' because I stay across at the beach house. I didn't even get that text that night so I had to get take-out."

Even I could take him from the baseline....

Rules Musings - Ryan Herrington with the downside, at the elite level, of rules simplification:

Yet if the aim of the Rules revision is, in part, to save golf from itself, it’s wise to appreciate the potential trade-off involved. In an attempt to act as kinder, gentler

governing bodies, the USGA and R&A risk that the new Rules lose some of their objectivity and, in turn, a fair bit of their teeth. 

Consider the situation that arose with Hideki Matsuyama earlier this month at the Hero World Challenge. During Friday’s second round, the young Japanese talent flubbed his third shot on the par-4 18th hole at Albany from just off the green, his chip landing just shy of the putting surface. As the ball started rolling back toward him, Matsuyama was shown on TV tapping his wedge on the ground near where he hit the ball. Many wondered if this act was a breach of the Rules as he potentially was improving the lie for his fourth shot (the ball did not actually come back to the same spot).

This is quite farcical, no?  Intent may be a factor, but in the instant case Hideki did something instinctively, without any conscious thought.  Intent has nothing to do with it....  He's improving the turf while his ball is still moving, how can that not be penalized?   

I don't find this as compelling as others have (such as Shackelford), but your mileage may vary:

With so many sections and subsections and sub-subsections, if you broke a Rule because you didn’t know it was a Rule to begin with, you often were forgiven for making an honest mistake. With a modernized Rules book, that defense becomes far more flimsy. 

Indeed, if the Rules are going to be easier to understand, then golfers are going to be expected to genuinely understand them. In particular, golfers who make a living playing the game. 

In that respect, the modernized Rules may well present a new set of challenges when they finally go online on New Year’s Day 2019.

There have always been players with reputations for skirting the rules, but those aren't the guys who have had penalties assessed.  Gary Player is probably the most famous of these, just ask Tom Watson...

The Landed Gentry -  The header of this Alex Myers item says it all:

My day (and night) at the backyard golf hole of a man who builds backyard golf holes

OK, maybe a little taste:

Lehrer only has two backyard greens (Yes, this is kind of like saying someone only has two private jets), but with nine sets of tees, technically, he can play 18 different holes. It's that type of variety -- one that's only possible by the impact turf he uses and a green design that can take shots from all different angles -- that is a staple in Lehrer's work.

 Unsurprisingly, he lives in Armonk.  Click through to see all 18 holes....

Don't Know Much About History - This might be as popular as his most famous win:

Nathaniel Crosby’s victory in the U.S. Amateur in 1981 was among the most memorable

in its long history, “a magical moment in golf,” Terry Jastrow, who produced the telecast for ABC, called it. It helped earn Crosby a berth on the U.S. team that won the Walker Cup at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, two years later. 

Two years from now, Crosby will complete the circle, returning to Hoylake, this time as the captain of the U.S. Walker Cup team. The USGA will make the announcement official on Wednesday. 

"I haven't had a great moment in 35 years, haven't won a tournament in 35 years," Crosby said. "So when Diana Murphy [the USGA president] called me, I was extremely surprised. For someone that has something to say about everything, I was taken aback. I had a serious loss of breath when she told me I would be the next Walker Cup captain."

I was with my trainer, a golf addict but a typical millennial, who made the mistake of asking me if there was anything new in the golf world.  I told him this story, and it quickly became clear that he had never heard of Bing Crosby.  These kids today.... 

Midweek Musings

Sorry for yesterday's absence, but I'll pop in as content allows...

The Rules Changes, Days 2-3 - As with many substantive stories, it can often take a cycle or two for the more interesting takes to emerge.  First, Shack posts this alarming header:

Why Could Replay Reviews Still Occur After A Card Is Signed?

Say what?  

As explained by the USGA's Thomas Pagel and R&A's David Rickman, a review could still take place on, say, Friday, after something occurred on Thursday. Only now, the 

Lexi's euphoria might be premature.

player will not be penalized for signing an incorrect card should a penalty be assessed by the review. 

As we noted on Morning Drive, this leaves open the question of how such a delayed review would take place if the tour's had an official watching the live telecasts. Any review over a few minutes past the round's conclusion would only occur because the official missed it the first time. In this case, the official would only be working off of some sort of outside tip to review a possible infraction.

You got that?  What's wrong with these people?  

I'm not hung up on the signing of the scorecard in a literal sense, because I understand that the replay officials (and that use of the plural is little more than optimism on my part) for something that happens on the final hole could take a little time.

But that they're still talking about Friday penalties for Thursday infractions is scary...  They keep assuring us that they've got this, but then squirming at any suggestion that their right to penalize a player ceases.  And that latter bit really frustrates me because they willingly cede that right on Sunday, ensuring that the first three rounds are played under different rules than the final round.

Here's one point that I was remiss in not making Monday:

Interestingly, the two-stroke penalty only went into effect in 2016 when USGA and R&A implemented the most recent changes to the Rules of Golf. Prior to that, players would be disqualified if they had signed their scorecards and were later found to have committed a penalty that they had not accounted. In changing the rule to be more lenient, officials acknowledged a DQ was a punishment that didn’t fit the crime.

The irony, she burns.  As with the first attempt to change the rule governing balls on greens moving, our betters got this almost as wrong.  There's no question that 2 strokes is better than a DQ, but they seem to have failed to realize that adding four strokes (two for the underlying crime, plus two for the paperwork) would take almost any player out of the hunt.  And since the cameras linger longest on the leaders, odds are that that's who you'll be having those awkward conversations with in the middle of their rounds.

Let's turn the proceedings over to Mike Bamberger, my candidate for the conscience of our sport.  Mike makes the case for that which made our game special:

We're talking about golf on TV, played by the best players in the world, typically for money, but sometimes not. (The Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup and top amateur events get a lot of TV time, too.)

The starting point for this play has to be that the players turn in honest, accurate scorecards, strictly adhering to every aspect of the rule book. If there's any wiggle room, any fudge factor, any gray area, the whole thing falls apart. The player has two main incentives to do the right thing. One, he or she has integrity and understands that is at the core of the game. Two, those scores the players post are being widely, widely vetted. If you cheat, or even if you do something wrong inadvertently, you're going to be found out. (Trust, but verify.) No biggie. Since you want to turn in the most accurate scorecard possible, you welcome the attention.

We're the only major sport where the player is responsible for the accuracy of his results....  Go on, Mike:

How about the responsibility to know the rules and to play by them? How about doing it correctly the first time? The whole ball-dropping issue with Tiger Woods at 15 in the Saturday round of the 2013 Masters was that he dropped incorrectly. The whole ball-marking issue with Thompson at the ANA Inspiration was that she marked incorrectly. Neither player ever stood up and said, "I take responsibility for this whole mess."

Golf, by tradition, is severe, austere, Calvinistic. Every aspect of it. That's why the spectators are quiet. That's why one player does nothing to interfere with another. That's why Joe Dey, the first PGA Tour commissioner, late of the USGA, carried a bible in one pocket and a rule book in the other when he officiated.

Here's Geoff's take:

I certainly agree that there is a softening effect worth considering, particularly if the softening actually leads to something worse than mere player ignorance of the rules. If there is an opening created here, as Bamberger contends, does it lead to players bending the rules out of ignorance or entitlement? A case could be made that we already see that with backstopping or the current ball mark fixing of non-ball marks on greens.

Remember what Phil told us after Lexi-gate?  That many players are deliberately mismarking their balls in order to avoid spike marks....  

But, rather than go out on that downer, how about John Strege going back to The Creation:

On Monday, we spoke to the man who set in motion what likely was the first case of 

The Walrus in a 1995 reenactment.

viewer turned rules snitch, on Feb. 7, 1987. His error? He answered the phone. Twice. 

“I’m working the media center,” Rick Schloss, widely acknowledged as the best sports PR guru in San Diego, said. Schloss was the long-time PR director for what now is the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. “I got a call from a guy on that Sunday that said a player broke a rule. I thought, ‘OK, whatever.’ You get crazy people calling all the time about certain things.” 

So Schloss innocently passed on the information to a PGA Tour media official, who relayed it tour rules officials. Upon completing the final round and ostensibly finishing second, Stadler was informed that he had violated rule 13-3, illegally building a stance by using the towel to keep from muddying his trousers. The two-stroke penalty meant he had signed an incorrect scorecard on Saturday and he was disqualified. 

“I got the first [viewer] call, I believe,” Schloss said.

If only he had let it go to voice mail......  

A Curious Tale -  The Tour runs a highly-successful drug testing program...  If you're surprised by that assessment, I'll remind you that one can only determine the efficacy of such program in light of its original objectives.  See my point?

Up until Monday, here's the full list of players that have previously violated, scratch that, have been caught violating the Tour's substance abuse policy:

Hensby joins Doug Barron, Bhavik Patel and Scott Stallings as the only players to face disciplinary action for breaking this protocol. (Stallings was a self-reported case, as his medication was for a separate non-performance issue.) Vijay Singh was also banned for violating tour policy, but he later won his appeal.

Let me interject here that it's not the best time to criticize the Tour, because new Commissioner Monahan has announced that they will start drawing blood and otherwise beef up the program.  He should be given enough time to prove he's sincere, but you see the shell game played by former Commissioner Ratched.  

News broke of a one-year suspension of Tour Rabbit Mark Hensby, and we all likely wondered what they found in his system....  Nothing, actually, though he's certainly largely to blame:

According to Hensby, following a first-round 78 at the Sanderson Farms Championship in October, he was approached by a tour official for a drug test. Hensby claimed that,

because he had used the bathroom on his 17th hole, he'd be unable to provide a sample for hours. Receiving word from someone standing by that he wasn't required to stay, Hensby left the course. 

“I didn’t know the ramifications in the moment because I was so mad at everything that had transpired," Hensby told Golf Digest.

Hensby was informed later that night that, for failing to provide a urine sample, he was disqualified from the event. He also realized that would be far from his only punishment. 

“I knew I was going to be banned, but didn’t know to what extent," Hensby said.

Hours?  Don't they have a pot of coffee you could chug...  or a tap they could open?

Something seems horribly amiss here... Now, Hensby is actually taking it with relative grace:

Hensby waited for his ruling to go public for about a month, and admittedly is somewhat shocked at how much attention it's received. He also doesn't blame the tour for its verdict. 

“Don’t get me wrong, a year is a long time, but they have rules," he said

Obviously, a drug protocol has to be mandatory, and players can't be allowed off the hook with the age-old "But I don't need to go" excuse....  That said, is it too much to expect that the Tour official will explain the consequences to the player, so that he'll know the ramifications of his refusal?  Maybe he might come with an information sheet for the player to review....  

Distaff Doings -  Ron Sirak has always been the strongest supporter of the LPGA among the golfing press.  In fact, at the Met. Golf Writers awards dinner a few year back in which he received their journalism award, the presenter noted that he was the first writer to cover all four men's majors as well as all four women's majors, for the simple reason that he was the first that wanted to.

At his blog he's announcing arrival of The Greatest Generation in women's golf:

Underappreciated in the history of the LPGA is the incredible pool of talent that built the 

bridge from the daughters of the founders – the likes of Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright and JoAnne Carner – to the global tour created by Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Laura Davies and Se Ri Pak. That generation of players from 1975 to 1995 has been perhaps unmatched in the history of women’s golf – until now. 

Think of it. In that group were Nancy Lopez, Betsy King, Meg Mallon, Juli Inkster, Beth Daniel, Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Amy Alcott and Hollis Stacy. All are in the World Golf Hall of Fame. And now we have Sung Hyun Park, Lexi Thompson, So Yeon Ryu, Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Brooke Henderson, Shanshan Feng, Ariya Jutanugarn, Anna Nordqvist and Cristie Kerr. All of whom could be in the Hall of Fame some day.

OK, but don't get cocky, kid.  In the literal sense, of course....

I agree that there's a wealth of talent, and highly appealing talent for sure.  But I'm old enough to remember when the Paula Creamer-Morgan Pressel-Michelle Wie generation was the LPGA's salvation....  

Ron makes an impassioned case for marketing budgets, with which I certainly agree at the local level.  There's little question that the LPGA has created a fan-friendly experience on the ground.  Problem is, those TV ratings are microscopic.....

Adults Behaving Childishly - We don't have too many golf stories from Montana, but this one is a head-scratcher:

Of the 49 states that offer golf as a high school sport, just a small percentage forbid spectators from watching the action. 

A KBZK Bozeman report dives into the one line in the Montana State High School Association handbook that has wide-ranging ramifications for the state's golfers: "No spectators/fans are allowed on the course except for certain locations as designated by the tournament manager and club professional." 

The report points out that besides Montana, the only other state known to forbid high school golf spectators is New Jersey (and Alaska — where there is no high school golf).

The justifications behind the spectator ban include "parents being unruly and disrupting play, spectator safety, and illegally coaching players on the course."

We don't need any of those pesky spectators....  

Sold! -  Golf Magazine has been sold to a curious party:

Golf Magazine and its coveted web URL, Golf.com, have been purchased by investor Howard Milstein and Emigrant Capital, according to sources briefed on the sale. 

The 58-year-old publication has been part of the Time Inc. family since 2000 and was put up for sale in October, 2017. The golf publication and its digital site never were expected to be part of any sales talks with Meredith, the new owner of Time Inc.

A sale price has not been disclosed, but the transaction is expected to close on January 19th, 2018.

The Millsteins are a storied real estate family in NYC, though they've assembled a bit of a golf portfolio:

Milstein is no stranger to golf, having invested in Miura Golf, True Spec and in the Jack Nicklaus empire. That partnership began in 2007.

The bigger issue to me is that their strong group of writers, Bamberger, Shipnuck, Van Sickle and the like had always worked for both Sports Illustrated as well as Golf Mag and Golf.com.  That tie will likely be severed, and I suspect that we'll pay the price in some form....

A Fun Take -  Doug Ferguson has a fun spin on the dreary Year-In-Review columns in which he cites the most significant shot with each club in the bag....  Since chicks have always dug the long ball, I'll excerpt these two:

DRIVER: Moments after Dustin Johnson made a birdie putt to force a sudden-death playoff at the Northern Trust, he effectively ended it with one swing . CBS analyst Nick 

Spoiler Alert:  This is his putt of the year.

Faldo pointed to a bunker beyond the right side of the lake on the 18th hole at Glen Oaks as a target for Johnson's powerful fade. Instead, he took it over the entire lake, a 341-yard blast. That left him a lob wedge to 4 feet for birdie to beat Jordan Spieth.

3-WOOD: "Oh gosh, Jimmy, be good." Justin Thomas was speaking to caddie Jimmy Johnson after launching a 3-wood from 310 yards to the elevated green on the par-5 18th at Erin Hills. It was perfect, landing softly and rolling out 8 feet to set up an eagle that tied one U.S. Open record (63) and broke another (9-under par).

I'd have been tempted to include Lexi's missed two-footer, although maybe that's a separate list entirely.... 

I'll be back when I'm back....