Thursday Threads

If I seem distracted it's perhaps because of play from Gullane in my peripheral vision.  The Scottish links are all running firm and fast, as they naturally would in a year in which your humble blogger is not visiting....

Phil in Phull - I read this wonderful Alan Shipnuck profile last week in the print edition, and have been waiting for its availability online.  It opens strong, with Phil's arrival in a pimped out golf cart, and see if you like this bit as much as I did:

Rancho Santa Fe is a hilltop hamlet a half hour north of San Diego, a sun-splashed Mayberry for the one percent. On a sleepy Monday morning in late May, amidst a

procession of drop-top Bentleys and sleek Teslas, a middle-aged dude in shorts and flip-flops rolls down the perfectly quaint main drag in an unexpected vehicle: a black golf cart, with a leather Tour bag bulging out the back. He's wearing a Whisper Rock cap and carrying a huge Yeti thermos. Stepping into Caffe Positano, a temple of gourmet coffee, this jovial patron is sized up by the barista like Sam Malone might gaze upon Norm Peterson, and asks, "You want the usual, Phil?" 

In short order, five shots of espresso are poured into the concoction that Phil Mickelson had already brewed a mile away at his Mediterranean-style compound. Phil takes his coffee drinks very seriously, and with the help of a de facto sommelier has concocted a magic elixir that he says strengthens his immune system and helps him train better by reducing inflammation. It consists of coarse ground Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee, almond milk, cinnamon, cacao nibs, collagen and medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, which is extracted from coconuts.

Of course it is....  Because, well, for Phil his morning java is a highly competitive category....

Employee No. 2 remains convinced that he's had reduction surgery, though this seems the more likely explanation for the diminished man-breasts:

At The Bridges, he greets every waiter and busboy by name. Though neither of us are Millennials, we order the avocado toast. Phil's commitment to healthy eating and exercising—he owns a black belt in Taekwondo—began around the time he hit 40. "If I look back to when I won the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in 2005, I was 15 pounds heavier, I looked awful, and here I am 13 years older and I'm in better shape," he says. "I physically feel better. I eat better. I take care of myself better. Most people regress. I feel like I've improved a little bit over time."

I've perhaps been a tad tough on the lad recently, though I'm sure you'll agree that he had it coming.  The thing is that I like the big, goofy oaf as much as the next guy, except when I don't.  It seems to me that he gets himself in trouble when he's trying to prove how smart he is...  There's likely more insecurity there than we could ever imagine, but isn't that usually the case?

And speaking of mannaries, have you seen Monty lately?  Egads, someone needs to organize an intervention.

That Toddlin' Town -  The old gals are in Chicago, and it should be a hoot.  We'll lede with this Andy Johnson primer on historic Chicago Golf Club:

Chicago Golf Club owns the distinction of being the first 18-hole golf course in the

United States. Grandfather of U.S. golf, C.B. Macdonald was instrumental in founding the storied club and designing the original golf courses. The club is one of the five founding member clubs of the USGA and has hosted USGA championships across three centuries.

This is quite amusing:

Chicago Golf Club's competitive course record of 65 is held by member Pete Keller. The "other" course record is held by 2-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw. Gentle Ben fired a 62 playing with Tom Weiskopf, CGC pro Don Stickney and Ed Sneed. The score didn't hold because Crenshaw hit a second ball off the first tee, which he didn't end up playing. Here's the card and the balls from the round.

A breakfast ball?  That sound you hear is C.B. Macdonald spinning in his grave.  Do click through if only to read the scathing 1917 letter Macdonald wrote to the club about the sorry state of its golf course.  That led to Seth Raynor's redesign, which is essentially the course being played this week.

Beth Ann Nichols has a story meant to demonstrate how long it took to get this event started:

Pat Bradley peeked into my bag on the first tee at Chicago Golf Club and pulled out the Karsten I pitching wedge I’ve been using since high school. (My dad has a backup in the garage.) 

“Is this conforming?” she asked, noting that some U.S. Senior Women’s Open hopefuls had their clubs checked by the U.S. Golf Association, as the rules had changed since they last competed. 

That exchange elicited two thoughts: 1) Wow, this championship took entirely too long to come together. 2) I can’t wait to see it unfold.

An "open of their Own", she calls it, channeling her inner Virginia Woolf. 

Dan Moore has a good, short primer on the architectural background of the club, though the first thing that jumped out at me was this:

To escape the chaotic aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire in 1872, Macdonald’s parents sent him to Scotland at age 17 to live with his grandfather and attend the University of St. Andrews. The day after his arrival, Macdonald’s grandfather took him to meet Old Tom Morris, who provided the teenager with a few clubs and a locker in his shop. Over the next two years, Macdonald spent numerous hours on the St. Andrews links and developed his golf skills to a level where he could compete with the best golfers of St. Andrews, including Young Tom Morris. 

His two-year education in St. Andrews would not only prepare him for a highly successful business career, but also instill in Macdonald a passion to transport the game he called “Scotland’s Gift” from the sandy dunes of St. Andrews to the fertile prairies of Chicago.

Absent the Chicago Fire golf might have remained a Scottish obsession?  Good to know....

After several visits by Raynor and considerable input from Macdonald, the club approved a $170,000 plan and construction finally commenced in May 1921. Raynor oversaw the two-year construction, including the design of 16 new and two remodeled 

Very similar to the 16th at Sleepy Hollow, though seeming flatter.

greens. 

The “new course” of the Chicago Golf Club is unique among the portfolio of Macdonald-Raynor courses in that it not only utilized a number of Macdonald’s template holes and features – Road Hole (No. 2), Biarritz (No. 3), Principal’s Nose bunker (No. 6), Redan (No. 7), Short Hole Green (No. 10), Punchbowl Green (No. 12) and Cape (No. 14) – but also paid homage to the 1895 Wheaton course by retaining the original designs of six holes with new bunkering and redesigned greens. Many of the Foulis brothers’ mounds and bunkers were incorporated in the design of new holes. An ingenious example was the use of the mounds on No. 17, which now served to mimic the railroad sheds on the Road Hole. 

Barely altered since it reopened in 1923, Chicago Golf Club is a testament to the genius of Macdonald and Raynor, and almost 100 years later, the course remains an ideal challenge for members, top amateurs and, soon, the best senior women in the world.

Beth Ann Nichols catches up with two of the faves:

WHEATON, Ill. – The first two players in the interview room at the U.S. Senior

Women’s Open are two of the great quotes in all of golf: Laura Davies and Juli Inkster. Their 15 minutes behind the mic says all you need to know about why this championship was sorely needed. 

Davies actually moved her pre-tournament press conference on Wednesday to accommodate her World Cup viewing. She planned to watch England’s semifinal game versus Croatia at Quigley’s Irish Pub in Naperville, Ill. At last week’s Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic, Davies watched the first 22 minutes of England’s game against Sweden and then ran to the first tee with her phone still in her pocket. After hitting driver, Davies put her earpiece back in to hear that England had scored the first goal. This continued on throughout the round in between shots until England won 2-0.

Hopefully her Sunday tee time will be sufficiently late to allow her to watch her beloved England in the World Cup final.  What?  To Croatia?  You OK, Dame Laura? 

We hinted at this issue above:

WHEATON, Ill. – JoAnne Carner got the shock of her life when she got to player registration at the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open. At the end of the table was a

gentleman from the USGA who manages equipment conformance who asked Carner a few questions. It wasn’t long before Carner realized that her trusty Wilson R-90 wedge wouldn’t make it to the first tee. Carner estimates she’s had the club in her bag for three decades, roughly the same amount of time she has waited for a Senior Women’s Open.

“Oh, it was awful,” said Carner of parting with a club that’s been critical to her game around the greens and from 75 yards out for so many years. It felt like parting with an old friend. 

When head pro John Guyton got wind of Carner’s predicament, he pulled out the wedges that had been cleared away from the pro shop to make room for championship merchandise and presented them to Carner. The 79-year-old legend whittled it down to two wedges, and Guyton adjusted both to match the loft and lie of old faithful. Guyton had the clubs out to Carner before she’d even reached the first green of her practice round. She wound up choosing a Titleist Vokey 54-degree wedge that was bent to 55.

I'm not expecting the golf to be of the highest caliber for that reason, but there are other reasons to watch.

Speaking of watching, apparently we'll have to wait until Saturday to do so:

GOLF

U.S. Senior Women’s Open from Chicago Golf Club

Third Round – Sat 7/14 (FS1) 4:00 PM

Final Round – Sun 7/15 (FS1) 4:00 PM

Well, that sucks...  

Tour Sauce, Explained -  Two acknowledged experts explain the fundamentals of.... well, let them tell it:

Some might call it unnecessary. Others would call it TourSauce. Either way, Tiger Woods loves it. What is it again? Oh, simply spinning your club after you’ve performed a shot. 

Woods was with Ahmad Rashad recently, banging balls on a driving range, when Rashad did an impromptu hosting job, asking Woods about the art of spinning the club post-shot. For Tiger, it’s pretty simple, but it all comes down to the right thumb.

Justin Thomas has a dissenting opinion, but it's all good fun.

On a somewhat related note, Dylan Dethier has the following in reaction to a swing that's long on sauce, but of a very non-tour variety:

Famous American writer John Updike once wrote that the golf swing is "like a suitcase 

No surprise that it's from a southpaw.

into which we are trying to pack one too many things." 

Roy McAvoy said in Tin Cup, "I tend to think of the golf swing as a poem." 

Payne Stewart astutely noted that "a bad attitude is worse than a bad swing." 

I turn to quotes here because the below swing has left me nearly speechless. It's an overpacked suitcase and a poem and a seemingly fantastic attitude all wrapped into one. It's less on-plane and more on-helicopter. And it's all to the perfect accompaniment: "T.N.T." from AC/DC. You, too, could garner some swing tips from the lyrics of this rock anthem. "T.N.T., I'm a power load/T.N.T., watch me explode!"

Video at link, of course.

The Professor Weighs In -  Bryson DeChambeau weighs in on the banning of his plastic pocket protector:

“Yeah, look, I’ll say one thing on that, and I will say it’s unfortunate. It’s just a referencing tool. I talked to John Bodenhamer (USGA senior managing director of

championships and governance) about it quite a bit, a couple hours, and we had a great conversation. The USGA has been really responsive and we’ve had fantastic talks. I’m honestly looking forward to working with them on helping make the rules better, more clear. That was never my intention, to skirt by the rules or anything like that. It was just a device that I thought had been used for a long time in different fields and I thought, ‘This shouldn’t be an issue. It’s not a distance-measuring device, it’s just a referencing tool.’ And so they obviously didn’t think it was legal and that’s fine. But at the same point and time, there’s a lot of different ways to go about referencing things. I could use my finger or things like that, so they’re working on that to clarify the rules in that regard as well. … On the compass issue, we’re working on it and hopefully we’ll come to a better resolution in the end.”

It does seem that we're at an interesting juncture with technology such as green reading books and DMD's, made odder by the banning of a device likely used by Copernicus.   

Props for Pops - Joel Beall with some of the prop bets available on the match of the century:

—When the match will occur: August 12/1, September 8/1, October 5/2, November 7/3, December 5/1, 2019 16/1. Our recommendation is to hit November hard. 

—Red 3/1, White 3/1, Black 4/1, Field 7/3. If you need this defined, you're at the wrong website. 

—Odds of a Hole in One by either player: 399/1. Phil is definitely dropping a sawbuck on this. 

—Odds a penalty stroke is assessed to either player: 25/1. Well, Phil is involved, so... 

—Odds on Broadcast Network. YouTube at 199/1 is very, very interesting. 

—Odds Where They Play: Nevada 5/3, California 5/1, Hawaii 8/1, New York 10/1, Arizona 12/1, FIELD 4/1. Alan Shipnuck's report stated Shadow Creek was the original site, but don't be surprised if a more fan-friendly venue in California is picked. 

—Odds of the largest bet placed on either player in Vegas: $49,999. Does this count competitors wagering on themselves? 

It should be noted the Woods-Mickelson match remains in an embryonic state, and there's a, ahem, good chance one of the parties leaked out the proposed details after the other backed out. Which is why, yes, you can even bet if the clash will even happen (1/2 that it will).

Is that last bit a suggestion that Tiger has gotten cold feet?   Because I can't imagine that Phil would....

Now perhaps I'm being too nitpicky here, but my understanding is that it'll be match play, under which penalty strokes are a rarity.  Pretty much any infraction carries a loss of hole penalty, so I wonder about the specific wording of that bet.  Another clear signal, lest you had any doubt, that I need to get out more....

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Blog - E. Michael Johnson with this irresistible clickbait:

The 13 Dumbest Things In Golf

Surprisingly, Robert Allenby fails to make the list.... So, what's E. grinding his teeth over?

Thinking you’re dialing in your distances with range balls

Man, you are just banging down that 100-yard flag with your wedges on the range, leaving you thoroughly convinced you’ve got that shot “dialed in.” Not. Even. Close. Unless, of course, you use a one-piece range ball out on the course. The range is a fun place and while you can work on your swing, you can’t work on your distance control unless you’re using the exact same ball you play on the course. Oh, and getting fit for that new driver with range balls isn’t so hot an idea, either. In other words, there’s a reason tour pros don’t practice with red-stripers.

At the old club they did range fittings with reduced-flight balls....  My fitter has his range pick and separate ProV1's, though my recent fitting tales of woe have been limited to the Indian, not the ammo.

I've only heard this gripe from one other source:

Juniors/college kids playing in club championships 

Whether kids of members should be allowed to compete in the club championship is an argument nearly as old as the game itself. On one hand, it’s supposed to be the best player in the club. But that’s a weak argument. Letting kids in leaves an unbalanced playing field. While the working stiffs who are footing the bill struggle to get in 18 a week, junior is playing 36 a day while hitting balls or practice putting at lunch before hitting the club pool to cool off. And there’s nothing fun about watching the best of the old guard get dusted 9-and-8 in the 36-hole final by a wannabe tour pro. Plus, it’s just wrong to buy the new champ a lemonade instead of a beer.

I don't even have kids, but feel like I should suggest a cheese to pair with this whine.... 

Midweek Musings

It was a little hot for my taste yesterday, so glad to be back at my indoor job....

Schedule Stuff - "There be dragons" wasn't how I thought this would play out, but it's a thing per Shack:

If you’re the PGA Tour, beware of dragons. And SEC football. 

That’s one of several surprising conclusions from the PGA Tour’s new schedule release. 

Long thought to have a natural ending spot on Labor Day Monday for the Tour Championship, the Tour is bypassing Atlanta that weekend, opting to finish the season one week before, Aug. 19-25, 2019. 

This can almost certainly be blamed on the odd confluence of DragonCon and an SEC kickoff game during Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, along with the PGA Tour’s desire to get out of football’s way. Even though college football, where the opening-weekend matchups made years in advance can vary in quality, particularly on Monday of Labor Day weekend when sports viewing is relegated to Major League Baseball and U.S. Open tennis. 

Also of note in the schedule release: there will be no Greenbrier or Houston stops in 2018-19 before resurfacing a year from now on the next schedule.

Seriously?  DragonCon?  These are not the droids you're looking for...

And this:

The biggest victim in the schedule remake? Big Northeast markets. 

The Boston stop is ending with the playoffs moving to three events. The consolation prize of becoming an every-other-year-component of the Northern Trust Open rota is a sound move. But the Tour’s original concept of playoff events in big markets has effectively taken New York and Boston and split up healthy events and big-money stops into one. Then again, the New York area is oversaturated with big-time golf tournaments over the next decade, so maybe a biennial structure will be a positive.

The Boston stop seemed the best of the playoff venues, but we can't have that, can we?

Josh Berhow does his best to recap the changes, though this is kind of silly:

3. It will be interesting to see what happens to PGA Championship host courses going forward. The move from August to May seemingly brings more southern courses into play (which could be considered too hot in August) while at the same time might hurt courses in the upper Midwest or northeast from being in top form to host a May major. The PGA has a heavy presence in the northeast going forward. After the 101st PGA at Bethpage Black next year, Trump National in Bedminster, N.J., is scheduled for 2022 and Oak Hill in Pittsford, N.Y., is in 2023. As for weather effects on the Players? On average, the move from May to March should drop the temp by about 10 degrees to the mid-60s. Historically, March also brings slightly more rain than May does to the area.

Josh might have noted that while Kiawah, Atlanta and Charlotte, just to name three, might be considered too hot in August, that didn't deter the PGA from making us suffer through them.  And Bellerive, in equatorial St. Louis, will be the perfect swan song.

Joel Beall applies far more critical thinking and notes some issues with the plan:

The Florida Swing is back

Historically serving as the run up to the Masters, golf's stroll through the Sunshine State

lost some luster when the Players moved to Mother's Day in 2007. The WGC-Mexico Championship subbing in for Doral also threw a wrench into the swing's cohesiveness. The Players' return to its March confines constructs a month-long Florida stretch, helping recapture some much-welcomed nostalgia. 

Unfortunately... 

The Valspar Championship appears to be the big causality

Despite the myriad of moving parts, the tour, somewhat miraculously, managed to keep most parties happy, or at least satisfied. There is an upshot to this utilitarianism, however, with the Valspar coming out on the business end. 

The Innisbrook event has slowly raised its profile in recent years, transforming from a rank-and-file fall event to a tournament that boasts a handful of marquee attractions (evidenced in Tiger Woods' near-win this spring). Alas, sandwiched between the Players and WGC-Match Play, don't be surprised if big names opt for rest after Sawgrass, especially with the Masters looming in the distance.

Shack makes the case that player enjoyment of Innisbrook's Copperhead Course and fatigue with Bay Hill and PGA National would benefit Valspar, but that seems to be wishful thinking.  I don't see a lot of players signing up for the Players, Valspar and the Match-Play, especially given that the last of those could entail seven high-stress rounds.

Rex Hoggard focuses on the inevitable traffic congestion:

Essentially, the Tour had to shed four weeks off the season to move out of football’s shadow. Losing the Boston playoff event and the post-season “bye” week was half the bill. The Houston Open was relocated to the fall portion of the schedule, and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational was replaced by an existing event in Memphis. 

If that all sounds clean and easy, consider that the run up to the post-season will now feature a major (The Open), a World Golf Championship (Memphis) and the Wyndham Championship. Including the three playoff stops, that’s five must-play events in a six-week window. 

There’s also a question of how the 2020 Olympics, which will be played in Tokyo from July 24 to Aug. 9, will fit into what currently is an already hectic portion of the schedule.

Memphis in August?  This will be an interesting test for the lads... A no-cut money grab is hard to pass up, but a dreary TPC with 100% humidity?  Perhaps it's an opportunity to spend more time with the family.

The Event of the Week - Sean Zak is all in on this wonderful viewing opportunity:

Scottish Open and John Deere Classic be damned; this week's most intriguing golf event is the U.S. Senior Women's Open in Wheaton, Illinois. 

Famed Chicago Golf Club will play host to the inaugural event, and if that doesn't sell you on its own, the fact that you can watch some of the best players in the world take it on should certainly help. Without leaning on hyperbole too much, watching these women playing this course will make for golf like you've never really seen before. Here's why that, and a few other things, have me hyped for the event this weekend.

Not to be unduly harsh, but that "Some of the bets players in the world" is a bit of a stretch.  Not only are the gals a bit long in the tooth, but I'd guess most haven't competed much lately.  Don't get me wrong, I like them as much as the nest guy, and am quite pleased to see them have a week in the sun.

But the appeal here is first and foremost the venue:

Chicago Golf Club

The host course has occasionally been referred to as the Augusta National of the Midwest. In terms of exclusivity, that's spot on. Chicago GC has less than 150 members (and doesn't really want any more) and, like Augusta, resisted admitting African-

American and female members until the last few decades. This seems to mark a new era for the club, so kudos to them for stepping up as host for this long-overdue event. 

In terms of dodging publicity, Chicago GC is much more like Pine Valley. It's a golf-focused (essentially golf-only) club, so much that you can’t really visit any corner of it without seeing golf history…and not much else. The member I played with put it plainly: "I've heard there's a swimming pool at the club, but I haven't seen it." In the men's locker room, there's a copy of the patent for James Foulis' Niblick. Just outside that locker room is a copy of the original rules of golf. This is one of the five founding members of the USGA and the host of the third U.S. Open in 1897. History is a BIG part of the story. 

If viewers are lucky, the USGA/Fox will play to that course history, blowing out many club-related videos just like they did for Shinnecock and providing the viewer with plenty of info about the original C.B. Macdonald design and Seth Raynor redesign. That will (hopefully) showcase the phenomenal current-day work of superintendent Scott Bordner, who reached Chicago GC seven years ago after an extended stint working under Jon Jennings at Merion. (He has a great Golf Course Dog named Wrigley. Just an FYI if you're ever on site.)

Gullane v. CGC?  What's a fellow to do with his limited viewing hours?

 Let's also give the USGA credit where due.  They've had some misfires with the bigger events, but they've also created opportunities to go to The National, Cypress Point, Seminole, Quaker Ridge and here.  Credit also to those clubs for making themselves available.

Today's Linksy Goodness - Speaking of that storied East Lothian venue, here's the club's flyover video:

It's a great place, with three courses.  Amusingly, at Gullane they refer to The Honourable Comapny as Gullane No. 4....

Also courtesy of Shack, ole Pathe Kinescopes of Carnoustie Opens, first The Silver Scot from 1931:

And this:

No audio in that last one...

And Henry Cotton from 1937, though Walter Hagen and the weather also play starring roles:

Which allows us to segue into Alan Shipnuck's mailbag via this query:

All reports from the U.K. say The Open is going to be a baked-out festival like Hoylake in 2006. Does that favor any particular type of player? #AskAlan -Amol (@amolyajnik) 

Firm greens demand talent shots: shaping the ball both ways, employing various trajectories and spins, playing the ball on the ground at times. Strong winds ask the same questions, while also testing course management. And Carnoustie is already a demanding, tactical track. So, in short, it’s going to take a helluva player to survive this test.

Excuse me?  I think the gentleman was expecting some names.....The issue for me is that such logic leads one towards the best ball-strikers, which inevitably leads to Justin Rose.  And how did that work out for me at Augusta and Shinny?

#AskAlan Have you ever played Carnoustie? If so, what did you shoot? Bonus question: who wins the (British) Open? - @ViniciusAlvarez

Only once, a few years ago. I bombed over to Scotland on a kamikaze, 48 hour trip to hang out with Tom Watson ahead of his last Open. It was such a short journey I didn't bring my clubs, but I managed to sneak out to Carnoustie with a rental set. In this week's Tour Confidential I gave Graeme McDowell a hard time for W/D'ing from Open qualifying because his clubs were lost by the airlines, and the Carnoustie experience informed that view — I had one of my greatest ballstrking rounds ever with an old set of TaylorMade rentals. I think I shot 81 in high winds and was quite happy with that. I expect the champ this year will better that score. I'm going with Justin Rose.

See what I mean?  In case you're interested, I had one miserable day at Carnoustie with the nastiest caddie ever....  Now, why would a caddie get nasty?  Because he probably bet on me, but I think that was an important life lesson for the guy.

Alan, Continued -  More mailbag stuff, including a couple of questions about his personal relationships:

Name five of the "good guys" on Tour who you root for when checking scores. -Steve @simglass 

This was in response to my tweet celebrating Na's victory and calling him "one of the good guys." You know how Alfred Hitchcock used to always fall in love with his leading lady? In a non-weird way, feature writing can be the same way, where you become invested in the story and success of your subject. The superstars don't need my quiet cheers in the press box. I'm partial to random underdogs whom I've spent a good chunk of time with and gotten to tell their tale: Na, Brian Gay, Pat Perez, Chad Campbell, J. Vegas, Aaron Baddeley, Tom Lovelady…guys like that.

And on the other side of the aisle:

Why do LPGA professionals all love you so much? Is it the hair? -Tim (@tjstaffing)

Like hitting a driver long and straight, a headful of thick, luscious hair is an advantage in all conditions. But if LPGA players enjoy my presence I think it's entirely because for more than two decades I’ve covered the tour not as a minor league curiosity but as one of the most important tours in the world, bursting with good stories. I went to Australia to profile Karrie Webb, Mexico City to write about Lorena, hung out with Michelle Wie in her dorm room in Stanford, rode in a sagging Econovan with Christina Kim and her family, bopped around New York City photo shoots with a 16 year-old Lexi Thompson, took a boat to Alcatraz with Lydia Ko. I've covered Solheim Cups as far away as Scotland and all of the LPGA majors, including the defunct du Maurier, and played in pro-ams. Now, in this podcast era, I've tried to give LPGA players a voice that isn't heard in many other places. So, I think if you treat LPGA players with the respect they deserve they will return the favor.

Now he's just showing off.... As if hanging out in a Stanford women's dorm warrants hazard pay.  

This one is amusing for sure:

Who would you want as your Ryder Cup partner, Tiger or Phil? -@MarkTownsendNCG

Tiger is like a stern father who you're desperate not to disappoint and cuts you with one bit of side-eye. Phil is a goofy bro pumping you up with smack talk and corny motivational aphorisms. I'll take Mickelson every time.

Not to mentione how much you'd learn about the rules from Phil.  Yeah, go ahead and tamp down that fescue in your line of play, we can ask about it later....

How do you think the rest of the players on Tour feel about a Tiger vs. Phil event? -@GregSchwem

Mildly nauseated, but who cares? Without Tiger, none of those schmoes would have third homes in Bakers Bay. And when they've won 43 tournaments, including five majors, they can whinge about Phil all they want. But Woods and Mickelson are far and away the most popular, controversial and needle-moving players of the last quarter-century. They've earned the right to do as they please.

Perhaps the better question is how many will watch?  But his "who cares" attitude is spot on....

But see what you think about this one:

Who is more tedious: third major titular scold or "MISTER Hogan" conspicuous honorific weasel? -@Lou_TireWorld 

Man, this is tough. Hogan happens to be dead, so I don't think it matters either way to him. But all these young players who insist on calling Big Jack “Mr. Nicklaus” are doing a disservice to the man himself, who is as low-key and casual as a living legend can be. Same was true of Arnie, who never seemed to enjoy being addressed as Mr. Palmer – at Bay Hill in the '90s I heard him gently chide one suck-up employee by saying, "Mr. Palmer was my father." The Open Championship/British Open thing is nettlesome, too. A Google search of "British Open" returns nearly a billion results, so clearly that is common useage. At the same time, I appreciate that the proper name is the Open Championship…except when persnickity Brits are shoving it down the rest of the world's throat. Basically, this is a question with no right answer — both archetypes are obnoxious.

I really don't agree with him on the Jack and Arnie examples.  Young players should address such legends with their honorific as a means of demonstrating their respect.  If Jack and Arnie prefer to be addressed by their first names, that's also great....   Alan, you might be reveling in your thick, luscious hair, but at core you're still just a young punk.

We'll exit with this timely query:

What is the difference between a detailed topographic map of a green and using a compass to make sure the pin is as advertised on the pin sheet? Besides the fact the USGA thinks the latter is cheating, that is. #AskAlan -@CountDownDave 

This is almost as mystifying as the USGA addressing out-of-control distance gains by banning square grooves on wedges. The compass doesn't tell you anything about the course itself; what's next, is the USGA gonna ban Indio during the Bob Hope? The contradictions are astounding. Reading greens is an art and a science and yet those infernal books have largely destroyed this mysterious skill. Meanwhile, the USGA precludes the use of rangefinders, which merely give you a number but doesn't tell you how the ball will be affected by the wind or lie or stance or myriad other factors. It's getting harder and harder to look at the USGA as stewards of the game when the blue coats repeatedly make the wrong call.

The Indio jab is a good one...  In fact, in my struggle to understand how a compass could help Bryson, the only thing I could come up with was "That way, Indio". 

The irony is that with all the modern technology to assess, the USGA is banning old school tech such as compasses and protractors....  

Why are you still here?  Don't you have anything better to do with your day?

Tuesday Trifles

I will need to be on the road in a bit, so let's not waste any valuable blogging time on pleasantries...

A Dissent - John Feinstein harshes the mellow with this:

A Woods-Mickelson match is mere manufactured hype

Oh, it's pretty much all hype, though I do think in this case said hype is sufficiently natural that no assembly was required.   But let's let John make his case:

That doesn’t mean the event won’t get a high TV rating—it will because sports fans love big names and because there is still a fascination with everything Woods does among most of the golf media and many golf fans. 

What the heck logo is that?

There’s nothing wrong with exhibition golf—it’s been part of the landscape forever. 

Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf—especially the old version with Jimmy Demaret and Gene Sarazen doing the announcing--was, in fact, wonderful. The old CBS Golf Classic, when the late, great Frank Chirkinian came up with the idea to mic the players, was a lot of fun to watch during the winter when there was snow on the ground outside. 

Even the Skins Game was worthwhile at the beginning because of the big names who came to play. When it died though, it did so for one major reason: people realized there was really nothing at stake; corporate America was paying the players. It wasn’t as if the other players were taking out their wallets to pay Fred Couples off on the 18th green. 

There were also the Woods prime-time exhibitions played against guys like David Duval and Sergio Garcia when he was TIGER WOODS. Those mercifully ended after a couple of years.

Back in the day they were called Challenge Matches, and featured the Parks of Musselburgh against the Morrises of St. Andrews.... And they weren't playing for their own money either....

Here's John's coda:

I know most of my colleagues will line up to cover this. I know TV ratings will be high. I HOPE a lot of the money will go to charity. 

Meanwhile, I’ll pass. I’d rather watch guys coming down the stretch at Greensboro trying to get into the playoffs and retain their playing privileges for next season. 

THAT’S what I call uncomfortable.

Yup!  No surprise that, given that John famously wrote a book about Q-School....

His point is well taken, that there's nothing inherently wrong with such an exhibition, but that the golfing press could use a perspective transplant.   This can be a fun event, it just can't have aspirations of importance.

The results are in....  and Hillary still can't carry Wisconsin.  Just kidding, but good times.  Shack ran a silly poll, and has the results:

However, you know the M's love their subscriptions! 

Say, how the auto manufacturers are taking car leases, losing the down payment into the monthly cost, and calling them...subscriptions. Ding! Millennial joy! 

With nearly 70% of you saying no to paying for the proposed Tiger v. Phil match revealed by Alan Shipnuck and without any other known details (such as follow-up competitions as part of the package or a format that promotes presses), the organizers will face an uphill battle getting golf fans to pony up. Then again, 22% said you'd pay between $1 and $50. 

So perhaps as part of a subscription, or incentive to subscribe to an app this match could make sense? 

There are certainly plenty of entities out there right now who would love to include Tiger v. Phil as their entry into sports. And perhaps throw in future undercards of Shell's type matches.

The car subscription slam is quite droll, but concept of golf pay-per-view is really quite comical....  You have five minutes for them to walk to their tee shots and personally, I'd rather watch the Cialis commercial with side-by-side bathtubs than listen to Sir Nick drone on.

This is perfect for a Monday night in August, and I'm guessing that Golf Channel can shoehorn it into its schedule.

Golf in the Kingdom -  John Huggan, a curmudgeonly Scot (but I repeat myself) has a troubling item on the state of Scottish golf:

Plus, golf is struggling generally at the moment. Scotland is not unique in that respect.

We’re not a big country. And there is no guarantee that, just because we are the home of golf, we are going to produce an endless stream of great players. Right now, we have a bunch of good players who are also good lads. Russell Knox is certainly one of those. But he is a bit detached living in America. We need someone who looks like he could win a major.” 

Lawrie’s point is well made. Somewhere around 50,000 golfers have given up their club memberships in Scotland over the last decade. Almost 20 clubs have also disappeared, although—whisper it—none of their courses were actually any good (the real worry will come when better courses start to shut their doors). 

The Golf Participation Report for Europe 2017 showed 192,533 registered golfers in Scotland in 2016, a fall of 6,711 during the previous 12 months. Only one other European country, the Czech Republic, also lost more than 2,000 golfers.

John is troubled by the state of golf in his home country.  I, on the other hand, am troubled by a country that feels that golfers need to be registered....

I'm actually not sure how to react to John's concerns, but I'll add this excerpt as well:

One with very definite views on all of the above is former Ryder Cup player Andrew Coltart. The last winner of the Scottish Boys Championship (in 1987) to go on and win on the European Tour, Coltart sees coaches justifying their own existence. Too often, he feels, they are swing technicians who coach a method that causes fun and imagination and feel to disappear. 

“Scottish Golf does not exist to provide the world with European Tour players,” he says. “It is not the job of any amateur body to fill the pro ranks. But is in their interests to develop talent. And, if it does, that is a happy consequence. All too often we have coached the playing of the game out of lads with talent. Rather than understanding their own games, they spend far too much time on the range worrying about the swing. Jordan Spieth is a great example of someone who knows how to play more than swing. In Scotland, Dustin Johnson’s left wrist position at the top would have been coached out of him. Today, he’d be off winning a club championship somewhere.”

Errr...OK, but there's many American coaches that would have done the same to DJ.  

I do think that people lose sight of the fact that Scotland is, by the standards of the U.S. and Europe, a very poor country.  Ultimately golf, even as practiced on the scale of Great Britain, is an expensive game that won't be accessible for all....  

To be discussed further?

In a similar vein, you'll not want to miss Mike Bamberger's love letter to the British Open Championship:

In many places and to many people, this opinion borders on fact: The greatest of golf's four majors is the British Open. For starters, it closes with the winner draped in these

time-smoothed words, delivered with Churchillian authority: champion golfer of the year. Come next year, when the PGA Championship moves to May, the British Open will be the final of the four majors and those crowning words will become even more meaningful. If that's possible. 

Yes, over there, in the kingdom, our American phrase — the British Open — hits the ear like the clank of a shank. As Malcolm Booth, the R&A's head of marketing, said to me recently, "When we hear 'the British Open,' it just jars a bit, as it would for anyone who is called by the wrong name." His point is incontestable. The name of the thing is The Open Championship, and it was a WGC event long before WGC events were invented. The Open is the ultimate world golf championship.

So, Mike, the Open Championship is a no-cut, money-gran played on a dreary golf course?  I don't think so.  Can this possibly be the same guy that wrote this?

Insults aside, Mike's item is really a celebration of attending The Open, and the opportunities afforded:

I find that nothing gets you in the mood to play golf like attending an Open. I've been to 23 and I can't tell you about all the fun I've had playing evening golf after a day at the Open. I am thinking of a night game at Elie when my playing partner and I quit after 17 to get a last-call dinner at the Golf Tavern, opposite the 18th tee. Playing the Old Course as a singleton in 2007, with strange toothy creatures darting out of the rough. Touring Rye, Western Gailes, Kilmarnock and many other fine courses with my friend John Garrity, the man behind the classic (and hard to find) ode to seaside British golf, Dunesbury. The public Southport Golf Links, in Southport, England—must make a nod to our night game there. We had read somewhere that it was the worst links golf course in the British Isles. We were laughing, it was so good. We ate that night at Pizzeria Mama Mia. Or did we eat there another night after another evening game at a different Southport course?

Meanwhile, a Google search of "Dunebury" has yielded no promising results.....

Just read it all, and you can thank me later.

The "C-Word", Further Thoughts -  Eamon Lynch with an interesting follow-up to his coverage of the Dahmen-Kang cage match:

“Bottom line is there are just guys who are going to cheat the rules, no matter what their

livelihood,” says one multiple winner on Tour, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic. “Golf is supposed to be a game of integrity, yet obvious offenders aren’t held accountable.” 

Only a tiny number of professionals have earned the suspicion of their peers, leaving playing partners to watch warily and wonder, ‘Will he play fair?’ Yet not everyone among the honorable majority would be willing to call out the dishonest few. 

“They don’t want to bother because it takes you out of your game,” said former PGA Championship winner Rich Beem. “It’s an uncomfortable situation for some players. Is it really your job to enforce the rules? Or do you rely on your fellow players to abide by the unwritten gentlemen’s game rule?”

As you know, I'm a bit uncomfortable with the accusation of cheating, given the inherent difficulty of identifying where a golf ball crosses a line 200+ yards away.  That said, I do belive the situation was handled very poorly, and offers profound incentives towards bad behavior.

“With no clear evidence to prove otherwise, it was determined by the official that Kang could proceed,” a statement read. “The PGA Tour will have no additional comment on this matter.”

There's an old saying that bad cases make bad law, which clearly applies here.  Obviously that "no clear evidence" is the Tour's way of saying "Nothing to see here", since at least four individuals have contested the location of Kang's drop, and Kang himself undermined his own position with his characterization of the ball flight as "straight".

This is the bit that's getting the most play:

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan took a positive step in making public drug test violations. He ought to put in place a similarly transparent process to address credible accusations of cheating. The number of deceitful players is small, but there is no deterrent if a player knows his (or her) Tour lacks either the process or stomach to expose them. 

It’s inevitable the Tour’s standing will be impacted if a player is found to have cheated. What is avoidable, however, is tarnishing the hard-earned reputation of the 99 percent with a perception that rogues are shielded from the reckoning they deserve.

Here's where I think we find ourselves, and it's an awkward spot.  Folks have been outraged over the post hoc penalties assessed  against players, which we all get.  The rules have been rewritten to give greater weight to the player's in-the-theater judgment, which isn't objectionable on the face of it.

But what is the proper role of the rules official involved in this matter?  Because it seems to me that he was presented with credible evidence that Kang's proposed drop location was highly unlikely at best, and Kang's own words could have been critical in proving such.  And yet, at the end of the matter, Kang got pretty much what he wanted (he did drop 30-yards back from pin-high, where he first wanted to take his relief).

As a student of humor behavior, I know two things about how players will react to this incident:

1. They're opening negotiating position for drop locations will tend towards the more favorable, and, more importantly;
2. No player will contest another player's drop.

Is this where we want to go?

Open Stuff - As we begin our controlled descent into Carnoustie, some odds and ends on that topic.  First, oddsmakers continue to defy logic:

With British Open week just around the corner, World No. 1 Dustin Johnson remains the betting favorite for the third major of the season.

Johnson is 12/1 to win, according to the latest update from Golfodds.com. Rory McIlroy, who won the British Open in 2014, is 14/1 to win, and Justin Rose and defending champ Jordan Spieth are both 16/1. 

Tiger Woods is 20/1, and Phil Mickelson is 40/1. Complete odds are listed below.

Is there anyone who likes either Rory or Jordan at this point?  And while I like Tiger at a baked Carnoustie more than at, say, Augusta, I wouldn't touch him at those short odds.

Alistair Tait confirms that which we already knew:

After the shambles of Shinnecock, will we get carnage at Carnoustie for the 148th British Open? Probably not. Unlike the U.S. Golf Association, the R&A learned its lesson about taking courses to the edge of insanity after the 1999 Open. Besides, there’s no need to make Carnoustie tougher. It’s already a brute, the hardest links on the Open rota. 

“In terms of toughness, you couldn’t go past it,” said two-time winner Padraig Harrington, who won the last Open at Carnoustie, in 2007. “It’s the toughest, not only because of all 18 holes, it has the toughest finish in championship golf. You’ve got a very tough 14 holes and an extremely difficult last four.”

All I remember is crossing the Barry Burn a few hundred times on the way home, though perhaps I exaggerate.... It's not much fun and it's not very pretty, so I've not been back in a long time.

Keep this in mind:

Carnoustie doesn’t have the grandeur of Turnberry, the classic links land of Royal Birkdale or the charm of St. Andrews. First-time visitors might stand on the first tee, look out over a dour, bleak landscape and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Dour?  Sure.  Bleak?  Yup.... 

Unfortunately, this guy may not be able to play:

Fingers crossed.

On My Way Out - Don't miss this social media post from Geoff.... My personal fave is Rickie playing with a trolley at North Berwick, but it's all good.

See ya tomorrow.

Weekend Wrap

I went a little long on Tiger v. Phil, so walled it off in a separate post.  It was a glorious weekend for your humble correspondent, and I hope for you as well.  Shall we dive in?

Ballyliffin's Moment - I can't tell you how much I enjoyed watching the golf from Beloved Ballyliffin.  I had everyone in our pro shop taking it in, and I do hope you had a chance to do so as well.

They certainly hit the lottery this week, first with four days of Chamber of Commerce weather, then with a dramatic finish:

It was the late, great Arnold Palmer who once said that the hardest thing in golf is making a birdie when you really need one. By that measure, the new Irish Open

champion can feel pretty pleased with himself. 

Make that doubly pleased. 

Standing on the endlessly picturesque Ballyliffin’s 18th green 13-under par for the 71 holes he had already completed, Russell Knox was pretty certain he would need to hole from 35-feet to tie Ryan Fox in the group behind. When he did so, the 33-year old Scot was round in 66. Fox narrowly failed to make what would have been a winning birdie, and the two went to a playoff. 

It lasted just one hole. After being outdriven by 60 yards, Knox found the green and almost exactly the same spot, 35-feet from the cup. Fox then pitched to maybe ten-feet, making him a strong favorite to clinch what would have been his maiden European Tour victory. Amazingly, however, it was Knox who holed again, before Fox’s tying effort cruelly horseshoed out.

Not just picturesque, but endlessly so..... Really good stuff, and keep note of Ryan Fox, who hits it a bloody mile.  And does so on pretty much every hole.... It looked like he had it until Knox forced the playoff with the first of his bombs, but he did at least punch a ticket to Carnoustie.

I found the TV coverage visually stunning, even more so than the typical Open Championship fare.  I'm not sure why that was , though they (and I'm assuming it was the basic Sky feed) made exceptionally good use of the aerial shots.  This has to be a huge thing for the club though, as the bride noted last evening, we don't want too many people to become familiar with it.  

It definitely triggered a desire in your humble correspondent to return, perhaps as early as next year.  It also had me thinking and talking of our intended Season in Ballyliffin, so stay tuned.....

Na Na Na Na, Goodbye - I didn't see a minute of the week's coverage, such was my laser-like focus on all things Ballyliffin.  

Kevin Na rode a hot putter to halt a winless streak of nearly seven years on the PGA

Tour. 

Na shot a 6-under-64 for a five-stroke victory at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier on Sunday. 

The 34-year-old Na's only previous tour win came in Las Vegas in October 2011. 

"I wasn't sure if it was going to come again. I was hoping it would — sooner than later," Na said. "I've been close so many times, failed so many times." 

He's had three dozen top-10 finishes since that last win and showed signs earlier this year that reaching the top again was still well within reach. He tied for second at the Genesis Open in January, two shots behind Bubba Watson. In late May he shot 61 in the first round of the Fort Worth Invitational to match the course record and finished fourth.

I give him credit for overcoming the yips (or whatever it was) that he experienced at Sawgrass back in the day, but I find him very hard to watch.  

The TC panel ultimately gets around to an assessment of his career:

4. Kevin Na went on a birdie binge and shot 64 to win The Greenbrier by fiveon Sunday. It was just the second win of his PGA Tour career — the first was in 2011 — and it came in his 370th start. Yet Na has now banked more than $27 million in his career, which is 40th all time, and has 65 career top-10 finishes. Is consistency/longevity, in Na's case, overrated ... or underrated?

Shipnuck: It's brutally difficult to stay on Tour for such a long time without the exemptions that come with victories. Na's longevity has been one of the more remarkable accomplishments in golf. Nice that he's finally been rewarded with another win.

Sens: Among the many things to admire about Na are his frankness and self-deprecating humor, to say nothing of the grit he showed in fighting back from those squirm-inducing driver fidgets. I don't know if he's underrated. But the qualities that make him an appealing character are, I think, underappreciated. 

Ritter: Sens nails it. Yes, Na is slow and a headcase, but how many pro athletes would own it to the point of posing in a straitjacket for a magazine photo shoot? He's probably appropriately rated, but I often find myself rooting for him.

All true, yet unsatisfying...  To me, this is a perfect illustration of how the Tour's success has made it less interesting.  Back in the day one had to win to survive out there, and that made it compelling on a week-to-week basis.  

Phil Being Phil -  I've been reliably informed that Phil is always the smartest guy in the room, and I remain in awe of his use of the rule book to his advantage on the 13th hole at Shinnecock.  The man is a national treasure....  But riddle me this, Batman, why does he keep pulling such stupid s**t?

Phil Mickelson, for the second time in as many starts, was penalized for a rules violation. 

The latest incident came during the final round of A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier on Sunday. About to play the 439-yard par-4 7th hole, Mickelson walked to the front of the tee box and patted down some fescue with his foot. A few seconds later, as he was standing behind his ball, you can hear him say, "I'm not sure what I just did is legal," presumably to caddie Tim Mickelson. "... I'll ask somebody." 

Turns out what Mickelson did was in fact illegal. He flagged down a rules official coming down the fairway, who then sought clarification and later reported back to Mickelson that it was a two-stroke penalty for a violation of Rule 13-2, which covers improving line of play. "A player must not improve or allow to be improved his line of play or a reasonable extension of that line beyond the hole by removing or pressing down sand, loose soil, replaced divots or other cut turf placed in position."

So reminiscent of the Presidents Cup in Korea where he asked Captain Jay Haas if the one-ball rule was in effect, but only after having changed golf balls....  Though I do find this rant from Shack a tad uncharitable:

It's fascinating to see the PGA Tour on all of its social media accounts billing this as a player calling a penalty on himself. It's an unusually desperate and ignorant position to take from the land of #LiveUnderPar (well except in this case).

To review: Mickelson asked a question sensing he might have violated the rules and likely anticipated someone spotting the violation on the PGA Tour Live telecast. He got the explanation from Robby Ware and was subsequently penalized after Ware double checked, out of kindness. 

So please, whether this "called a penalty on himself" nonsense is born out of ignorance or just a marketing effort to show that living under par means calling penalties on oneself, do not lump this incident with the many folks who have called penalties that no one else could see or possibly have known about. Especially since many of those incidents, which we rightly hold up for being incredible displays of integrity, happened because the player could not live with themselves thinking they had violated the rules.

Phil's case was a simple act of ignorance. He would have been assessed a penalty after a those monitoring the telecast would have passed the word along of his silly-stupid move.

Unless, of course, no one was watching PGA Tour Live. A very real possibility.

Yes and no....  I think it's OK to acknowledge that Phil behaved as we'd want a player to after having committed that act of stupidity.  And his instinctive comment to Tim connotes a laudable desire to stay within the rules...  Phil gets himself into these situations partially through the hubris of thinking he's so clever, and I accordingly revel in the schadenfreude of it all.

Non Compos Mentis - Shack had an interesting take on the Bryson DeChambeau compass decision:

One reason the compass and protractor yardage checking might not be a usual device?

Most golfers, caddies and others would not know what to do with them!

Also fitting the Rules description for unusual devices assisting play would be yardage books with gradients shot by rangefinders that disallowed in competition, and of course, green reading books which are now a usual piece of equipment because they were not immediately deemed unusual soon enough. 

The same green reading books where he was using his protractor to double check a hole location! 

Do these inconsistencies undermine the credibility of golf's Rules? How can they not?

Hmmmmmmm?  Good catch, Geoff.

Required Read of the Day - This game just torments us, no?  And yet said torment is more of a feature than a bug....  Curious that.  Mike Bamberger with a highly personal accounting of his own struggles, under the smile-inducing title, "Goodbye, Mr. Yips".  Though that header might be more hopeful than accurate...  A couple of excerpts will connote the wistful flavor of the piece:

On the short ones, the only thing that worked, or semi-worked, was backhanding them, from the left. During the 2010 U.S. Open, I bought an old Titleist Bulls Eye at a gas

station off Highway 1 from a guy selling surfboards. The Bulls Eye (for you kids) is a two-way palindrome of a putter used ingeniously by Corey Pavin for most of his career. 

Once, at the end of an interview with Pavin, I asked him if Bulls Eye putters had loft on both sides. 

"Let me guess," he said. "You're going righty on the long ones and lefty on the short."

"How did you know?" 

"We've seen everything," Pavin said.

And this:

2. I WENT TO SEE MY OPHTHALMOLOGIST.

I had three questions for Dr. Steve Goldman. Do I need glasses? Am I right-eye dominant? Do you have any putting suggestions for me? A distillation of his answers: no, yes, practice.

Good Luck with all that, Mike.  For anyone interested in a scholarly treatment of the Y-word, David Owen has your backgrounder here.

Shack in Social Media - In recent days he's had some great stuff, which we'll just steal link to at will.  First, this great old photo of perhaps the most famous one-shotter in golf:

Pretty great.  And this one of the gallery at Beloved Ballyliffin:

That's the seventh green on the right, and the tee box for the 8th.

And this of a very baked out Open Championship venue:

Lastly, these guys scored tickets to the Royal Box at Wimbledon:

At least they dressed appropriately.....

See ya tomorrow.