Weekend Wrap

A strange week in golf....The powers that be couldn't be bothered televising the event I actually wanted to watch.  As for that they did show?  Well, yet again, Matt Kuchar has some 'splainin' to do....

Dateline: Liverpool - John Huggan with the game story of a game U.S. squad:

In this modern era of home-team domination in golf’s oldest biennial inter-continental competition, not since 2003 at Ganton has a team overcome a first-day deficit to win the Walker Cup. But forget that little record of futility, one endured by the U.S. since 1963 at Turnberry, and step forward to the 2019 American squad captained by 1981 U.S.

Amateur champion Nathaniel Crosby. 

Two-points adrift overnight and still one-point behind going into Sunday afternoon singles at Royal Liverpool, the visitors eventually overwhelmed a game but ultimately toothless Great Britain & Ireland team to successfully defend the cup won at the Los Angeles Country Club two years ago. The victory takes America’s all-time record in this 97-year-old event to 37-9-1. 

The final, and ultimately convincing, score of 15½-10½ also made the Americans the first Walker Cup side to win away from home since 2007. That U.S. team, containing the likes of Webb Simpson, Dustin Johnson, Billy Horschel, Jamie Lovemark, Rickie Fowler and Kyle Stanley, triumphed by a single point at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland. 

It remains to be seen if those on the current American squad will go on to anything like individual successes of their already prolific predecessors. What is known, however, is that this was truly a team effort, a proper collaborative endeavor. Points came from nine of the team’s 10 members (Steven Fisk the unfortunate exception), although just one, John Pak (matching earrings and all) emerged unbeaten, walking off with a 3-0-0 record.

No need to let us see something like that, as opposed to another airing of Tin Cup... This is the oldest team competition in the game, one inextricably tied to the development of U.S. golf.  

Last week we had that amusing bit about U.S. captain Nathaniel Crosby playing everyone three times, to which the Tour Confidential panel devoted this question:

3. U.S. Walker Cup captain Nathaniel Crosby told the team on Friday, before the weekend event started, that everyone will play at least three times and he had

predetermined who was sitting when regardless of results or form. (Top-ranked am Cole Hammer, for example, sat on Saturday morning, and John Pak, who was 2-0 after the first day, was benched on Sunday morning.) It’s worth noting that Crosby sat twice in the 1983 Walker Cup and has said he’s still not over it. Great Britain and Ireland led the U.S. after Day 1 but the U.S. rebounded to win big on Sunday. Any burning takes on Crosby’s predetermined game plan? 

Shipnuck: Captains can choke just like players in the heat of the moment — look at all of Jim Fuyrk’s bungling in Paris. From that standpoint it makes sense to formulate a plan far removed from the emotion of the moment. But it does open up a captain to epic second-guessing, as the Pak situation showed. Since the U.S. got the win you have to say Crosby’s plan worked.

yeah, but I don't remember Alan and his mates talking much about Furyk's bungling last September.  I sure did, but seems like the rest of the working golf press went awfully easy on their buddy.

Sens: The kind of Monday morning quarterbacking that goes on after these team match-play events is inevitable but also a bit unfortunate, as it so often distorts things in one way or the other by either assigning captains too much credit or too much blame. Paul Azinger will forever be known as a genius for his pod system at Valhalla, but of course those matches could have gone the other way and we’d be telling a different story. Something similar applies to Crosby’s approach — if his guys hadn’t played well, he’d be getting blamed for not thinking on his feet and making the right adjustments.

So, you're taking the Captain's side in Mickelson v. Watson?  Wanna bet a little Googling would find that Josh has gushed over Phil seizing control of the U.S. Ryder Cup effort after that 2014 disaster?

Depend on Mike Bamberger for the sensible view of the event:

Bamberger: I think Nathaniel was really making a nod to the experience, what it means to play in an international team competition. He was saying the event is about the players, not the captain. That would have been true whether the U.S. won or not. Great stuff.

Yeah, they're still kids, after all.

Well done, lads....  yet, this no TV thing still rankles.  Ryan Herrington commits an act of journalism, and explains why we can't just dump on Fox:

TV rights for the Walker Cup fall under the jurisdiction of the home side’s governing body, which means the R&A has control this year. When the match was held at LACC in 2017, the USGA’s arrangement with Fox Sports had the network broadcasting three hours from all four sessions on FS1.

So, the R&A controls the U.S. TV rights?  Who thought that was a good idea?

Ryan got this statement from the R&A that will put it all in perspective:

“Delivering high quality, live coverage from an event such as the Walker Cup is a complex and increasingly costly exercise. We decided for this year’s match to concentrate our resources on producing compelling highlights packages for our broadcast partners and high-quality content, including highlights, player interviews and behind the scenes footage, from our social and digital media channels. We have a responsibility to spread our investment across nearly 20 amateur events throughout the year and we believe we have achieved the right balance for this match.”

Yeah, highlight packages.  That's the ticket....

I get the cost issue, but why couldn't a U.S. network share the Sky Sports feed?  

Wither Kooch -  I didn't actually see any of it, but I'm reminded of Robert Conquest's third rule of politics:

The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.

It's not a perfect fit, as we're not really discussing a bureaucratic organization (though his advisers haven't covered themselves in glory) , but try this on for size.  If one year ago, Matt Kuchar decided to do everything in his power to destroy the reputation he'd built up over twenty years, how would he have behaved any differently?

After a brief highlight reel, Shack explains Kooch's latest act of entitlement:

And now coarse waste bunker sand is a loose impediment. 

The newly revised rules opened the door for the latest questionable act of sportsmanship by Matt Kuchar. Players can now move a loose impediment in a bunker. As Kuchar

demonstrated, if sand is coarse enough to be a pebble in the eyes of any official, then all of the tiny particles are loose impediments. 

While using the rules of golf to your advantage is wise, it’s confounding to watch someone with a once solid reputation and plenty of cash in the bank to snub his upturned nose at the spirit of the rules. Again. In the same year. On television. 

Kuchar takes well over the time allotted to play a shot while we are watching— television cut away after 40 seconds of Kuchar’s trench dig — and seems to improve his lie in the “waste area.”

Video at the link...  Shack is all over the guy there and at his blog, where a spittle warning is required.  And this, while technically incorrect (it was actually not a bunker, but rather a waste area), nails it:

And when Monty is the voice of reason...

Are You Ready For Some Football Golf - I'm so old that I can remember when the PGA Tour wanted to avoid competing against the NFL.  And yet, the 2019-2020 PGA Tour season begins this week, when I've been reliably informed that they're still playing football.

We have this from Steve DiMeglio:

2019-20 PGA Tour season: Starting off at Greenbrier, here are storylines to watch

Who said anything about watching?  I've been reliably informed that it's going to be a good year for the New York football teams... What?  Really?  Both of them?  OK, Steve, whatcha got?

Will the pace of play issue be resolved this season? Will there be any movement on slowing down the golf ball? 

Is Matthew Wolff the next big thing? Or is Viktor Hovland? Or Collin Morikawa?

Who joins the elite of the elite? Will there be a first-time major winner? Keep an eye on Xander Schauffele. 

And who wins the Cups? The USA will be heavily favored in the land of Oz for the Presidents Cup. 

And the USA is in good position to turn its fortunes around in the Ryder Cup despite coming off another embarrassing, lopsided loss in 2018 and having won just twice this century. Thirteen of the current top 20 in the world rankings wear the red, white and blue.

That second one for sure, otherwise it's hard to see any need to tune in before the West Coast swing...

Steve posits this as a reason to tune in as well:

Spieth, Day, Garcia seek to end droughts 

Speaking of Spieth, he joins Jason Day and Sergio Garcia as three major champions who didn’t win last season. Spieth hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since the 2017 British Open, Day since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship, Garcia since the 2017 Masters. Three world-class players will be looking to regain their class in 2019-20.

Two of the three, perhaps, but for all the wrong reasons...

Joel Beall comes at it from the opposite side:

Distance debates, Chamblee feuds and Spieth's slump: 10 storylines we are NOT excited for this golf season

Here's his take on the first of those:

The USGA/R&A’s distance-study debate 

The roll-the-ball-back cries were relatively muted this summer. Expect them to amplify with vigor upon the expected release this fall of the Distance Insights Project, a joint endeavor by the R&A and USGA into the present and future impacts of distance in golf. And it could get particularly loud if the report comes anywhere near a possible announcement that Augusta National's 13th will be lengthened.

It’s not that we’re apathetic about the subject. Rather, the distance debate is golf’s version of modernized politics. Conversation has been replaced by entrenchment, each side yelling their argument without listening to the other. Whatever the report says will be used as evidence by both sides, and/or dismissed as failing to capture the entire picture. Besides, there are only so much causes to be fought, and pace of play is the bigger threat at the moment.

 I don't think I agree with any of that, do you?  I especially disagree with his ranking of priorities, as slow play seems like more of an irritant, while the distance debate gets at the fundamental nature of golf at the elite levels.  Also always fun to catch them manipulating their data to avoid doing anything...

But I certainly beg to differ here:

Spieth’s slump 

We're not so much annoyed that we keep discussing his perceived struggles, but at the

notion that, when Spieth does win, there will be a self-righteous “Spieth proved the haters wrong” indignation from the very people that have been bashing him. 

If we are going to discuss his win drought, let's try to keep it in perspective. For the 2018-'19 season, he ranked second in strokes gained/putting, was ninth in Thursday scoring and first in Friday scoring, was 10th in birdie average and had four top-10s. There are issues—ranking 145th in sg/approach just two years after finishing second in the category is curious, as are his weekend woes—but he's not missing cut after cut. Funks happen, even to superstars, so to wonder what is wrong is a fundamental misunderstanding of how this sport works.

Are you not entertained?  The ebb and flows of careers is to me one of the fascinating parts of our game, especially when the elite fall on hard times.  Spieth is that much more interesting because he gives voice to the inner demons, and who doesn't want to be watching when his head finally explodes?

 The Tour Confidentialistas got with the program with this query:

1. We hope you enjoyed your offseason. The PGA Tour starts up again this week with the first event of the 2019-20 season with A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. Look into your crystal golf balls and tell us who will be the breakout player on Tour this season. 

Alan Shipnuck: Phil Mickelson. He was a non-factor after the West Coast. Phil the Thrill turns 50 next year, the U.S. Open is at Winged Foot (site of his most epic meltdown). It just feels like he has to have one last run in him.

He does... or at least, he did at Pebble.  

Josh Sens: I suppose it’s too late to call Matt Wolff and Viktor Hovland breakout stars at this point. I expect more pyrotechnics from them in 2020. But the bigger news will be Rickie Fowler, who will finally get his major.

Ship, sailed....

Michael Bamberger: Spieth! I cite the name out of rooting interest more than logic, but you can’t keep a good man down forever.

I think he probably is a good man... Just not sure how good he is at this golf thing in the present moment.  I think the more pressing issue is whether Michael Greller has the same gig a year from now...

Josh Berhow: I like Michael’s Spieth pick. But Patrick Cantlay has won in each of the last two seasons and the guy is bound to explode soon. He had 17 top 25s last year in 21 starts! (And nine top 10s.) He’s so crazy consistent he’s going to start piling up the wins.

How can he be the breakout start this year, if he's won in the prior two?  Next you'll be nominating him for Comeback Player of the Year.

And this:

2. At this time next year will Brooks Koepka still be No. 1? If not, who will hold the crown? 

Shipnuck: Hard to vote against Koepka, who has now learned how to win everyday Tour events while also coming strong at every major. Rory is the other obvious choice but that would require him to, ya know, win a major. 

Sens: Unless Koepka grows as bored with the majors as he seems to be with many of the other events, or his putter goes as cold for the season as it did for that one week at Royal Portrush, I don’t see anyone catching him. 

Bamberger: I think asking Koepka to come back in the new year and do it again is asking too much. The Portrush Sunday, the East Lake Sunday, both showed mental fatigue and a window into him: it’s not as easy as he has sometimes made it look. It’s such a young man’s game now, as we have seen with Spieth and Justin Thomas. I’m going to go with Hovland. He just seems to have it all. 

Berhow: My wise colleague Sean Zak has done the math and the answer here is pretty simple. Brooks isn’t going anywhere.

I certainly don't expect Brooksie to be bored at Augusta and Sandwich... 

Dateline: Auchterarder - One of my favorite town names in Scotland, it's home the the host venue for this week's Solheim Cup.

Beth Ann Nichols has this take:

No one wants to be the favorite of this year’s Solheim Cup. Not out loud anyway.

Betting odds overseas and in Vegas put Team USA ahead. European captain Catriona

Matthew says that according to the stats, there’s no doubt that the Americans are favorites with 10 players ranked inside the top 50. (Europe has six.) 

Even though team USA has won the last two meetings, Juli Inkster says the edge has to go to Europe given that they’re playing on Scottish soil. Team USA has never won in Scotland, taking memorable losses in 1992 and 2000. 

“On paper you’d have to say the Americans are going in as favorites,” said Matthew.

The reasons to watch are twofold:

1. team match-play....Duh!
2. Actual bad blood between these teams, mostly involving Suzann Pettersen.

Later in the week we'll have to rehash gimmegate, which to this day I'm unsure that Suzann actually understands.

4. The Solheim Cup begins on Friday at Gleneagles in Scotland. The Americans have won the last two, both under Juli Inkster, who leads the U.S. again this year. Will the Americans prevail again, and who will be the U.S. team’s star performer?

Shipnuck: I think they’ll prevail in a squeaker – the Americans are a cohesive bunch who have a little more firepower than Europe. I think Nelly Korda will be the star in her 

Whoa, Nelly!

first Cup. She’s a fiery player and will have her big sister to provide guidance and probably a very strong partner in team play. 

Berhow: The U.S. makes it three in a row and I’ll also pick Korda to lead the way — but give me Jessica instead. She qualified for the team in 2017 but had to reluctantly withdraw before it due to a forearm injury. She’ll be motivated more than ever this year. 

Sens: I like team USA in this as well. Top to bottom, the Americans have the stronger lineup. And I see their best player — Lexi — leading the way. 

Bamberger: I think the Europeans will win. Road games are always hard to win and you can’t win them all, and the Europeans can follow the example of the Europeans in France last year. You don’t often think of a star from a losing side, but I’ll cite Inkster here: if the U.S. wins, she’ll take no credit; if the U.S. loses, she’ll put it all on her shoulders.

Lexi?  Under pressure?  I do agree that the sister act might well be the most compelling part.... Should be good fun, though the broadcast times will be a challenge.

Sorry, We're Not Cleared For This Information - One last bit from the TC panel on the Tour's new driver testing protocols:

5. The Tour’s new driver testing protocol will go into effect this week at The Greenbrier. Testing will happen only on practice days and will not be announced. (Under the old system only driver heads from equipment trailers were tested during random spot checks.) Only two parties will be notified of the results: the player and a rep from the manufacturer. Does this new form of policing go far enough?

Shipnuck: I guess so. Given the Tour’s bizarre obsession with secrecy it was never likely they would make the results public. 

Sens: If this is enough of an issue to warrant testing, and the tests, as the Tour says, only take about 15 minutes, why not test every club? 

Berhow: Seems like a step in the right direction, but I wish golf would join most of the other big-time pro sports and just announce some of these things, including fines, etc., publicly. We are all adults here. 

Bamberger: The point of testing in sports is for the PUBLIC to have faith in the players, in their equipment, in their scores. The results should be public. The presumption of course is that nobody is TRYING to cheat, so it’s not as if there is a stigma attached here. The player should want his clubs tested, and be insistent that they comply. There’s something deeply illogical going on here.

Oh, it's far more damning than that, Mike...  Let me work in a story from last week to illustrate:

Dustin Johnson became the latest former World No. 1 to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery, his management team announced on Thursday.

According to a statement released to PGATour.com, Johnson had the "routine" operation done in Fort Lauderdale to repair cartilage damage in his left knee. The 20-time PGA Tour winner is "expected to make a full recovery before returning to competition later this fall."

You might think that this could explain his poor play during the back end of last season....

As for your humble blogger, my first instinct is to wonder whether its coke or pot this time:

Amongst golf’s inner circle, Johnson’s transgressions are hardly secretive. 

Now those outside of that circle are learning this, too. 

A report from Golf.com on Friday cited an unnamed source with the news that Johnson’s latest leave of absence is not self-imposed, but a six-month suspension from the PGA Tour after a positive test for cocaine – the third positive drug test he’s sustained since turning professional. 

According to the report, Johnson’s first strike occurred in 2009, when he wasn’t penalized with a suspension; his second in 2012, covered up by the Jet Ski tale; and a third that came to fruition this week, ostensibly keeping him out of action until late-January of next year.

They look us in the eye and lie to us, then wonder why we don't believe them.... They want us to believe that golf is a game played only by gentlemen, but then hide anything that would challenge that perception.  So, I just assume they're always lying.... It's easier that way.

Your Friday Frisson

Bobby D. was quite miffed about the absence of a Wednesday post...  Though even he had to admit that the blog remains good value for the money.

We'll cover every story that needs examination, we'll just be all that concerned with hitting them on the day they break.  So, some things you might have missed because life got in the way...

X-Man Gets Results - The Scauffelle Kerfuffle has led to a new driver testing protocol on the PGA Tour, as reported by Dave Dusek:

The PGA Tour notified players and golf equipment manufacturers Tuesday of a new driver testing policy that will go into effect next week at A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier, the first event of the 2019-20 season, according to a letter obtained by

Golfweek. 

Starting in 2014, the PGA Tour selected random events on the schedule and had the USGA Equipment Standards Team conduct tests on drivers in tour vans to determine their Characteristic Time (CT), which is a measure of the springiness of the hitting area. Now, in addition to those tests, the PGA Tour will ask the USGA’s team to test drivers that players have or plan to use in tournaments. 

“Recently, we have become aware that drivers in play on the PGA Tour may be exhibiting a trait whereby through normal use, the clubface ‘creeps’ beyond the allowed CT limit under the Rules, despite having conformed to the CT limit when new,” the letter notes. “When such a situation occurs, in accordance with the USGA’s Notice to Manufacturers dated October 11, 2017 the club is deemed to have become damaged into a non-conforming state and may no longer be used in competition.”

The good news is that they will be testing actual gamers....  One of the disconcerting things we learned from Portrush is that the Tour previously only tested random driver heads form the equipment vans....

We can also see an attempt to combat the manufacturers' tendency to push right up against the CT limits:

The serial number of each club tested will be recorded and after the test concludes, each club will be placed into one of three categories:

• Green: The club is conforming and may be used.
• Yellow: The club is conforming and may be used, but the measured CT is within the USGA’s published tolerance. As a result, the club is more likely to exceed the CT limit plus the tolerance in the future with continued use.
• Red: The club is deemed to have been damaged into a non-conforming state and can not be used.

So far, so good, right?  Of course, we're all still trying to figure out what's really going on here, as behavior fails to conform to logic.  The manufacturers tell us that the edge gained in exceeding the CT limits are diminutions, yet they push themselves right up against said limits.  

I for one didn't realize that Xander carried such weight in Ponte Vedra Beach, but apparently he's a BSD.  I say that because he had very specific demand, more testing and less transparency, and damned if he didn't get both:

The only people who will be told the results of the test are the player and the manufacturer’s representative. Clubs coded Green and Yellow will be given back to the player. Clubs that are coded Red will be returned to the manufacturer’s representative. 

The tour’s letter states that the focus of changes and additional testing are not on individual players, but rather on ensuring a level competitive playing field for everyone.

They keep telling us it's a game for gentlemen, but keep acting as if they have much to hide.

The Walker Cup -  The media blackout is deafening, but there's actual golf being played this weekend, if only we were allowed to see it.  The Walker Cup is on for the weekend at Royal Liverpool, d/b/a Hoylake, but that massive USGA-Fox TV contract doesn't include coverage.  Who would want to watch team match play anyway?

Like your humble blogger, you might have thought that this event began at The National, but the actual origins go back to a Friendly played at Hoylake in 1919:

The Walker Cup Match began in the wake of World War I with a view toward stimulating golf interest on both sides of the Atlantic. The Match grew in part out of two international matches between the USA and Canada, in 1919 and 1920. 

At the same time, British and American amateurs considered each nation’s national

amateur championship a great plum. Meanwhile, the USGA Executive Committee had been invited to Great Britain for a series of meetings with the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews Rules Committee. The meeting was to look at the advisability of modifying various rules of the game. Among the participants was George Herbert Walker, USGA president in 1920. 

Upon the Executive Committee’s return to the United States of America, international team matches were discussed. The idea so appealed to Walker that he soon presented a plan and offered to donate a trophy. When the press dubbed the trophy the Walker Cup, the name stuck. 

In 1921, the USGA invited all golfing nations to send teams to compete in the Match, but no country was able to accept that year. The Americans stuck to their mission, however, and William C. Fownes, the 1910 U.S. Amateur champion, who had twice assembled the amateur teams that played against Canada, rounded up a third team in the spring of 1921 and took it to England. At Hoylake, the American team defeated a British team, 9-3, in an informal match the day before the British Amateur. 

Early in 1922, The R&A announced that it would send a team to compete for the Walker Cup at the National Golf Links of America, Walker’s home club, in Southampton, N.Y.

Originally, the competition was open to any country that might care to challenge. The USGA invited all countries to compete. Except for Great Britain, however, no other country was able to accept. The Walker Cup was contested in 1922, 1923 and 1924 and then biennially ever since, with a nine-year hiatus between 1938 and 1947 for World War II.

There is at least some good coverage, including this wonderful portrait of U.S. Captain Nathaniel Crosby.   This could have been awkward, no?

A steakhouse seems a fitting venue at which to address an old beef, and Nathaniel Crosby had one. It had festered for a while, though time had eroded its sharper edges and the issue lay dormant until it resurfaced somewhere between aperitif and vintage port.

Seven past captains of U.S. Walker Cup teams had assembled at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in West Palm Beach in early 2018 to salute Crosby, who had just been named to lead the Americans in 2019, and to offer him advice. Among them was Jay Sigel, a playing captain at the matches at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 1983 when Crosby was a member of his team. 

When it came around to Sigel, he turned to Crosby and said, “Whatever you do, play all your players three times.” 

A spit-take in range of prime beef generally is considered bad form, and Crosby restrained himself. Presumably. But he made his point. “You benched me twice,” Crosby said to Sigel. “I’ve been holding this baggage for 35 years.”

That 1983 team, with Crosby front row, far right.

I've always said that we're separated by a common language, and here's a perfect anecdote along those lines:

What Crosby does remember of the Walker Cup was an amusing story involving him and his caddie, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Rod Stewart. “Everybody called him Rod,” Crosby said. Golfers in those days provided their own practice balls, and their caddies shagged them for the player. 

“You’ve got to go shag some balls for me,” Crosby said to Rod within earshot of the gallery that included women aghast at him using the word “shag,” a vulgarity according to its British definition.

Heh.

This had me smiling as well:

A couple of weeks after an unexpected heatwave blistered the nation, an autumnal cool has descended from the north just in time for the 47th Walker Cup at Royal Liverpool. More importantly, a bit of a “hoolie” (strong wind) over the last few days has given the United States side a taste of the conditions that have carried Great Britain & Ireland squads to five wins in the last six matches on this side of the Atlantic. It was so bad on Wednesday that the visitors played only six holes in the 50 mile-per-hour gales before retiring to the clubhouse.

The ski hats are out...

That "unexpected" heat wave was, of course, during our time a little further North....This morning brought an e-mail from reader Mark W., who just happens to be in St. Andrews for the R&A Fall meeting:

BTW, thanks a lot! You used up all the good weather while here. We are playing in the rain and 40 mph winds. Brutal. But we’re ( Costello and me) having fun seeing all our old friends at the R&A.

There's a reason that Employee No. 2 refers to it as "Scott Simpson Weather."  We've seen the bad stuff, but have been remarkably lucky over the years.

Core Shot - That's more of a ski term, but here's a story that's been embargoed by the mainstream golf press, for obvious reasons.  MyGolfSpy.com has become the little blog that could, most famously for the comparative testing of the ProV1 against the....Kirkland Signature ball from Costco.  You might recall their extensive ball testing earlier this year, in which Callaway's Chrome Soft golf ball dramatically under-performed.  The amusement there was largely because your humble blogger had just taken delivery of four dozen Chrome Soft X's...

In July, they posted this image on Twitter, and almost broke the Internet:

 Callaway had no shortage of defenders, here's a typical comment:

Of course, this one was inevitable:

Sorry, Josh, but you do pretty much suck, but you have lots of company.

Anyway, this news makes it pretty clear that this was more than an easily-rectified QC error:

The video is some 21 minutes long, so I understand that most will not watch it all.  But the takeaway is that Callaway has committed $50 million to fix the underlying manufacturing processes.  That's a pretty big endorsement of the MGS testing process, and also a pretty obvious capitulation on the merits of their criticism of the golf balls.

I find this story interesting on its own merits, but also for its indictment of of the major golf media outlets.  For all their equipment and ball testing, when have they ever broken a story like this?  The answer is never, because they're quite obviously too conflicted...  Callaway's ad money is far too critical to their business model for them to ever be critical, as is access to players and the major governing bodies.  This obviously isn't anything new, but I always like to pint out when the mask drops.

Alan, Asked - Got time for some low-impact blogging?  Alan's got a few gems this week, first on Phil:

Phil turns 50 next June. Will he bombinate the Champions Tour or continue to hit “bombs” only on the PGA Tour? #USSeniorOpen -@BobEstesPGA 

Phil has always been disdainful of the Senior tour. He wants to play with and against the best players, and he clearly enjoys the company of and is motivated by the Tour’s young guns. It’s hard to remember now but Phil actually won a Tour event in 2019. Still, after getting his teeth kicked in over the last six months maybe he’ll be more open to playing some events where he is more or less guaranteed to contend. Isn’t that more fun than missing cuts? I mean, next year’s U.S. Senior Open is at Newport CC — how good is that? The Senior British is at Sunningdale. Sounds like a fun summer to me.

Newport?  How did I miss that?  That's such a great idea, but it makes me wonder they don't take the Senior Open to more interesting venues...

Would love to see and hear Phil in the booth. -@gaulin_rick 

Oh, he’d be great. Conventional wisdom has always been that he wouldn’t be interested because of the time commitment but Twitter has made more obvious what we always knew: Phil loves to be a smartass and a know-it-all and what better platform is there to chew the scenery than sitting in the tower next to his pal J. Nantz? This would be my wish list for color analysts among guys whose playing careers are winding down: Phil, G. Ogilvy, P. Harrington, H. Stenson, E. Woods.

What if he needs the money?  I still can't stop wondering why that gambling debt to Billy Walters was unpaid....

On this one, I love both the Q and the A:

#AskAlan: Tennis-watching Tiger is one of my favorite Tigers. What persona of the Big Cat is your favorite? -@david_troyan 

Mom Jeans Tiger.

If only he'd let us see more of these personas....

The Korn Ferry finale was riveting golf. I still miss Q school. What about the idea of mixing that with a version of Q School for three slots … would be a great fall series with “everyone-has-a-chance” implications. -@frazerrice 

Well, Q School was great fun because a rando off the street could get hot and play his way onto the Tour without ever having set foot on the developmental tours. (See Beem, Rich.) But what makes the current arrangement so dramatic is the finality of it. If the guys who get their hearts broken at the KFT finals have the safety net of Q School, a lot of the exquisite tension disappears. I think it has to be one or the other.

Let me just add this Golf Digest item to the mix:

Watching the sheer joy of a young tour pro holing a putt to win his PGA Tour card doesn't get old

This is a perennial issue that continues to frutrate your humble blogger.  Golf is at its most exciting when the stakes are the highest for the player, yet no one tunes in if Tiger's not there.  As these items make clear, that life and death struggle on the Corn Fairy Tour is so much more compelling than watching Rory and Brooks play for $15 million large, yet no one will watch the former.  

What, you thought I had an answer?  If I did, you wouldn't be able to read these musings for free.

Another fun pair of related questions:

You can only watch one, the Solheim Cup or the Presidents Cup, which one? -@LabLoverDE 

Well, is Tiger serving as a playing captain? Because that weighs heavily on the decision. If yes, it will be a fascinating sociological experiment that becomes must-see TV. And Royal Melbourne, while woefully short for the modern game, is still a unique test that could bedevil the U.S. team and make this Cup a bit more competitive than it appears on paper. But if Tiger is just a cart jockey I’m picking the Solheim Cup because it figures to be a war. 

#AskAlan, Can the U.S. possibly win the Solheim cup without three of our “Poulter” type players? Kerr, Wie, and Creamer’s intensity will surely be missed. -@TheTripleBB 

This is certainly an interesting factor. At all the Cups passion is among the most important commodities; the 2018 Ryder Cup was the latest example of how desire and team spirit can overcome a team with more talented individuals. At the Solheim, Kerr especially was a rallying figure for the U.S. I think Danielle Kang can fill those shoes. Lizette Salas, too. And I don’t think it’s an accident that Cap. Inkster used her picks on two spicy veterans: Stacy Lewis and Morgan Pressel. This American team has plenty of grit.

Unfortunately, both are being played overseas, and the resulting TV schedule will mean that almost no one will see them.

The Prez Cup is another in a long list of attempts by the Tour to make up for not having kept the Ryder Cup and PGA Championship when they split from the other PGA back in the day.  It's silly, but in a harmless sort of way.  The interesting question here, at least to me, is the effect on the Ryder Cup when the U.S. inevitably loses one....  they do have to lose one at some point, right?

The Solheim might be even more interesting, though that's not necessarily a compliment.  Copying the Ryder Cup was an obvious ploy, but it's downright quaint in view of the dominance of the Asian ladies.  But, as Alan noes, there really is bad blood between the sides, and we'll look forward to revisiting gimmegate in the run-up to the event.

This is good as well, because folks don't focus on the closed-shop nature of the tours:

What is the basis of/reason for the LPGA rule that precludes Yealimi Noh from getting into the next event after she finished 2nd from a Monday Q in Portland? And do you think this policy might change soon? Can we call it the “Noh Brainer” Rule? -@jwficket 

This is old-fashioned union boss stuff. The rule states you have to be an LPGA member to cash in a top 10. It’s basically designed to prevent a collegian, local teaching pro or young upstart from taking a spot that would otherwise go to a member of the Tour rank-and-file. It’s like the obsession with “playing opportunities” whenever any Tour rejiggers its schedule. These are closed shops and the players like it that way; they’ll gladly sacrifice an exciting young player in favor of a tired old vet who has been taking up space for years. Since these are the very players who sit on the policy boards I’m not sure it’ll change anytime soon.

I'll let you get on with your day, and see you Monday. 

Back To Work

I'm happy to report that the afterglow from Fife 2019 remains intact...  Especially as yesterday brought news that Crail....er, excuse me, The Crail Golfing Society has accepted our application for overseas membership.  Planning for our 2020 trip back to The Kingdom of Fife begins in 3,2,1...

We'll work ourselves back into regular blogging gradually, as the schedule and content dictates.  September promises to be a busy month, most notably with a return trip to The National three weeks from today....  I do have golf planned for the next two days, so we'll sort through a few things and see what comes as the week progresses.

Schedule Stuff - Encased in my Fifeness bubble, I missed the last two events of the riveting FedEx Cup Faux Playoffs, but from a distance it seems the Tour dodged a bullet.  Coming back from down five strokes in the staggered start, Rory was a deserving winner of the event.  I think it's arguable as to whether that validates the format, or merely defers that inevitable moment when the best player of the week doesn't win, and the golf world collectively loses its mind.

Joel Beall makes a case for the format, but one that leavse me thinking it merely deferred the cognitive dissonance:

Unequivocally, the latest iteration of the FedEx Cup, with its new-fangled, stroke-adjusted start, was no lemon. The two best players in golf—Brooks Koepka and Rory

McIlroy—were in the final pairing at the Tour Championship, with Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas keeping things honest. The fusion of performance and popularity was a dream scenario for any Sunday, let alone the PGA Tour's season finale. 

Just as important, players ranked 10th to 20th heading into Thursday at East Lake, often left as spectators in previous FedEx Cup formats, were given a viable chance to compete under the new system.

I'm sure "Not a lemon" was exactly what the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach were going for.

But this is quite the howler:

Only when compared to last year's Tour Championship would you say this year's version lacked buzz. Hell, even the Super Bowl lacked excitement measured against what we saw in those four magical September days. Otherwise, though, it felt consistent with the past.

Egads, there are category errors, and then there's this.... Last years buzz of course had everything to do with the return of Tiger, and nothing to do with the event itself.  

It's a hot mess, and it's only getting hotter.

The winner became the second top-ten player to criticize the new schedule, specifically the compressed four majors in three months aspect thereof.  This comes from his pre-tourney presser at The Omega Masters, and its really quite damning:

The PGA Championship's move from August to May produced a golf calendar that

included a major each month from the Masters in April to The Open in July, but McIlroy – one green jacket short of the career grand slam – would like to put a bit more distance between the game's biggest events. 

“If they are spaced so closely together will fans only care from the second week of April to the third week in July?” he added to the BBC. “I’d like to see them spaced out like tennis does. With the Australian Open in January and the US Open going on now, they’ve a nice nine-month window of relevancy.”

Mr. Monahan, perhaps I can help you understand what Rory just said.  He'll gladly cash your $15 million check, but even that gaudy sum isn't sufficient to make him pretend it means anything.... Relevancy is the key word here.

Shack had an interesting take on it all, though one that seems internally inconsistent.  In noting Winners and Losers, he had these winners:

Staggered scoring 

The numbers crunchers at PGA Tour headquarters ran through many years of past Tour Championships and said the strokes-based FedEx Cup points reset would make for a compelling finish. While it may take more getting used to and some tweaks to strengthen season-long rewards, the final round could not have been easier to follow

First round 

The opening day proved to be the most compelling of the season thanks to the new scoring system. Justin Thomas quickly gave back some of his lead. Just as Thomas predicted the day before, there was a genuine sense that leading the FedEx Cup came with big-time pressure. A few short putts and a water ball later, we had a tournament and a sense more drama was coming.

 But under perhaps the most favorable of circumstances, I would argue.

And this from that other category:

Season long points and playoff early rounds 

Given how many times during the year fans have to hear about the importance of every FedEx Cup point, the sudden meaninglessness of positioning was felt by Friday night at East Lake. Points will always matter to get inside the top 15 or the tour’s top 125, but bloated allotments for the first two playoff events negated the importance of regular-season consistency. The new staggered scoring at East Lake even defused advantages gained at the Northern Trust and BMW, putting players who enjoyed nice, but non-championship seasons within plausible reach of $15 million.

Not to mention that what really undermined the season-long aspect was JT bolting into the lead from his one, late-season win.  Really bush league, if we're permitted to be honest.

And at his blog Geoff asks another very good question:

Remind Me Again: Why Did The PGA Tour Give Up On Labor Day?

To avoid the NFL.....preseason?   

The Year That Was - We've got to be quick about our sepia-toned nostalgia for the season that just concluded, because the 2019-20 PGA Tour season begins in exactly nine days.  I know, that bit about not competing with the NFL was quite the head fake...

Folks have been trying to make the Player of the Year into a thing, for instance this from Alan Shipnuck's most recent mailbag:

Is there a case to be made for Brooks and Rory as Co-POY? Brooks was amazing in the majors and meh elsewhere while Rory was meh in the majors and amazing elsewhere. -@FisherM24 

Sure, that case can be made, but the modern sports-industrial complex won’t allow it. We demand that such things be zero-sum. But I disagree with your assessment of Brooks’ year: he won an f’ing WGC (dusting Rory along the way), beat a pretty good field in Korea, and had top-4s at the Honda, Nelson and Tour Championship. I’m enjoying watching all the Rory honks straining so hard to make their case, but Brooks is POY and it’s an easy call.

I love that "Sure, the case can be made, if you're an ignorant slut".  But he had other good stuff on Rory's really great though highly disappointing season:

I understand the outpouring of approval because he is so immensely likable, but we already knew Rory was good at making money. The question remains, is he still good at making history? -@Lou_Tireworld 

I can’t stop thinking about the vexing paradox built into McIlroy’s season. Statistically it was one of the best in recent memory but among his worst rounds was a 73 to open the Masters; a two-over 72 to open the PGA Championship; a 72 to close the U.S. Open, when he had begun the final round in 6th place; and the woeful 79 that put a dark cloud over the Open Championship. This is more than a coincidence.

We revere the major championships because the setups are the most exacting. Inconsistencies in a putting stroke will be revealed; holes in a wedge game shall be exposed. More than that, the teeming crowds, crushing hype and weight of history push players to the breaking point metaphysically. Clearly Rory has been getting in his own way over the last five years when it matters most. Will all the New Agey stuff he embraced this year help him figure it out, or is it a sign of how far gone he really is? Time will tell. But even though it feels like he’s been around forever, McIlroy is still only 30. I refuse to believe he doesn’t have one more big run in him. Maybe more than that. Of course, we’re been saying that for years now.

Perhaps you're looking at the wrong statistics?  Why should we be surprised that Rory plays better in events that don't matter to him, as he just explained above.  When he does care, the weaknesses in his game come to the fore....

This is fun as well:

Five-to-ten years from now, where will the “Rory’s greatest season is 2019, when he won the Players and the FedEx Cup” gaslighting rank in the Gaslighting Hall of Fame? -@ANTIFAldo 

It will be the case study that is on the syllabus of every post-graduate course on gaslighting.

God has a nasty sense of humor, and Rory's strong play in events of lesser importance will undoubtedly make his play at Augusta and Portrush that much more unpalatable.  Whether it will make him address the weaknesses in his game, that's a far different matter.

You'll not be surprised that this review of the year is of greater interest to me:

A definitive ranking of golf’s wildest controversies this PGA Tour season

I'm just glad it's definitive, so we won't need to argue about it.

The categories are a bit strange, but we'll trust Dylan Dethier here....  This din't win, but tickled my funny bone:

DALY VS. WALMART — It was a shame to see two foundational Arkansas institutions at war, but that’s exactly what happened after John Daly swore off the retail giant in early May. “I will never step foot into #Walmart again!” he wrote on Twitter. Heavy accusations followed: just one open checkout line and “lazy staff.” Time will tell if this one gets resolved. After all, Daly has never really seemed like the Blue Apron type.

Accusations of laziness might be the most John Daly thing ever....  Remind me, who was the guy that was fined 21 times by the PGA Tour for failure to give effort?  But I've been reliably informed that he's the people's champion, apparently just not people in blue aprons.

The winner in the Epic Feud Division are these guys:

BROOKS VS. BRYSON — This is really Brooks vs. slow play, but J.B. Holmes didn’t respond to Koepka’s criticisms, whereas DeChambeau confronted him on the putting green at the Northern Trust. Reasonable move, given Koepka had called DeChambeau’s slow play “embarrassing” and suggested it be addressed. Regardless of what they say about that meet-and-greet publicly, this seems like a clash of philosophical differences that isn’t going away.

A couple of tangents here....First, an anecdote from our trip.  At one point in our final round when the pace of play was annoyingly slow, I asked Theresa and our caddies if they had ever seen my JB Holmes impression, and proceeded to plumb-bob an 18 inch putt.  I was pleased that all seemed to get the reference.

 Secondly, remember Gary Hart and the Monkey Business?  Yeah, kids, be careful what you ask for:

He explained that, if critics would take the time to clock him, they'd see his pace is fine. 

"On average, my shots into the green and off the tee was around 30 seconds. That's 10 seconds under [the required time], you know," DeChambeau said at Liberty National. "And if you go to the putting green, let's say it takes 50 seconds. That equals out and you're approximately on time." 

So we accepted Bryson's challenge, which is why we timed him at the Tour Championship Thursday morning.

And they do just that...  he comes off not too badly in the tee-to-green timing, but there the good news ends:

Unfortunately, the same could not be said once reaching the green ... 

Putting 

In case you're reading this, Brooks, avert your eyes. DeChambeau averaged one minute

and 21 seconds per first putt. Most of the time, DeChambeau was the first to stroke, but even when he was closer to the hole than Reavie (49.41 seconds), he wasn't playing like he had dinner plans. 

The longest time came on the ninth green. Facing a 36-foot uphill birdie putt, DeChambeau took two minutes and 41 seconds from marking his ball to contact. His putt went six feet by, and even though he watched Reavie for 50 seconds, it didn't appear like he started to look at his comeback line until after Reavie's birdie attempt was struck. Another minute ensued before DeChambeau was off the green.

Bryson has said that he can live with a shot clock, and I'd love to see that hypothesis tested:

If that theoretical shot clock existed, DeChambeau would have racked up 10 over-50-second violations through his first nine holes, 14 if the bar was 40 seconds.

Busted.  

I do think Sergio somehow gets off easy in the lumping of his cumulative offenses into the various categories, and he's clearly worth of a lifetime achievement award.

Wither Tiger and Jordan - Props to the Tour Confidential Panel for the discipline demonstrated in deferring the inevitable Tiger discussion until their second question:

2. Tiger Woods announced on Tuesday that he recently underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair minor cartilage damage in his left knee. The doctor who performed the surgery said he expects Woods to make a full recovery, while Woods said he hopes to resume practicing in the next few weeks and added he looks forward to playing in Japan in October. Should fans be more concerned than the press release seems to be? 

Dethier: The reminder, as always, is just how little we ever really know about Woods’ health. He might not really understand it all, either, but he has never been forthcoming about what’s actually wrong. Injury descriptions shift pretty regularly, as recently as the Northern Trust (back to oblique to, now, knee). Mostly what we know is that it’s not perfect.

Bamberger: Tiger has always been extremely secretive about all health issues. The only meaningful thing left for him, as a player, is the majors. I don’t know who he turns to for these questions, but I can’t see why he would want to play between now and Honda, except to make money, and it would be odd if that’s a high priority at this point in his career. He looked mentally and physically tired from April 15th on.

And while Kooch's bagman John Wood has been a valuable addition to the gang, this is just dead wrong:

Wood: No I don’t think so. We used to never know what was going on with Tiger’s body. He held that close to his vest. Now, he’s letting us know. I wouldn’t be concerned with either. If he could win on a broken leg, I think he can win on one that’s not broken but has had its share of time under the knife.

Not even close... This is Tiger sharing the absolute bare minimum, and we're still left wondering about everything after April 15th.

 This is an interesting take on things as well:

3. Jordan Spieth completed his second straight winless season on Tour after winning 10 times from 2015 to 2017. Who is more likely to snatch their next win first — Tiger or Spieth? And will that come next season? 

Dethier: I think the demises of both Woods and Spieth have been somewhat exaggerated. Spieth finished in the top eight in four of his last 10 starts of 2019. And before the playoffs, Woods had beaten the field average more consistently than any other player on Tour. I’d put the chances of each somewhere around 50/50 to win next season — I’ll take Spieth, just because he’s healthier and will play more. 

Wood: I think it’ll be Jordan if for no other reason than he’s gonna have a hell of a lot more chances than Tiger with their respective schedules. I think Jordan will knock one off by the end of the West Coast (the old start to the season), and with Tiger I think it all depends on how much he plays. I’m not trying to say other tournaments don’t matter to him, but everything Tiger does right now is centered around four tournaments. The “regular” events he plays are more preparation for Harding Park and Augusta than all-out assaults like the Tiger of the 2000s.

But before Dylan goes long on Jordan, he might want to consider this Dave Dusek column on driving performance:

The largest drop in strokes gained off the tee was made by Jordan Spieth. His average went down by 0.723 shots. A year ago he finished tied for 50th in this statistical category, but his 2018-19 average of -0.452 ranked 176th.

Everyone seems to think that Jordan's poor play is caused by his putting, so you might be surprised to learn that he was second in Strokes Gained: Putting for the year.   But in SG: Tee-to-Green he was 157th...  hard for me to see how he regains his place in the game without fixing that PDQ.

More Alan - A few more bits from his mailbag, low cardio blogging for sure, then I'll let you go:

Re: Brooks’s body issue shot: His intentional weight loss hurt his game so it’s hard to say the photo represents a champion golfer’s body (instead, it shows a champion golfer’s crash diet body?). So what do the pics represent? Golfer ego? Is the publicity good for the game? -@zuzanryan 

Let me just start by saying that if I never see Brooks’ a– again it will be too soon. Koepka looks great in his tight polo shirts but with his shaved chest and golfer’s tan the pics were a little…awkward? We’ve been down this road before with Tiger: a dominant golfer with an inferiority complex desperate to been seen as a real jock, ergo the packing on of extraneous muscle for reasons having more to do with vanity than performance. I guess all the attention was good for golf; it was certainly good for Brooks, who got the spotlight he craves.

Alan, you mean like this one?

I know, but he's almost Normanesque in his need to show off his bod....  If he wants to continue to show off Jenna's bod, that's a different matter entirely.  

And this on his buddy:

What was the deal with DJ this year? He seemed fairly pedestrian after the PGA in May for the rest of the season. -@BigAlFishes 

Well, he let the Masters get away and then had his manhood taken by Brooks at the PGA Championship. Imagine the emotional rollercoaster Dustin has been on. Koepka was his

harmless little workout buddy, and seemingly overnight he became the player DJ was always supposed to be. Their lives were so intertwined it was inevitable there would be strain as the dynamic changed so radically. 

Coming out of the PGA their shared swing coach Claude Harmon had to pick sides, and it’s telling that he threw in with Koepka. That had to cut Dustin to the quick, and that they sorta got back together doesn’t take away the sting of getting dumped. Statistically, Johnson’s iron play and putting was not as good this season as in the past, but the most telling stat was his give-a-shizz meter: it was clearly on empty after the PGA Championship. Hopefully Dustin can pull himself out of this funk because the game is a lot more interesting when he’s playing his best.

Hey, at least he doesn't feel the need to show us his ass.

Here’s something to chew on: What (if anything) should the USGA have to say about Brooks Koepka using smokeless tobacco products and continuing to dribble nasty gobs of tobacco spit on national TV? -@DonVeach 

It’s more in the purview of the PGA Tour. Right now there is no policy banning smoking or chewing tobacco, which is quite surprising given the Tour’s obsession with cultivating a squeaky clean image. Both habits are gross and leave behind a mess — I’d love see these vices banned during tournaments. What kind of athletic competition is it if players can puff away in the middle of it? There is a long history of chaw in baseball, but those guys aren’t wearing saddle shoes and preppy polos. It’s just a weird look on Tour.

It's all quite disgusting, for sure.  I don't even like the look of them chewing gum, which has become all the rage....

Are you looking forward to the Rory/Hovland vs Brooks/Wolff match at the 2020 Ryder Cup? -@Golfingbrock 

Deeply. It’s going to be fascinating to see how much turnover there is on both teams. Poulter, Stenson, Casey and Garcia are all warriors, but their average age will be over 43 by the time the ’20 Cup rolls around, and right now only Casey is in good form. Who knows what will become of ThunderBear or a volatile player like Tyrrell Hatton, both of whom were part of the team in ‘18. Meanwhile, it’s easy to imagine the U.S. will be without aging one-name champions Tiger, Phil and Bubba. So, there will be plenty of room for young talent like the Neo-Big Three of Wolff, Hovland and Morikawa, to say nothing of Xander, Matt Wallace and sundry others.

Gee, Alan, any interest in forecasting an era of U.S. dominance?  But by the way, that "definitive ranking" of controversies didn't even mention ThunderBear....  Though we have to wait to see how that one turns out.

These two I'll present in reverse order:

Why not use carryover scoring through all three legs of the FedEx Cup, making it 12-round tourney over three weeks at three different courses? Whoever leads at the end of each leg wins that leg. FEC points used only to determine initial 125-man playoff field – and are then forgotten! -@HenriDaMarsay 

Bamberger has been floating this idea for years. I love it. Strokes is easier to follow than points, and the Tour Championship this year proved that fans are open to a non-traditional way to keep score. But FedEx has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to make its points the coin of the realm. The Tour wants to protect that investment at all costs so it will never support a plan that makes FedEx Cup points wholly irrelevant.

At the risk of repeating myself, the problems with the FedEx Cup format are attributable to trying to serve two masters...They want the patina of a season long competition, but they also need the outcome to be in doubt until Sunday at East Lake.  Golf doesn't fit the playoff format, because the best players win so infrequently, so I would chuck the season long component, other than the qualify, and focus on making it a dramatic, high-stakes shootout.

But this is shear brilliance:

Changing the starting scores has really opened my eyes. Why doesn’t the USGA start everyone at +10 (+18 on par 72s) to #protectpar? -@danmacleay 

I wish I had thought of this.

Me too, as there aren't many other ways, are there?

I'm frequently reminded of these trenchant comments on this subject:

Major champion and winning Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger said other iconic golf courses could be in trouble but not Augusta National. 

“The Old Course at St Andrews, the home of golf, is different, because the course isn’t as long and the greens are pretty easy to putt and don’t have nearly as much slope,” Azinger said. “Augusta’s greens are frightfully fast, and they can stick the pins two paces from the edge. 

“Augusta can always be defended. St Andrews is in trouble.”

This is serious, future of our game stuff, and The Old Course has already once served as a canary in the coal mine, when balls were moving on the greens in 2015.  I'd have suggested that the inability to play St. Andrews in the wind should have sent tremors through the game, but rather has been swept under the rug.

The Open will return to St. Andrews in 2021, for the 150th installment of golf's oldest championship.  I'm scared to death of what these guys can do the the place in the absence of strong winds, but they may have to suspend play if they do get strong winds.  Heaven help us.....

Have a great week, and I'll see you when I see you.