The National - Further Thoughts on A Return Visit

Almost exactly two years ago, Nick Frelinghuysen and John Knox treated me to a day at The National Golf Links of America, the C.B. Macdonald masterpiece.  As a confirmed Macdonald geek, this was bucket list stuff, for which I remain grateful.  When they suggested a return visit this year, I couldn't even pretend to play hard to get....As an added bonus, Nick's Aunt, Barbara Israel, the actual member who got us on last go around, joined us for our day, making it that much more enjoyable.

After that 2017 round, I wrote this post on our day.  Typically, when I have cause to revisit old posts, they're far less insightful or humorous than my memory thereof.  Ain't life like that?  But in this case, I think its rather good, so perhaps my standards have been systematically lowered to that point where my writing can actually live up to expectations.  Or perhaps it is that good.... I know, seems unlikely. 

If you're curious as to all things Macdonald and the creation of this very special club, do read that old post.  As for this post, I'm merely going to throw up some photos and tell some stories of our day.  The golf was decidedly a mixed bag, especially on the upwind homeward holes, but craziness ensued.  Curiously, much of the craziness involved play from the many bunkers....

As most of you will know, it was a perfect day for golf.  Temps were in the mid-70's, with blustery winds but nothing like the gale force winds of that prior visit.  Lunch remains quite the event, the cold lobster and mac and cheese/creamed corn customs to hopefully never succumb to political correctness.  Jackets are required in the dining room, and the pairing with golf short remains an amusing look.

The property is special, overlooking Peconic Bay, but it's the clubhouse and the windmill that demand attention:

There isn't a bad hole to be found, but this photo shows my view or, more accurately, the lack thereof, to the third green, The Alps:

The line was the partially obscured tree on the far left.  You really need to commit, to say the least....

The craziness starts at the Par-3 fourth hole, which is NGLA's Redan.  I hit a no-good, God-awful iron, so far right that we screamed "Fore" out of concern for those on the fifth tee box, but it came up short of them in a bunker.  Now this is a Redan and I'm far right, so it's straight downhill to the green.  I've no clue how far to carry it, but in such circumstances one swings and prays.... Or maybe I have the order reversed.

I was trying to carry it about halfway, but completely chunked the explosion shot, which barely trundled out of the bunker.  Apparently that the shot called for, as it rolled down and nestled next to the pin, thank you very much.  The crowd loved it, but dumb friggin' luck is what it was.

If you've read that 2017 post, you'll have seen a picture of your humble correspondent in their version of the Road Bunker.  This one:

After my faux-heroics from the bunker on No. 4, Barbara got herself up and down from this very bunker.  She's a very good stick, but that was pretty special.

We were all amused by this tee box, as the long grass was quite close, requiring her to get the ball airborne quickly, which she accomplished without any stress:

Next up on our bunker heroics is the ninth hole, CBM's tribute to the Long Hole on the Old Course (No. 9 here).  This is an important hole for scoring, not only because it's a three-shotter, but also because it's our last downwind hole.  The fairway cants sharply from right-to-left, but my drive seems on a perfect line.  Only, when we get out there, my caddie Ian isn't sure where it is.  We spend 2:59  searching for it, before Barbara finds it in an unexpected location, an inch into the first cut on the right of the fairway.

I subsequently pull my third shot into a deep, greenside bunker.  I hit a good bunker shot, but it's clearly too much of a good thing, but it seems from my subterranean vantage point to be headed for the flag.... I then catch the flag, unfurled because of the wind, but can't see what happens next.  But I can guess from the reaction up on the green, it drops straight down and in.  Are we paying for junk in this game?  Alas, not, but not something one sees every day....

One of the caddies got this of our group on the 17th tee....  Upon further review, lass us and more Peconic Bay might have been a better call.  Yanno, something like this:

Got time for one last amazing sandie?  I was out of position on the finishing hole, having caught a fairway bunker off the tee.  With 200 yards for my third shot into the fan, I pulled it so far left I had ask Ian if the destination was still on the golf course, to which he could only answer, "Yes, but....".

We found it at the far end of a bunker, where there was no stance inside the bunker.  I had little choice but to squat a slow as my flabby thighs allowed, and try to catch the ball cleanly.  Shockingly, I pulled it off, putting the ball with about fifteen feet, from which I made my putt.  It was that kind of day...

After the chip-out but before putting, I had this brief exchange with Barbara:

Barbara:  You had yourself in a number of awkward spots out there, Scott.  But you handled them well, which I can only attribute to a misspent youth. 

Me:  It's actually worse than that.  Since I didn't really play golf as a kid, it was mostly a misspent adulthood.

Just a wonderful day, for which I thank my hosts.  There's a reason that my bride frequently reminds me that I'm a lucky bastard...  Very lucky, indeed.

We finished late, but the clubhouse was quite spectacular in the late day sun:

Weekend Wrap

The Most important event this past weekend occurred far from a golf course, as we were delighted to attend the wedding of Bobby D.'s daughter Lindsay.

It was a beautiful day in all respects, and we wish all good things for Lindsay and Rob.

The Sanderson Farms - No way to smooth out this segue, as the decision to hold a PGA Tour event in conflict with the Lindsay's wedding remains controversial: 

The Sanderson Farms Championship went to a playoff but that ended quickly as Sungjae Im hit his ball near the base of the grandstands on the first playoff hole, opening the door 

When does he get the real trophy?

for Sebastián Muñoz to get up and down for par and win for the first time on the PGA Tour. 

Muñoz made a 15-foot birdie putt on 18 to force the playoff on Sunday, the first on the PGA Tour in 39 events. 

Muñoz, from Colombia, shot a 63 on Saturday, the best score of the week, and then Sunday, closed with a 70 to force overtime with last season’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. 

Im, from South Korea, shot a final-round 66 and was the only golfer all week to shoot all four rounds in the 60s.

I saw none of it, but did you realize that there had been a playoff drought on tour?

Best streak that ended: The Sanderson Farms was the PGA Tour’s first playoff in 39 events and the first since the 2018 RSM Classic when Charles Howell III beat Patrick Rodgers.

Curious, though perhaps not all that interesting....

Danny's Song -  Likely the more significant event of the week:

VIRGINIA WATER, England — The road to restoration has been both long and arduous for Danny Willett. Masters champion and ranked among the world’s top 10 when he

arrived at Hazeltine National in 2016 for his Ryder Cup debut, the then 28-year-old endured a spectacularly traumatic week courtesy of his older brother’s ill-advised public rant regarding America and Americans. From there, the news, apart from the odd respectable week and a surprise victory at last year’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, has been almost unremittingly bad. 

Until now anyway. With a final-round 67 that took him to 20-under-par 268, Willett held off the burly challenge of Spain’s Jon Rahm by three shots to win the biggest tournament on the European Tour, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. As well as earning a check for $1,166,660, the Englishman will move back inside golf’s top 50 for the first time since the PGA Championship in 2017 and, albeit just one week into the year-long process, sit atop the European Ryder Cup qualifying list. At this event only 16 months ago (what turned out to be his fourth missed cut in succession), he was as low as 462nd.

It's been a tortuous path since that Masters win, which seems like it was decades ago.  But the talent has always been there, or at least so I thought.

And our Rory is still doing that which he does:

A little further down the board, Rory McIlroy sneaked into a tie for ninth with a final-round 67 that meant the Northern Irishman played the final 54 holes in 15 under par. All of which only highlighted the sloppiness of an opening 76 that instantly left him with way too much to do if he was to win this event for a second time. Still, heading off to Scotland for next week’s Dunhill Links Championship, in which he will partner his soon-to-be 60-year-old father, Gerry, McIlroy was cheery enough. Although he claimed not to be the most contented member of the family.

Another back-door Top Ten, his signature move.

The runner-up had much the same reaction as Rors:

While Rahm rightfully was upset to come up short — “I’m not going to lie, it hurts; it stings,” he said — he found some positive perspective, which he told the media about

after his round at Wentworth in Surrey, England. 

“It’s a little painful. Nothing a good dinner and a bottle of wine can’t fix,” he said. “And at the same time, tomorrow I’m flying to St. Andrews with my dad. I’ve never been to St. Andrews before. I’m going to play the Old Course with my dad for the first time, so there’s a lot of positives to look at. It will be in bad weather, which I believe how golf is supposed to be played in Scotland I guess, right? It is what it is. There’s many reasons why I should be smiling.”

Sweet.  The Dunhill is a great event, and comes at a perfect time of the season for the guys to be relaxed.

As you might have heard, the Euro Tour has been stepping up its efforts to combat slow play, including this:

One month after announcing a four-point plan—regulation, education, innovation and (reduction of) field sizes—to counter the calamity that is slow play in professional golf, the European Tour is proving as good as its word. At this week’s BMW PGA Championship, two of those four building blocks will be in play. 

Because of the tournament’s shift from late May to September, the field at Wentworth has dropped from 156 to 132. That has to do with the availability of less daylight, but another variable in the tour’s equation—innovation—is also part of the plan to get everyone around Wentworth’s West Course in timely fashion. All 44 three-balls will be tracked by a GPS system that will help the referees monitor pace of play and pinpoint each group’s position relative to those ahead and behind. 

“A lot of the time players are unaware that they are out of position,” said John Paramor, the European Tour’s chief referee. “So we felt that we would like to find a method that would tell them when they are. So we are trialing this week a system where they will have that information on five tees [Nos. 4, 7, 10, 13 and 16]. The previous group’s time will be recorded when they walk off the green. Then that time will be deducted from that of the next group, who will then be able to tell if they are within time.”

OK, it's certainly good to hear them trying things out, though I'm a bit skeptical that they'll take one players helpful suggestion:

Not surprisingly, this latest move by the European Tour has been met with almost universal approval from the players, especially the faster-moving members of the community. But there are doubts, too. And maybe a little cynicism. Only a little tongue-in-cheek, former Ryder Cup player Nicolas Colsaerts suggests attaching a buzzer to the body of potential slow players. And when they are deemed to be out of position, an electric shock is administered to a part of the body best left unmentioned here.

So, how did they do?  Not so great, per this guy (h/t Shack):

Hey, it's a process.... as is watching paint dry.

But this might be the funnier bit from the Euros this week, attempting to ensure that their players have the most basic knowledge of the rules:

Anyway, in conjunction with this week’s efforts, every tour player, from rookie to veteran, is also going to be tested on what Paramor calls “the six or seven basic rules.” The 45-minute interactive test—taken by phone or online—will involve a series of multiple-choice questions, with 75 percent success representing a passing mark. Sadly, however, the results will not be made public. 

“We are allowing the players to use the rule book,” Paramor said. “All the answers are in there. If they don’t make it to 75 percent first time around, they get another go at it. Exactly the same test. But if they fail again, they get 45 minutes to an hour sitting down with myself or [fellow referee] Andy Macfee. Personal tuition. If they want to avoid that—and most will—they need to pass the test.”

I certainly agree with Mr. Huggan that it's sad that the results will not be released publicly, but what does this say about the modern professional.  We're talking about the basics here, like a drop from a cart path, and we need to give them all sorts of time and the rulebook at hand, and they only need to get five of seven correct.  Talk about grading on a curve...

What happens when you fail?  You just take it again...  Wow, those are some pretty punitive consequences...

All-Tiger, All The Time - Who wants to break the news to the Golf Magazine crew that there are other players in our game?  This is their lede for this week's Tour Confidential panel:

1. Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day will face off in a skins game next month in Japan, ahead of the Tour’s inaugural ZOZO Championship. Dubbed “The Challenge: Japan Skins,” it’s supposed to be the first of a series of annual skins-game challenges held globally. The last time we saw this (Tiger vs. Phil) the reaction was mixed. What Tiger exhibition would you most like to see?

Haven't we suffered enough?

Josh Sens: The prospect of Tiger in another silly-money exhibition bores me to tears. How about an exhibition of non-golf sports/games? Pit him against Paddy Harrington or

Frederik Jacobsen in ping pong. Or see if he can hit John Smotlz’s fastball or how he fares against Charles Barkley in a free-throw shooting contest. We always hear how great an athlete he is. Let’s see some other skills. This skins thing is a snooze. 

Jonathan Wall: Unless Tiger’s going head-to-head at Pine Valley or National Golf Links, I honestly don’t think there’s a single exhibition scenario that excites. Well, maybe a three-club challenge or something that requires some skill. A skins game doesn’t do anything for me. 

Dylan Dethier: Jeez, tough crowd! I’ll happily watch Tiger play some skins. It’s something different, at least, and because there’s actually less money on the line and more than two golfers on screen I think the product could be better than The Match. The best Tiger-related exhibition, though, would be mic’ing up the guy without his knowledge and Zapruder-style filming a Medalist fourball with Rickie, JT, whoever’s around. Maybe I’ll pitch this to my bosses. 

Michael Bamberger: With all due respect: this question itself suggests a co-dependence on the man that cannot be healthy. We may need to find or start a program.

You'll be shocked to know that I'm with Josh on this... and Mike.

But this the craziest suggestion:

Luke Kerr-Dineen: Ideally one without a slightly questionable name. But in all seriousness, I’m excited to see this “Japan Skins” game, but as for a Tiger exhibition I’d most like to see? How about this: A 15-match series where Tiger Woods plays the runner-up from all his major championship wins. Sure, you’d get Ernie, Vijay, Phil and Sergio, but I’m more interested in getting a Tiger vs. Bob May re-match cooking, or Tiger vs. DiMarco, or Tiger vs. Rocco, Part Two.

An interesting premise, but I'd go 180 from this.  How about Tiger v. Y.E. Yang, Franco Molinari and Brooksie...  Yanno, the guys that have stared him down.

There's a quasi-serious aspect to this issue, which is that the golf is seldom sufficiently compelling to support these events, so they need additional hooks.  The venue can be such a hook, 

Wither Phil? - The TC panel briefly suspends its Tiger obsession to consider the prospects of another alter cocker:

3. Phil Mickelson is among the headliners for this week’s Safeway Open in Napa. It’s Mickelson’s first start of the new season, one in which he’ll turn 50 in June. Is there any reason to believe that Old Man Time will finally catch up with Mickelson this season? 

Kerr-Dineen: Old Man Time has already caught Mickelson, unfortunately. That’s why he’s gone chasing driving distance. He’s succeeding on that front, but unfortunately more swing speed won’t help him keep it on the planet, which is what we saw last season. The good news is that when you’ve got Phil Mickelson’s short game, you’ll always have moments when you vault into contention, but those will be few and far between at this point. 

Sens: Words plucked from my mouth. I thought we already saw Father Time catch him last year. What we should hope we don’t see are injuries, and that seems unlikely, given that low-stress swing of his. 

Wall: I’m not so sure. Mickelson has been spending an inordinate amount of time building up his core, which makes me believe he may have one more good season in him. I’ve learned to never count Lefty out over the years. 

Dethier: I think he’ll play well in spots, like he did during last year’s West Coast swing. More than his swing it feels like Mickelson’s enemy has been fatigue, whether mental or physical. Maybe the new workout regimen will help with that, at least early in the season? We’re not rid of Lefty yet. 

Bamberger: I agree, Dylan. He didn’t forget how to play golf or lose his putting game or get injured. He just played poorly, likely had the wind taken out of him by his Pebble Beach U.S. Open play. I think he’ll be spotty for years to come, and more spotty over time, but he’ll have weeks where he can contend. And if he contends enough he could of course win. As the young people say, 50 is the new 46.

It's really hard to imagine him playing any worse than he did in the back half of last season, but isn't the real question how Tiger will handle Phil for the Prez Cup?   

Per Steve DiMeglio, we should be watching the man's thighs:

Come for the calves, stay for the golf. 

OK, that pithy pitch more than likely wouldn’t pass muster on Madison Avenue, but it’s

not completely out of touch for this week’s Safeway Open in California wine country. 

It directly plays to tournament headliner Phil Mickelson and his ongoing braggadocio on social media about his bodacious calves, the envy, it seems, not only of any 49-year-old, which Mickelson’s birth certificate reveals to be his age, but anyone period. 

And that includes Tom Brady and Steph Curry, who recently exchanged light-hearted tweets with Mickelson about beefing up each other’s legs below the knee.

Hard to find a guy that looks sillier in a pair of shorts, but there's a close-up of the calves in question, if you've got the stomach for it.  Don't say I didn't warn you...

On Cue - Up pops this slideshow at Golfweek:

28 golf landmarks that you must see in person

OK, it's a list of the usual suspects, such as the Bethpage sign and the Swilican Bridge.   Mixed in are some thing you never need to see, such as the bear that gives name to the Bear Trap.  There's even a couple that are landmarks having little to do with golf, such as the Lone Cypress.  But this is the one I needed to share with y'all:

For the simple reason that I'm headed there tomorrow, and need to warn you that there will be no blogging tomorrow.  There's a reason that Employee No. 2 calls me a lucky bastard.

Late-Week Laments

A late arrival at the keyboard, but that shan't deter us from plowing through the items of interest.

Today in Wasted Sponsors Exemptions - Tony Romo is, by the standards of amateur golf, a good stick.  But, there's a saying on Tour ranges to the effect that "Scratch ain't s**t", meaning that that's not close to good enough out there.  Mr. Romo has proved that adage in his use of sponsor exemptions, as Dylan Dethier recounts:

Romo has proved that he’s a legitimate player. He’s teed it up in U.S. Open qualifying, advanced through the pre-qualifying stage at Q-School, won a number of amateur events

and taken the last two titles at the celebrity-laden American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe. With that said, it would be a shocker if he were to advance to the weekend at Silverado Resort. 

With three PGA Tour starts under his belt, Romo has three missed cuts. He finished in last place at the 2018 Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship, beat just a single player at the same event in 2019 and shot 76-74 at the 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson Championship, ahead of just four players.

So, why give him the exemption?  The question just asks itself, no?

At that Byron Nelson the case was made that he'd be the second most watched guy in the field, after local hero and club member Jordan Spieth.  We might have had some fun suggesting that Jordan is equally unlikely to make any given weekend, but I shan't succumb to the cheap laugh line.

But care for a little more evidence that the rich and famous play by different rules than you and I?  Firts, a quick reminder that this same Tony Romo has been allowed to be paid to be the spokesman for Sketchers golf shoes, yet retain his amateur status.  So, you'll never guess who else is bending the rules for the guy:

From the files of “The stars — they’re just like us!” comes Tony Romo, who plans to skip work next week to play golf. 

That’s right. Romo, who used to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys but now cuts hit teeth calling NFL games for CBS, is assigned to call the Vikings-Bears game in Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 29. But that same Sunday marks the final round of the Safeway Open, where Romo has been granted a sponsor’s exemption. 

So what gives? According to a report from the New York Post, CBS has a plan in place for an announcer who would call the game in Chicago alongside Jim Nantz if Romo were to make the cut at the Safeway.

There are those that would argue that he didn't take his prior job any more seriously...  And don't get me started on the Corona commercials, a product whose primary application is quite obviously as swing juice.

Today in New Age Statistics - Mark Broadie has a new one for us, naming the BPTNWAM:

The question comes up as often as a sidehill lie at Augusta National: Who’s the greatest player to have never won a major? I’m pretty sure I have the answer, thanks to a stat tool

I call “expected wins.” Works like this: Say Las Vegas pre-event odds has the favorite to win a major at 9-to-1—roughly a 10 percent chance of winning. Knowing that, you’d expect him to accrue one win over 10 majors in which he is listed with similar odds. A player listed as the 10th most heavily favored player, at 19-to-1 odds (a 5 percent chance), would need 20 majors to accrue one expected win. 

Unfortunately, Vegas odds for golf majors aren’t readily available the deeper you look back in history, so in my search for golf’s best major-less player I used a mathematical expected wins model (or win probability). With this method, I simulated each major 10,000 times and counted the number of times each player won to estimate their expected wins per event. Then I ranked major-less players from most to least expected major wins. The better the player, the more expected wins they accrued for each major, making the exercise a cumulative measure of a player’s greatness. To keep the focus on current players, I limited the analysis to golfers who have played in at least four majors over the past two seasons (which eliminated Lee Westwood, who would have otherwise topped the list).

Fair enough, though his list is pretty much the usual suspects:

Fifth on the list of active greatest majorless players is Brandt Snedeker, with 0.47 expected wins. Fourth is Hideki Matsuyama (0.63 expected wins), followed by Paul Casey (0.80 expected wins) and Rickie Fowler (0.82 expected wins). Topping the list is veteran Matt Kuchar. Kuchar has won nine times on the PGA Tour, including the Players Championship. He has 12 top 10s in majors, with a memorable second-place finish to Jordan Spieth at the 2017 Open Championship. Matt Kuchar has played in 56 majors and has 0.83 expected wins. The man is due!

But this is the far more interesting list, including as it does, guys that have won lots thereof:

The same expected wins method can be used to rank the greatest major overachievers, too. Here, players are ranked by their surplus wins (actual wins minus expected wins). This list, from No. 5 to No. 1, runs Martin Kaymer, Spieth, Padraig Harrington, Tiger Woods and Brooks Koepka, who has 3.59 more wins than expected in his 24 major starts. Koepka may have four majors to his credit but was only expected to win 0.41. More proof that he steps it up in majors better than anyone else.

Except for Tiger, those are names I might have guessed...  And if you were able to expand the list back, I'd expect Sir Nick Faldo to be extremely competitive, even excluding the fact that he came up against some noted stiffs down the stretch.  How do you factor John Cook into such a stat?

Shane Ryan doesn't just channel his inner Mark Broadie, but cites his work, in this attempt to identify the best round ever on Tour:

Thus far, we’ve ignored other elements, such as situational pressure (Duval shot his 59 on a Sunday) or history (for whatever reason, it’s easier to shoot 59 today ... there were just three 59s on the PGA Tour before 2000, but there have been eight in the past decade). But the one factor we can’t ignore, and that helps us view each 58 or 59 in its proper context, is the performance of the rest of the field. It has a way of cutting through the clutter; comparing each superlative round with the average play of the entire field accounts for course difficulty, weather and even score relative to par. It boils everything down to a simple, all-encompassing question: How much better were you, on a given day, than your peers? 

Luckily, we have a stat for that, and that stat is strokes gained. With thanks to Tom Alter, Luis Rivera and the ShotLink crew at the PGA Tour, we now know the top-10 individual rounds, by strokes gained, since these stats were first kept in 2004:

Two obvious things jump out, the first being that Furyk's 59 was better than his 58, but also the prevalence of early round scores.  The latter makes perfect sense when you think about how Strokes Gained is calculated, the cannon fodder at the bottom of the field increasing the spred between the best score and the average.

The author then applies his judgment and, spoiler alert, another win for the Ulsterman:

Maybe! But maybe not. My point is, although strokes gained is a terrific tool for answering this question, there’s still room for interpretation. So let me finish this column with my opinion: Rory McIlroy’s Sunday 62 at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship represents the highest SG total in a final round at least since 2004, and it gave him the comeback victory over the likes of Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler and Jim Furyk. Even better, it was Rory's first win on the PGA Tour. When you consider the stats andthe circumstances, and acknowledging the limitations of our pre-1983 knowledge, that was the greatest single round in PGA Tour history. 

Surely, this will be the most controversial award Rory wins this year.

You see what he did there?  C'mon, I'm not ready to give up the hate over that POY vote.

Scenes From The Sanderson -  A worthwhile profile of defending champion and big-bopper Cameron Champ, which details how his season ran aground due to the usual mix of injuries and expectations:

“I obviously had an extremely hot start to the fall, just playing solid, really wasn’t worrying about much,” Champ recalled in Mississippi on Tuesday. Suddenly he was

thrust into the spotlight of featured pairings and media scrums. “At first I didn’t feel like it affected me. But on the inside I think it did. I had expectations, kind of putting extra pressure, kind of worrying about things I wasn’t worrying about all last year,” he added. 

As 2019 rolled around, things got more difficult. After a T11 at the Tournament of Champions to begin the year, Champ finished T73 at the Sony Open. The next week, he missed his first cut as a Tour member at Torrey Pines. He made the cut at both the Waste Management (T67) and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (T28) but missed the cut at the Genesis Open. Frustration was beginning to mount. 

“You know, I wish — knowing what I went through, I wish now I know kind of how I could have handled it better because over time it just builds up and builds up, and usually you don’t want to get too frustrated on the course. If I do, I just keep it inside until I’m done with the shot, but throughout the year it just kept blowing over and over, and I’d get mad over things I usually wouldn’t get mad over,” Champ said. 

Then came injury. At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Champ tweaked his back en route to an 81-70 missed cut. The following week, he tried to battle through at TPC Sawgrass (“I wasn’t going to back out of the Players,” he said) but had to WD after an opening 78.

We've seen this movie more than Casablanca, but the win gives him time to ride it out and get back on track.  It's not just the chicks that dig the long ball.

The Seasons of Life - Yup, it's that time of year again.  Fall is in full bloom back East, but they're all business in The Valley of the Sun:

The Waste Management Phoenix Open is more than four months away but construction

at TPC Scottsdale has already started. 

The Thunderbirds House and Grounds Crew got things going on Monday, Sept. 16, the earliest the construction has ever started, but workers need to get going now because of the time and material it takes to build the luxury suites, grandstands, bleachers and all the other infrastructure for the tournament that draws the largest crowds in golf. 

The first section where construction started for the 2020 event was the scaffolding on the 12th hole. Construction on the famed 16th hole will start Oct. 7 when crews begin the layout.

They build it all anew each year.  So, it's not just the fans that are wasted at the Wasted....

You know my theory.  Build a permanent structure and put cardboard cut-outs in the seats, and pipe music to recreated the Wasted experience.   It's the only reason people pay to play there, so let them get booed when they miss the green on No. 16.

All Shack, All The Time - A couple of items from that well to which I go too often, but what's a fellow to do when he's the only one reflecting my cynical perspective on the world?

First, he has a longer post on the paltry purse for the recently-announced Skins Game in Japan:

Just a few weeks ago, the FedExCup’s $15 million first prize reached a level of excess that appeared to not resonate with fans as expected. 

The original Skins Game, a really important event for many years as a the dreaded “grow the game” staple, but also simply as good entertainment. Don’t forget, in the 1984 Skins, Jack Nicklaus made a putt for $240,000 and threw his putter to the sky.

“Even old unemotional Jack got excited,” a smiling Nicklaus said. “I threw my putter high in the air because . . . well, it was exciting.” 

While purse strength is rarely of interest to fans, dollar figures are vital in Skins because the amounts can add up. That builds tension and the entire point of Skins is to have carry overs and big putts for big dollars. The format also ends up having players take different rooting interests in the name of friendly competition.

In other words, Skins is dependent on a purse that gets the attention of players. This is no easy task in today’s game and likely why the annual Thanksgiving weekend event stopped attracting top stars.

So it was a little strange to read that the first real stab at Skins from “GolfTV Powered By The PGA Tour” will feature a lower purse than the 1983 Skins Game. Given that the “golf Netflix” international streaming channel has committed to a multi-billion 

investment in distributing the PGA Tour internationally, the Tiger-Rory-Jason-Hideki launch event is their first high profile property in eight countries. Playing for $350,000 over 18 holes is modest, at best. With the last hole worth $100,000, that leaves only $10,000 per hole for the first six.

A $360,000 purse—the first Skins bankroll-is just under $1 million in 2019 dollars.

The money has lost its ability to shock us but, interestingly, that lack of money hasn't.

Did you catch the story about Scott McNealy holding a fundraiser for Trump?  Scandalous, for sure, but it made Geoff's mind go in a strange direction.  First a reminder that McNealy, founder of Sun Microsystems, is another golf-made CEO, fortunate given that his son Maverick is an aspiring Tour pro (not to mention the boy toy of Danielle Kang).

Your humble correspondent is old enough to have forgotten when the path to salvation for our game was something called Flogton:

The group behind Flogton (Notgolf backwards) wanted to sell you non-conforming equipment to make the game more accessible. They believed excessive regulation by the USGA was stifling growth.

Some of their ideas sound incredibly absurd just eight years later and in a world more open-minded to distance regulation: 

"Probably the best aid right now is a low-friction face, created by either lubricating the face of the club and ball or by applying a stick-on face to the driver. By simply reducing the face/ball friction, you can reduce slices and hooks by over 50 percent."

Ah, a lubricant. Why didn’t I think of that? 

"Flogton has test wedges that increase spin 100 percent, just by improving the grooves and adding friction-inducing surfaces. With new, soft-but-durable-skin balls, we believe we can give “the rest of us” the ability to stop a well-hit ball on the green just like the pros."

The entire push faded fast. Which should be an important reminder for the governing bodies this fall when issuing their distance report: golfers want to play a version of the game in line with the traditional golf as we know it. The majority value rules to protect a reward for skill.

Flogton failed because the founders were attempting to profit off the game and blow a hole in the rules for a buck. Golfers, or aspiring ones, were not attracted to a dumbed-down, Al Czervik-friendly version of the sport.

It’s heartening to know something so short-sighted was a failure. It’s even more heartening that just eight years later, the array of “solutions” praised at the time no longer seem welcome now that so many more realize the game’s issues have more to do with time and cost than with ease of play.

So where is McNealy’s in 2019?

When you want to read about flogton from the AltGolf.org site it has vanished.

I always more of a Hack Golf kind of guy....

It's always amusing when folks want to save a game that's endured for centuries into something that isn't a game that's endured for centuries...  Seems pretty basic, and yet we keep having this conversation.

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up on Monday.  

Midweek Musings, A Day Late But $13 To The Better

Thanks for being so understanding about this week's blogging hiatus...  I know it was a burden for you, but the bride's back issues curtailed my golf over the weekend.  Plus, Bobby D.'s money always spends so sweetly...  Of course, his daughter is getting married this weekend, so he won't mind a little trash talk.

The Skinny On The Skins - The Match™ seems to have died a quick and painful death, but now we have the reboot of The Skins Game, with a very curious catch by Shack:

Tiger Woods is playing another skins game with two big differences. This one is in Japan and will be broadcast live around the world by Discovery-owned GOLFTV. 

The exhibition is called "The Challenge: Japan Skins," and it will be played Oct. 21 leading into the PGA Tour's first official event in Japan. It features four of golf's biggest names from each of their continents -- Woods, Rory McIlroy of Europe, Jason Day of Australia and Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama. 

"This is our opportunity to think outside the box," said Alex Kaplan, president and general manager of Discovery Golf. "We'll put guys in different situations, and it will be a surprise to them what they are. There's going to be some fun tweaks these guys aren't used to." 

Woods played four times in the original Skins Game, which had become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition in the California desert until it began losing star power and was held for the last time in 2008, three years after Woods' final appearance. He never won in four tries.

Rebooting a tired old format is thinking outside the box?  Phil seems to be the guy with no chair when the music stopped, but will they play for, in his memorable phrasing, enough money to make them uncomfortable?  Well, that's the curious thing:

Players need to win a hole outright, or it carries over to the next hole. Total prize money is $350,000 -- $10,000 per skin for the opening six holes, $20,000 for the next six holes, $20,000 through the 17th hole and $100,000 for the 18th. There also will be charitable component.

OK, set aside that their carefully drafted press release is incoherent.... Is it $20,000 for Nos. 7 through 17, or was that second twenty grand supposed to be thirty?  Setting aside that final hole, do those numbers seem a tad paltry?  Yanno, by the standards of the day...

I get chided for my over-reliance on a certain fellow blogger, but he seems to be the only one that picked up on this:

In the original 1983 Skins Game, the dollar figures were: 

$10,000 is at stake on each of the first six holes, $20,000 on each of the next six and $30,000 on each of the last six.

His speculation, which sounds about right, is that the money all went into appearance fees.

And, in case you're thinking of watching, never mind:

Because the event will be shown on demand for free around the world -- fans in the U.K. and Ireland will be have to subscribe because of existing rights deals -- Discovery Golf determined that a 1 p.m. start at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club in Chiba would be the best fit. 

That means it will start at midnight Sunday in the eastern U.S. after the NFL is over, and 9 p.m. on the West Coast. It will start in the early morning of Europe. Australia is one hour ahead of Japan. 

"There's not a perfect time," Kaplan said. "You map out where the key markets are and what's possible on the course and do your best possible. It's where you drive the most viewership, and then you look at when the sun goes down. We could have started in the morning, but Japan and Asia are important markets for Discovery. We had to make sure we had it at a meaningful time. The lunch hour does that, particularly for streaming."

Asia is a big market, for sure, though apparently not big enough to support much of a purse.  And it seems more than a bit strange that Tiger couldn't work up any enthusiasm to play this summer, but is all-in on the Zozo nad this.

Solheim Leftovers -  Four days later and there's still a bit of a glow....  I just wish more had seen it.

Eamon Lynch makes an obvious point:

What the Ryder and Solheim Cups provide is that combustible mix of great golf, personality clashes, sportsmanship, gamesmanship and sometimes even sour grapes. 

Team golf almost never disappoints. But the absence of it does. 

In a little over 300 days, at the Summer Olympics in Japan, we’ll get 72 holes of men’s and women’s individual stroke play. The same thing we see every other week of the year. 

Golf would benefit enormously from seeing men and women compete together in a team event and the Olympics is a perfect stage for it.

With a field weaker than the Hero World Challenge....

I though Marina Alex played great down the stretch, and her after-action behavior was equally good:

 She's got game.  She's a local girl, playing out of North Jersey Country Club...

This guy was more impressed with the newest talking head than I, though it's not like I saw much of it:

The Forecaddie watched Michelle Wie’s Golf Channel studio debut figuring she’d gone through months of training and preparation. She spoke fluidly but never redundantly, appeared comfortable and offered engaging insights without ever forcing her views in the name of getting attention. 

Turns out, the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champion’s role analyzing the Solheim Cup alongside Golf Central veterans Cara Banks and Paige Mackenzie came together at the last minute. The Man Out Front hears it all started with Golf Channel’s player relations head, Courtney Holt. When Wie announced she was shutting down for the remainder of 2019 to rest her injured wrist, Holt informed the five-time Solheim Cup participant that there was a place for her in TV.

On screen, Wie sounded like a veteran of the medium. She delivered cogent thoughts as if she’d been in television for years. Yes, TMOF is well aware Wie got a degree from Stanford and has been doing television interviews since she was barely a teenager. Still, it’s a different task to sit under bright lights and deliver criticisms, as she did with artful precision Sunday in dissecting captain Juli Inkster’s decision to middle-load her lineup.

Well, the bar is set pretty low here, though I found the criticism vague and pro forma...

But this guy has other plans for The Big Wiesy:

Who should be the next U.S. Solheim captain and why? -@Amandagolf59 

I love Juli Inkster and she did a helluva job across three Cups but since she says she’s stepping down we’ll let her ride off into the sunset without a fuss. How about Michelle Wie as a successor? She’s clearly transitioning into a post-playing career. She was a strong Solheim Cup competitor and is close to many of the players on tour. Fair or not, the Solheim still needs to attract more eyeballs. We’ve seen how much buzz a Tiger Woods captaincy has brought to the Presidents Cup. Wie could move the needle, too, and think how much fun we could have with a Millennial in charge: everyone would get a participation trophy!

 But what is this Prez Cup buzz of which he speaks?  

The Solheim Cup was fantastic viewing. Congrats to both sides. Hard to ignore the fact that the bulk of the top-ranked players were missing. Would Asia dominate a Rest-of-the-World version of the Solheim Cup vs. either the USA or Europe? #AskAlan -@BCunningham0

 Yes.  next question.... Oh, did you want to hear Alan's take as well?

In the post-Se Ri Pak world, it’s harder and harder to keep Asia out of these conversations. For sure, that would be a powerhouse team. But Europe or the U.S. would still have a fighting chance. Through the years I’ve had a couple of Korean writers explain to me that match play is not part of the golf education or culture there. With most of the top women turning pro as teens, they don’t play college golf, either. So Team Europe or U.S. would have a big advantage dealing with the vagaries of match play, to say nothing of the accumulated institutional knowledge from decades of Solheim Cup preparation. Mike Whan should use the political capital from this spectacular Solheim to establish a Presidents Cup-style extravaganza that finally gives international players in general and Korean ones in particular the showcase they deserve.

Alan makes some interesting points, but c'mon, guy.... The Asians would pummel the Yanks, and that's before dealing with where Brooke Henderson and Maria Fassi would play.

Where does the Solheim Cup rank in major golf events of 2019? Certainly top 2 in my opinion, and there’s a real argument for it being #1 considering there was incredible suspense until the bitter end (whereas everyone knew Tiger had secured the jacket after his second on 17). -@JFleming2311 

Yeah, it’s a funny thing about this year’s majors: they were deeply impactful but the 72nd hole at each was rather tension-free. Brooks secured his place in the pantheon, Lowry’s win was utterly epic and Tiger’s triumph may be golf’s signature moment of this decade, but there was a lack of truly memorable shots during their final rounds, save Tiger’s tee ball at 16, which, sadly, is becoming commonplace to that pin position. The Solheim, meanwhile, was riveting, defined by gutsy shotmaking and then a bang-bang finish so dramatic my head was spinning. I felt nervous throughout the entire back nine of the Masters but no moment this year hit me harder than the denouement at the Solheim.

Ok, about a dozen category errors in both the question and answer.  But maybe it's better to step back and acknowledge that the Solheim Cup isn't a major golf event, and yet it thrilled and excited us.  Were one to think this though, one might conclude that format and the layers' intensity are key variables.... Oh, who am I kidding?  Nobody in any authority is thinking along those lines...  They're just trying to convince us that Olympic Golf is epic.

Again, no one seems to know their golf history:

Following Pettersen’s lead, what would make the greatest golf walk-offs considering all current golfers? -@ScottMichaux 

That’s easy: Phil returning to the scene of the crime, Winged Foot, and finally winning his U.S. Open, the same week he turns 50. Rory nabbing a green jacket and then calling it a career would also be epic and more analogous to Pettersen walking away while still young(ish) and healthy.

(Whispering oh so quietly) : Bobby Jones.

I didn't really get to deal with the slow-play issues from this event, so let's allow for some ranting on that subject, mostly as relates to four-ball play.  First, Beth Ann Nichols:

Slow play was a hot topic of conversation all day at the Solheim Cup, and when American Lizette Salas received a bad time on the 13th hole, it offered a glimmer of hope to the event’s brutal pace. 

According to the Golf Channel, Salas took 72 seconds to hit her second shot on the 13th hole. The new Rules of Golf recommend 40 seconds for each shot. 

Salas’ group was the first off at 12:40 p.m. local time. They took two hours and 57 minutes to play nine holes and were clocked at four hours and 21 minutes on the 14th.

Alistair Tait was not kind:

Pace of play at this Solheim Cup seemed to hit an all-time slow. Snails, turtles and tortoises move faster than some of these players, especially in the fourball matches. 

Yet only one player was given a bad time.

Well, I'm always amazed when anyone is timed, so we've got that going for us.  But, as this week's Tour Confidential panel makes clear, it's not quite that simple:

3. Slow play was a major talker all week, as groups were put on the clock and one player even received a bad time (yet no player ever received a DQ from a hole). Are you OK with team exhibitions like this being played at a slower pace, or is there more (or less?) reason for them to be policed like regular Tour events? 

Mikey Bams does his curmudgeonly purist thing... 

Bamberger: I think teams would play better by playing faster. These are players not accustomed to having a lot of chit-chat analysis from playing partners, and now suddenly they do. So, yes, play faster and enforce the rules exactly as they are written.

And does it well, yes?

But young punk Dylan Dethier has the more nuanced take:

Dethier: I was watching on Sunday and thinking how if there was something like a shot clock, it would take away from these crucial moments where players take time and tension builds, much like a closer gathering himself with the tying run on base late in a baseball game. Yeah, faster would be better, especially early on in the match. But I don’t mind the drawn-out drama later on. My position sounds difficult to legislate, though.

I would be curious to know the pace of play on Sunday in singles, because fourball is to me obviously problematic.  And add in tough conditions, especially swirling winds, and they're gonna be out there a while.  That's why it's critical that   ekeep JB Holmes off any future Ryder Cup teams, because your humble blogger's life expectancy is shorter than the time he would need for a fourball match.   

But this is precious:

Zak: I’m OK with four-balls taking longer (to an extent). There are inherent advantages in seeing your opponent’s result, so I understand it. Also, all that slow play came during whipping winds and tough conditions. I’m going to walk the line and remind us that it’s all relative.

Inherent advantages?  Is it really too much to expect the guys at Golf Magazine to know basic rules?  Because you know what can really slow down a game?  Yeah, having to replay all of your good shots.  Just ask Annika....

Is Brooks The One? - Rory is relieved to finally have a rival worthy of him, as recounted in a recent podcast:

“Brooks has been undoubtedly the best player in the world for the last couple years. I’ve

been lucky that my career and my consistency level has been good for the last 10,” McIlroy said. “I feel like they’ve tried to create a rivalry between myself and Tiger, myself and Jordan (Spieth), myself and Dustin (Johnson), myself and Brooks, myself and Jason Day. 

“It’s nice there’s a common denominator and it’s usually me, which means that I’m doing something right.” 

McIlroy admits he tried to conjure up a rivalry mentality with Koepka during the Tour Championship at East Lake, “because he dusted me in Memphis” at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude. Paired in the final group with Koepka in Memphis, McIlroy held a one-shot lead entering the final round but shot a 71 on Sunday. Koepka shot a bogey-free 65 and won by three shots. McIlroy finished five back.

This from a guy that hasn't contended in a major since 2014?  He's the guy that's been MIA from the rivalry discussions the last six years.  It was a nice win for him at East Lake, especially with Brooks along for the ride.  But this is a guy that gets dusted by Jeff Knox, so I'm not sure that Brooks thinks you're his biggest challenger because, why would he?

Ashkay Time - On Monday we gave props to Alex Myers for tagging Joaquin Niemann as one of his elev sleepers for 2019-20.  he also included this guy, though halfheartedly:

Akshay Bhatia

He’s definitely the youngest player on this list, and he probably won’t earn any PGA Tour status this season, but … just in case … we don’t want to be late to the party when

it comes to predicting big things for this 17-year-old phenom who is turning pro this month. The clear-cut top-ranked junior golfer in the country, Bhatia became the youngest player ever to earn a spot on the U.S. Walker Cup team. He begins the 2019-’20 season with no status on any professional tour, but the lanky lefty should get his full allotment of sponsor’s exemptions. Hopefully, he has his driver’s license as he begins life on the road.

Awfully young.... but now also awfully rich, as he makes his professional debut this week:

The end of one era and the beginning of another continues for Akshay Bhatia, who announced on Tuesday that he has signed an endorsement deal with Callaway.

Two weeks ago, Bhatia was the first golfer still in high school to compete for the United States in Walker Cup, scoring two points for the Americans in their victory over Great Britain & Ireland at Royal Liverpool.

Smart of Cally I suppose to lock him up early, but what's the track record with such early starts?  Mixed, at best:

Ty Tryon

He made the cut at the 2001 Honda Classic at 16; later that season, Tryon became the youngest player (17) to earn a tour card through Q School. That, coupled with an enormous sponsorship deal with Callaway, amplified the Tryon hype to deafening levels. A battle with mononucleosis derailed his rookie season, and he made just four cuts in 21 starts playing on a medical exemption the following season. He qualified for the 2010 and 2011 U.S. Opens, but hasn’t made a regular PGA Tour start since 2003.

Ryo Ishikawa

Ishikawa won a Japan Golf Tour event at 15, and by 17—following four more Japan victories—was the youngest golfer ever to reach the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings. Although he played in three majors in 2009, he was introduced to the world in 2010 when he was T-2 after 36 holes at the U.S. Open. Ishikawa would finish T-33 that weekend at Pebble Beach, and though he would make 145 starts on tour, he never found sustained success in America. However, he has enjoyed a career rejuvenation in Japan the past two months, with two wins and two additional top-six finishes, vaulting him to No. 109 in the OWGR.

You've got Rory and JR in that mix, as well, though the latter spent many years in the wilderness before figuring it all out.

Back to Alan's mailbag for a tangentially-related question:

#AskAlan We’re hearing a lot of “sure thing” and “can’t miss” labels being placed on young players right now (Wolff, Hovland, Niemann, Morikawa). Add this to still-young Bryson, Xander, JT and Jordan. Is there really room for them all to be superstars? -@linksplayers 

I think we’re going to have to downgrade our definition of a superstar because, as you point out, the depth of young talent is nuts. (Jon Rahm didn’t even rate a mention in the question!) And that’s to say nothing of the insanely talented, slightly older generation of Brooks, Rory, DJ, Woodland, P-Reed and Cantlay, plus still dangerous (relative) old-timers like Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari and Paul Casey. Five wins used to be the unofficial definition of a monster year, but as we saw in 2019, three victories was good enough to be POY. It’s never been harder to win on Tour than right now so we’re going to have to remember that when we’re handing out superstar honorifics.

Whatever became of that Jon Rahm guy?  It is quite the impressive gaggle of young talent, but I'm old enough to remember the Class of 2011.

An Ode To Max - Max Homa is reputed to be the best "Follows" in golf, which is likely Greek to my readership.  It refers to this social media thingee, and I'll just copy-and-past a small selection:

Not bad...And on the subject of caddies:

 Heh.  He's good at this self-deprecating thing:

He even does TMI well....

Who wouldn't, but you gotta love a guy that admits it.

Click through for hos engaging profile of himself....  he's a gem, just hope he gest himself into the scrum at the top.

See you tomorrow.