Bonus Weekend Content

It's been a good stretch here in the Wasatch.  The snowfall totals haven't been gaudy, 13" in the last three days, but it has accumulated nicely.  Yesterday on a trail called Illusion we found ourselves waist deep in the stuff....  Good times.

Since I devoted yesterday to Pete Dye, shall we catch up on other, excuse me, udder stuff?

Sony Stuff - Hard to get especially worked up over it, but there is actual PGA Tour golf being played this week:

Brendan Steele and Cameron Davis share the lead 

After firing rounds of 68-66 on Thursday and Friday (six under par overall), both

Brendan Steele and Cameron Davis are tied atop the leaderboard, with a one-shot advantage over eight other players who are tied for third at five under par overall. 

Steele carded six birdies, an eagle, two bogeys and a double in an eventful round. The 36-year-old is seeking his fourth career win, and first since the 2018 Safeway Open.

Davis’ round was much steadier than Steele’s, and included five birdies and only one bogey. The 24-year-old Australian has never won on the PGA Tour.

Jessica Marksbury quickly realizes the magnetism of those two leaders and attempts to retain the audience:

What happened to Collin Morikawa? 

First-round leader Collin Morikawa is still very much in the hunt. After firing a second round of even-par 70 to follow up his first-round 65, he’s only one shot behind the leaders. On Thursday, Morikawa’s stellar round was especially notable because he was the only player in the field to go bogey-free. Unfortunately, Friday’s round was a different story, and he suffered three.

Concerned that even young gun Morikawa isn't sufficient click-bait, Jessica throws her Hail Mary:

Who are some notables in the hunt? 

Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson made serious moves on Friday, jumping 13 and 34 spots up the leaderboard, respectively.

OK, that's the loosest possible definition of "notables"....

But alas, the real notables will not be with us over the weekend:

Did any big names miss the cut? 

In a word, yes. 

In a surprising turn of events, last week’s playoff contenders at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed, will be bidding Oahu an early aloha after finding themselves on the wrong side of the cutline. Both players ended up at three over par overall — two shots shy of making the weekend. 

Matt Kuchar, too, will be heading home after missing the cut by one shot at two over par overall.

Fortunately we have playoff football games to amuse and entertain.

On Patrick -  Really folks, he's not all that consequential...  Obviously I'm milking it to its fullest extent, because it's what I do.  In fact I'm considering replacing that Random Musings tagline with Golfers Behaving Badly.  

At Golf.com, Tim Reilly wants PReed to embrace his inner bad boy, framing his argument using, of all things, professional wrestling:

In wrestling terminology, a “heel” is a villain. Characters often turn from good guy to bad guy for storyline purposes. No one did that better than Hulk Hogan when he famously went from America’s hero to one of the greatest villains in history by revealing himself to be the secret leader of the New World Order (NWO), the most despised group in wrestling at the time.

There are parallels you can draw between Reed and Hogan’s characters.

Immense early success and over-the-top patriotism at the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup helped Reed earn the nickname “Captain America.” Reed was beloved by U.S. fans for his brash antics and fearless approach toward match-play competitors and opposing countries’ fans. “Hulkamania” was running wild in the ’80s and early ‘90s when Hogan would defy odds and complete epic comebacks against giants and opponents who stood strongly against American values. Hogan was as synonymous with America as apple pie and baseball. Reed had his finger wave, Hogan had his power point. 

But after a turmoil-filled 2018 Ryder Cup, a bunker controversy in the Bahamas and more drama at the 2019 Presidents Cup, Reed has fallen out of favor with some fans. Just as they turned on Hogan, cheers are now boos and hecklers are waiting at every turn. To be fair, Reed brought most of this upon himself. But perhaps it’s time to envision a new version of Reed — one that embraces the hate. If you don’t like what’s being said, then change the conversation.

OK, so you're encouraging Patrick to act the "heel".  Well, I've got good news, he seems to be taking your advice....  But, Hulk analogies aside, the problem is we're talking about the Pillsbury Doughboy:

Good luck with that....

But wait, Tim, I have even more good news for you:

Patrick Reed doesn’t only have his caddie wading in to defend his badly battered

reputation — he’s sending in his lawyer too. Golfweek has exclusively obtained a cease and desist letter Reed had his attorney send to Brandel Chamblee demanding the Golf Channel analyst not repeat accusations that the former Masters champion cheated at the Hero World Challenge last month. 

Chamblee has been a vocal critic of Reed’s hugely controversial actions at the Hero, where video showed him twice scooping sand from behind his ball on practice swings in a bunker, thereby improving his lie. Reed was penalized two strokes by rules officials but denied deliberately cheating, a brush-off that did little to alter the widespread belief that he did just that. 

“The purpose of this letter is to obtain assurance that you will refrain from any further dissemination, publication or republication of false and defamatory statements concerning Mr. Reed, including any allegations that he ‘cheated’ at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas,” wrote Peter Ginsberg, a partner at the New York City law firm of Sullivan & Worcester.

What comes after a******e?   Because that term is clearly insufficient for the underlying behavior.  

But I thought that first sentence was telling, because those defending the man are those being paid to do so...

Of course my first question was to the timing of the lawyer's letter:

The letter was dated and received by Chamblee on Dec. 13. It was sent on day two of the Presidents Cup, by which point Reed was already 0-for-2 and embroiled in a maelstrom of controversy over his conduct in the Bahamas a week earlier. Perhaps the man once known as Captain America was distracted by legal bluster 10,000 miles away.

How is it that we're only finding out about this now?  I'm guessing those Aussie fans might have had an amusing reaction to this news as well.

But it gets better even than that, as reed seems to have found just the right mouthpiece:

Ginsberg, who previously represented Ray Rice and has sued the PGA Tour on behalf of Vijay Singh and Hank Haney, confirmed to Golfweek that he represents Reed and sent the letter.

Was Michael Avenatti not available?

Alan Shipnuck has a new mailbag up, and has one query on this subject:

How long will people be yelling “cheater” in Reed’s backswing? And is there anything he can do (short of having his brother-in-law fight every heckler) to make it stop? #AskAlan -@EthanZimman 

Alas, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Reed’s ridiculous shoveling antics at the Presidents Cup showed every would-be yahoo that they can get under his skin, so I expect there will be a lot more heckling until it gets so tedious and redundant everyone moves on to the next thing. (Paging Sergio…) Clearly the Tour needs to have an increased presence in Reed’s galleries — not the fuzz, but at least some roving uniformed marshals to serve as a visual deterrent and who have the power to toss the most obnoxious bros. I really don’t think Reed himself can do much at this point. Winning is not going to make things better; all the bad juju has only intensified after his Masters triumph. He’s done the warm-and-fuzzy appearance on Feherty but that didn’t change anything, except to make us question his taste in home furnishings. Reed unrepentantly is who he is, and golf fans are not likely to buy any amount of P.R. spin. So, to quote one of our great philosophers, it is what it is.

We'll get to the Tour's role in a bit, but the real issue becomes those playing with Reed, otherwise I could care less.  

Amazingly ESPN, which has other sports to focus on, convenes a round table on these weighty issues:

1. Is "cheater" too strong a word here?

Bob Harig: Yes. Because we really do not know intent. It is impossible to be sure what was in Reed's mind when he did what he did. Obviously, it looks bad. All should agree

on that. But did he deliberately break a rule? While some might think so, he offered a defense that his ball was farther away from that clump of sand than replays indicated. To many, that is not a suitable answer, but it is hard to know for sure. 

Michael Collins: Whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me?" Yes, the word "cheater" is extremely harsh, but getting a lawyer involved? I would not have used the word "cheater." If you believe Patrick Reed was intentionally trying to break the rules, then you can call him a liar. But if you don't know with 100 percent certainty what his true intentions were, then you cannot call him a cheater. 

Ian O'Connor: I personally would not call him a cheater. I think it's too strong. But in a legal context, I don't think Reed has a legitimate claim of defamation here. As a public figure, if he ever went ahead and filed a claim, Reed would have to prove not only that Chamblee was wrong when he said it but also that Chamblee knew he was wrong when he said it. And it's hard to look at that tape and say Chamblee knew he was wrong when he publicly stated his belief about Reed. 

Nick Pietruszkiewicz: That word makes me queasy. There is no more offensive word in golf -- well, maybe "shank," but let's not go there -- than "cheater." Is it hard to defend Reed? Absolutely. What happened in the Bahamas was bad and pretty much indefensible, even though he tried with a lame excuse about camera angles. The big problem here is reputation. Reed doesn't have a good one. His history is bad. His antics haven't helped. And that's why this incident in the sand in the Bahamas is sticking to him perhaps more than it would stick if this had been a one-time thing that happened to another player.

I thought so, at least until I heard about Mr. Ginzburg's letter....  That requires us to use the C-word extensively.... 

2. What, if anything, can Reed do to make this all go away at this point? 

Harig: It might be too late. I have said all along that his answer in the aftermath hurt him. He realized that a penalty was coming and that his explanation for space between the ball and the sand could not be verified. His best course of action was to say, "I understand it looks bad; I did not mean to break a rule, but I did. I'm sorry. I accept the penalty.'' And then move on. Obviously it has not played out anywhere near that. 

Collins: This will never go away. Unfortunately, the perceptions of Patrick on the PGA Tour and in golf were never great to begin with. This ensures a continuous flow of fuel for people who despise him. Of course, in today's society, Reed could do a funny video a year from now that would make everyone forget. 

O'Connor: I think Reed needs to follow the Tom Brady model. How did Brady respond after the 2014 regular season when his integrity and authenticity were questioned during Deflategate? He won his fourth Super Bowl ring and his first since he had won his third in four years in 2004, launching an entirely new Patriots dynasty. Reed should go win his second Masters title, fairly and squarely, or the U.S. Open. And then stare defiantly into the crowd with a look that says, "You really think I need to cheat to beat these guys?" 

Pietruszkiewicz: Nothing. This is going to follow him pretty much everywhere he goes this year -- and perhaps beyond. Given he is such a lightning rod, one incident would have stuck to him, but now we've had the "cheating" question in the Bahamas, a Presidents Cup in which he brought more attention to the "cheating" question, and an altercation between his caddie and a fan, and now his lawyer going after a media member. That's just too much to forget about. And, let's be honest, fans at golf tournaments are already rowdy, thanks to all that sunshine and available adult beverages. So, no, this isn't going to go away.

He can stop being Patrick Reed.  Admittedly, wishful thinking...

3. The PGA Tour didn't come out forcefully when the incident happened in the Bahamas. Is the Tour partly to blame for all this?

Harig: Absolutely. Surely PGA Tour rules officials look at that incident and see what we all see, that at the very least it looks horrible for Reed. Some sort of public rebuke suggesting that Reed should know better, that he's been penalized and warned, would have done a lot of good. There is a perception out there that the tour is trying to sweep this away with the sand and hope it goes away. That has not worked. And there is some high-profile precedent on the European Tour, where action was taken after the fact -- see Colin Montgomerie in Jakarta as just one example -- for violations that were not penalized in the moment. 

Collins: What was the tour supposed to do? I specifically asked the head rules official if intent mattered. His response was that intent had no bearing on this penalty. Which means even if Patrick Reed was trying to intentionally break the rules, he could only take a 2-stroke penalty. Those are the rules, like it or not. 

O'Connor: Everyone knows professional golf is something of a joke when it comes to disciplining players. The other sports seem to understand that suspending players and publicly shaming them for misbehavior act as effective deterrents, while the tour forever hides behind the notion that its athletes are better off policing themselves. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan missed an opportunity here to make a forceful statement about Reed and to scare off anyone else who might be so reckless with the rules. 

Pietruszkiewicz: The tour made this worse. Instead of coming down on Reed, chastising him publicly, reminding the public and the players how serious it is to even allow the possibility of cheating to enter a conversation, it didn't. Without a reprimand, all it did was embolden Reed to keep the controversy alive -- by making a shovel gesture during the Presidents Cup to mock the incident -- and to allow his lawyer to keep it alive by going after Chamblee.

OK, there's a lot going on there...  I take a back seat to no one in my criticism of the Tour's opaque disciplinary policies.  You've read my rants on that subject previously, and no one would be happier than I should Patrick experience an unfortunate jet-ski accident.

That said, I fail to see what the Tour could have done here, at least about the incident at Albany.  The penalty was proportionate and, while I hated Slugger White's unnecessary and irrelevant enconium, that's a minor matter.  The Tour can't and shouldn't prevent players from beclowning themselves in their public statement, we're left with a minor incident that in normal year probably plays itself out quickly.  Really, without the Prez Cup the following week, it's just Patrick being Patrick.

But riddle me this, Batman.  How is Kessler Karain out there plying his trade after putting his hands on a fan in Australia?  Is nothing beyond the pale?  He should be serving a lengthy suspension, and that's on you, Jay.

4. Will all this attention impact his game -- for better or worse? 

Harig: It might be uncomfortable, but Reed seems to thrive on this sort of negativity. He managed to put it aside during Sunday singles at the Presidents Cup. He had a great tournament in Maui last week. He'll be asked about it, deflect it and move on.

Collins: We are talking about golf now, aren't we? And it's the weekend of the College Football Playoff title game and NFL playoffs! Normally golf talk doesn't make news or sports headlines until The Players. Didn't someone once say there's no such thing as bad press? 

O'Connor: An old and trusted source once told me this about a wildly successful college basketball coach who kept getting in trouble with the NCAA: "He thrives on chaos." To me, Patrick Reed thrives on chaos. It's why he beat Rory in that wild MMA fight of a Ryder Cup match at Hazeltine in 2016. I think the negativity will continue to fuel him in a positive way. 

Pietruszkiewicz: Not one bit. If Reed has proved anything, it's that he doesn't care about not being liked. (If he did, maybe this stuff wouldn't keep happening.) He won the Masters when the patrons were clearly behind Rory McIlroy. After the mess on the second-to-last day of the Presidents Cup, he went out the next day and won his singles match -- which, by the way, was his only point of the week. In his first event after that, he got himself into a playoff at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. And as the letter from the lawyer became public on Thursday, he shot 69 in brutal wind at the Sony Open to put himself into a tie for 16th after the first round. None of this stuff bothers him.

Patrick chooses to have no contact with the woman that carried him for nine months, so this is the organizing principal of his life.  So, concern for how it will affect his game seems inappropriate.  Table for one and all.

5. What will Reed's 2020 season actually look like? Will he win? Will he win a major?

Harig: I expect him to have a good year. He's motivated to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team on his own, without needing a pick. After a substandard 2019, he won late in the year, had a solid fall and now has lost in a playoff. I expect him to contend often and win at least once.

Collins: It's pretty obvious that, if the letter was sent the week of the Presidents Cup, it didn't affect his on-course individual play very much. I don't expect Patrick Reed to win a major, but I truly and fully believe that he will win at least two tournaments in 2020.

O'Connor: I definitely see Reed winning, and perhaps winning a major, based on what I said above. His me-against-the-world mentality might be the most dangerous club in his bag. In the end, Reed is good for golf because golf needs a villainous figure. He's Gorgeous George blowing kisses to the crowd. But to stay relevant, he needs to win. I definitely see Mr. Reed staying relevant in 2020. 

Pietruszkiewicz: He'll have a good year. And Bob's right, qualifying for the Ryder Cup will be a big motivation because it's hard to imagine any scenario in which Steve Stricker, the U.S. captain, would put him on this team unless Reed qualified on his own. Seriously, after all this, would you make Reed a captain's pick and invite this chaos if you had a choice? As for the majors, the interesting one will be the U.S. Open. The Masters is respectful. So is The Open. The PGA is at Harding Park in San Francisco, not necessarily a place known for loud and unruly fans. But the U.S. Open is at Winged Foot in New York. Those fans can get loud. And the conditions for that one promise to be treacherous, with the USGA likely out for revenge after Pebble Beach played rather tame a year ago. That's one where things could get dicey for Reed and caddie Kessler Karain. But, no, I don't think he'll win a major this year, but it has more to do with the depth of these fields than reaction to these incidents.

I have mixed feelings about his actual game, his driving being the Achilles heel.  But he'll probably thrive with the world aligned against, so the fun will await the Ryder Cup.

I'd love someone probe that American Prez Cup team for their genuine reactions to the man, most notable the captain.  One assumes that captain's picks would be an issue, but we all said that after Paris.  Perhaps if he qualifies automatically, Stricker can sit him until singles because no one wants to play with him?  Can you sit at a table for one in the team room?  I know, more of that wishful thinking...

Alan, Unplugged - We do love our non-aerobic blogging....

Thoughts on expanding the “Sentry Tournament of Champions” to include winners from the PGA and European Tour? #AskAlan -@GoranBarnes 

We already have a series of limited-field events marrying the top players from PGA Tour and European Tour — the WGCs. We don’t need another. Like most of you, I would love to see a mixed event combining the PGA Tour and LPGA, but it needs to have a much larger field than what we get for the T o’ C. I happen to like the concept of Kapalua — it’s the ultimate reward for winning and a lovely way to kick off the new year. I just wish more top players would support it. Le sigh.

Since all of the top Euros are PGA Tour members as well, there's little sense to the question.  As for inviting the ladies, heads will explode when it comes out that the ladies are paid less.  I know, the patriarchy and all... How about we just get the course running firmandfast.....  Oh, and how about we fix the schedule, so that this really is the start of the season?

JT, 5’9 145 lbs…Xander, 5’9, 150….Reed 5’9 215 lbs. Somebody told me that athletes were “taking over golf.” Was I lied to? -@Laz_versalles 

Not exactly. Guys that size used to be the archetype on Tour, and now there are big boys like Koepka, Rahm, DJ, Tiger, Woodland, Bryson and Finau all in the top 16 of the World Ranking. Matt Wolff was a standout baseball player who picked golf; there are other jocks like him in the pipeline. As these guys use the long-ball to enjoy long, profitable careers and help subtlely reshape the image of the sport, other such ath-o-letes will continue to be attracted to golf, making the typical Tour player bigger/stronger. Both JT and Xander spend a lot of time in the gym, increasing their strength and flexibility and allowing them to generate a ridiculous amount of speed despite their petite frames. It’s cool that in golf there is still room for anyone if they have the right skill-set. The difference is that almost all of these athletes are now maxing out their physical gifts with the help of trainers, nutritionists and osteopaths, to say nothing of TrackMan and custom club-fitters. I would argue Justin Thomas is an incredible athlete, even if he doesn’t quite look like it.

Tiger isn't much bigger... 

I guess I could have included this one up above with the other black hole items:

In astrophysics, the event horizon of a black hole is the boundary within which the black hole’s escape velocity is greater than the speed of light, meaning no escape. What is the p.r. event horizon for a PGA Tour pro, where the behavior is so boorish that there is no coming back? -@ANTIFAldo 

Well, Thorbjorn Olesen may serve as a test case, but since he previously came off as a likable character I suspect Thunder Bear will survive his scandal if he displays the proper amount of contrition. I mean, Tiger Woods has enjoyed many of the seven deadly sins and he’s more beloved now than ever before. In golf, cheating was the original sin that could forever taint a player. But that seems to be changing; look at how the lords of Ponte Vedra Beach whitewashed Reed’s antics (“perfect gentleman”). If the Tour were to start handing out suspensions for flagrantly breaking the rules — as happens in other sports — that would powerfully affect how those players are perceived. But many known rules-breakers still walk among us, so it feels like the stigma is not what it used to be, despite the mob justice currently being visited upon Reed.

Has anyone seen Robert Allenby lately?

Isn't it amazing how little we've heard about the Olesen case?  I assume it was really bad, but we've gotten very few details about his actual behavior on that flight.  But it seems that Alan was equally put off by Slugger's comments.

What needs to change for there to be more variety in Tour courses? Kapalua and Waialae are so refreshing. -@Kyechsports 

Geoff Ogilvy needs to become the CEO of FedEx. And Bill Coore needs to become commissioner of the PGA Tour. Right now, the shot-callers are satisfied with the product, even as the style of play has become increasingly redundant and uninspiring. It will take an entirely different sensibility to force the Tour to seek out more interesting venues. For now, at least we have the Walker Cup, Mid-Am and select other events that are ranging further afield.

They do hit some good venues, but the bigger problem is how such venues need to be set up.   

What is the topic or event that you are most looking forward to this year? #AskAlan -@_Qonquistador 

Oh, that’s easy: golf at the Tokyo Games.

Such a horrible misfire.  I know it's well intended, but it's really off-base.  The funny thing is that the Olympics itself has lost most of its interest since the end of the cold war.  But Olympic Golf, with tired format and strength of field below that of the Hero?  I'm almost hoping for Tiger to fail to qualify, just to wake Alan up to how inconsequential it all is.

#AskAlan Why do pro tours have Monday qualifiers for many events? Is it just tradition or do they serve some function that escapes me? Why not just make the spots available to players further down the priority list? -@PopsAndSunshine 

It’s partly driven by tradition — before the all-exempt Tour came to be decades ago, the so-called rabbits had to qualify more or less every week. So Monday Qualifying is the last vestige of this meritocracy. There is undeniably some romance in allowing a few folks to play their way in every week, whether it’s the local hot-shot or a grizzled vet just trying to hang on. There are already 120-140 spots taken by the priority list at every event, so I don’t see the harm in allowing a handful of players to barge in through the side door.

Nor do I, especially since they pony up a meaningful amount and they get in by using their sticks.

#AskAlan How do we fix the Middle East stops taking away the star studded fields that made Kapalua so fun? So far Amex has announced 5 top 50 commits vs. 14 for Abu Dhabi. It seems to get worse each year. Three top Americans in Abu Dhabi, at least six in Saudi Arabia, etc. -@Brianros1 

There are only two options: the PGA Tour has to become more protectionist and exert some control over its members’ schedules, or there needs to be more coordination between the tours when it comes to dates. The second option would be much simpler to enact. The only Euro Tour events paying enough in appearance fees to attract top Americans are the Middle East events. Why can’t these be scheduled for December when the PGA Tour is in hibernation? Or perhaps the Tour could have a bye week each January, and the various Mid East events could take turns being plugged into that date. This seems fixable but maybe I’m just a dreamer.

Good luck with that, Alan.  Without the ME the Euro Tour couldn't kick off until April or May, and that's obviously a non-starter.  I would argue that the issue is with the US events, as the event formerly known as the Hope has become a minitour stop.

I'll leave you there, and see you on Monday.  Unless, of course, it's a powder day. 

Pete Dye, R.I.P.

We've known it was coming, especially since the loss of his beloved Alice. 

I loved the man, excepting those times when I loathed him...  It was very much a package deal.  I'l acknowledge other strong contenders such as Jack-Barbara, Arnie-Winnie and, heck, even Ben-Valerie, but to me Pete and Alice were the best marriage in golf.  They truly worked and played together, and Pete was always happy to cede Alice the spotlight.

Additionally, while Pete might seem an odd fit among today's minimalist architects, the majority of them earned their spurs working for Pete.  You'll know the names, one of which, Ron Whitten, pens this loving tribute:

Pete Dye, the man who reinvented golf course design, is gone, succumbing to that bastard Father Time at age 94. He was a legend, a Hall of Famer, a showman and a friend. He built over one hundred golf courses, but his real legacy is how those courses impacted the game and millions who play it. 

Before Pete, golf architects mass-produced their products. Assembly lines of bulldozers stretched from coast to coast and chugged out facsimiles of the latest fashions. Some would eventually be deemed top-flight tests of golf, but all bore trademarks of one another. 

Pete was a disruptor 50 years before that became a corporate buzzword. We called his style of design “target golf,” for it embraced abrupt change in its landforms, its sink-or-swim choices, its death-or-glory options, its my-way-or-the-highway reasoning. 

Pete Dye instilled emotion into a previously staid game. That was an inevitable byproduct of his formative years. He was a teenage paratrooper during the last years of World War II, so he wanted golfers to feel the same sweaty palms and pit in the stomach as they faced their personal moments of truth, off a tee or into a green. He sold life insurance for a living, so he made golfers risk everything for a decent return.

Ron tries to explain Pete's MO:

Pete played golf with Donald Ross and Donald Trump and mined nuggets of knowledge from them both. He was a reactionary when golf was especially conservative. Pete threw a monkey wrench into every golfer’s swing. Where other architects strove to make golfers contemplate options before they faced a shot, Pete made golfers doubt; doubt their own eyes, their own capabilities, their own passion for the game. He did so with invention, deception and railroad ties. He found inspiration from Popular Mechanics, Model Railroader and an army manual.

He was a master at visual confusion, though many will consider it visual intimidation.  But so much of it defies explanation, such as this:

Pete wanted those who constructed his courses to be absolutely devoid of any knowledge about golf, lest they shaped holes that would look and play like everything else on the block. Dig me a swimming pool, he’d tell a crew when he wanted a bunker. Build me a giant birthday cake, he’d say when he wanted an elevated green. Occasionally, he’d wander off and the crew would be left to their own devices. A green famously created from dune buggy races in the sand was one result.

You'll want to read the whole thing.  Shack has aggregated many reactions to the loss, including this from his Pravda obituary:

Rarely using a set of grading plans for construction, relying instead on his instincts as he laid out a course, walking it in khakis and work boots or sitting atop a tractor, Mr. Dye emphasized strategy over raw power. 

“I think of Pete like Picasso, somebody that has created a nontraditional design, whether it’s a painting, a sculpture or a golf course,” the prominent course designer Arthur Hills was quoted by ESPN as saying. “He was so innovative in a profession that is very traditional.”

Let me circle back and interject this from the prior Ron Whitten tribute:

Pete never called himself a golf course architect because that implied education and technical training that he did not possess. He didn’t even like calling himself a golf course designer, for he lacked artistic talent and his sketches of golf holes looked like stick figures. Pete called himself a golf course builder, a guy who messed around in the dirt until he’d come up with something different than anyone had played before. He worked by trial and error, a very ineffective manner if you’re footing the bill, but acceptable if you’re looking for true art. It was particularly inefficient when Pete would rip up a fully grassed and playable golf hole because he just had another brainstorm.

Someone, probably Mr. Kohler, noted that they gave Pete an unlimited budget, and he exceeded it...

Most folks associate Pete with artificial features, railroad ties and island greens.  In fact, Pete has a wonderful quote about how he's always associated with island greens, whereas he's only built the two, that Google refuses to find for me.  Many will be surprised to find that he became something of a purist:

The turning point in their career came in 1963, after Mr. Dye competed in the British amateur championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. Pete and Alice toured more than 30 courses in Scotland and England, and they photographed them as they played. 

As Mr. Dye recalled in his memoir: “My new understanding of the use of small greens, wide fairways, the impression that ground-level greens were elevated, contrasting grass mixes, severe undulations in the fairways, pot bunkers, railroad ties, blind holes and the inclusion of gorse-like vegetation to frame holes would affect all our future designs.”

I'll admit it's hard to find the links influence in this hole.

 And this from Ran Morrissett, which hints at the architectural linneage:

Dye famously remarked that he didn’t need to produce plans because he would be on site every day. That practical, hands-on approach spoke to his Midwestern roots. It also made an impact on people who worked for him, including Bill Coore and Tom Doak. Those two headline the Dye Tree of architecture, and their firms have gone on to produce more World Top 100 courses as selected by GOLF Magazine than any other architects over the past 25 years. Other notable designers who are quick to acknowledge Dye’s influence include Rod Whitman, Tim Liddy, Brian Curley, Lee Schmidt and Bobby Weed. The list goes on.

There's also that Nicklaus guy, though perhaps we might have asked Pete whether he wants that on his conscience. 

Geoff posted Jack's lovely Instagram tribute, including these wonderful photos:

Of course, the ugly plaid sports jackets come from the Harbor Town event, which was allegedly a Nicklaus-Dye collaboration.  

In the immediate aftermath of the sad news, Geoff took to his keyboard to try to explain the importance of Pete.  I'm guessing that he won't mind me quoting him in full:

Pete Dye will be remembered in so many ways that it’s hard to pinpoint where golf would be had he not come along.

The ace golfer turned-insurance salesman turned-restless artist forever changed the sport with his extreme links-inspired features and hybrid of strategic and penal elements, all delivered with a dry, Midwest-rooted wit to squelch the haters.

Tributes will flow over the coming days from the many architects he brought into the business. Flags will be lowered at the venues where his legacy is so profound every day they are open for play. And we will hear tributes from the tours whose tournaments have been forever made more compelling thanks to Dye re-imagining how a “championship” venue should play. 

While his work has aged in both beautiful and bizarre ways, Dye’s design legacy will never be rooted in one particular course. This, even as the impact of TPC Sawgrass and “Stadium golf” alone made him World Golf Hall of Fame worthy. Instead, the real genius of his work is almost overwhelming to contemplate. Dye put a stop to the runaway craze of 1950’s runway banality built to punish and all with so little character. This, after playing the great links of Scotland and Ireland and giving up his career to pursue better ways to design a course. And his brilliance was not merely in copying a few features or bringing back “template” holes when he returned. Dye expanded on what he saw overseas, pushing the art of course design places well beyond anything seen before. 

Sure, some of it didn’t work, some of his designs were excessive and he had to remedy problems that surfaced on the tournament stage. But like any of the great anarchists and outliers, that Pete Dye could jam railroad ties against lake walls, force offensive blind shots from the middle of the fairway and get away with building other unmaintainable features, spoke to his artistic eye. Pete Dye courses inspired golfers to test their skills against him even when they knew he’d get the best of them.

Pete Dye broke the cardinal rule of timeless design by making about himself instead of a battle against nature. Yet he got away with the outlandishness. It was that wink of his eye and self-deprecating manner which, when combined with oddball touches—like the noose hanging from a dead tree that he left behind from the construction process—that made Dye lovable even as his designs violated most of the time-honored traditions of the great works. Alice’s editing, questions and golf savvy also should never be underestimated in making Pete what he was.

Pete Dye’s hands-on approach to construction also began a renaissance in the building of courses, His attention to detail and willingness to shape features approach took longer-than hoped to break the model of contractor-built, assembly-line golf courses that appeared stamped on the landscape by a blueprint. Eventually, however, his disciples have returned elite golf architectural creation to the field and away from the office.

And it is those Dye-inspired legacy of acolytes that have taken his lead in a renaissance of links golf, an emphasis on fun, and rekindling elements of design whimsy to offset the sport’s cruelty. Even the restoration movement responsible for rejuvenating so many classics, can almost entirely be tied to the awareness Pete Dye brought to the works of those who came before him. At heart, he was a traditionalist who played up his simpleton Midwest roots, but deep down inside there was a rebel, a nutty genius and imagination like no other. I hate to think what the game would look like had Pete Dye decided selling insurance was not for him. Thankfully, we don’t have to.

Anarchist?  OK, I wouldn't dream of going that far, but one can see where it kind of fits.

I've long thought there was good Pete and bad Pete.  The good Pete, and Harbor Town tops my list, is indeed very good.   

Even Sawgrass, which I so wanted to dismiss out of hand, is far more playable and enjoyable than one can ever imagine.  I'm undecided as to whether his lasting legacy should be as the nicest guy in the game or than Coore, Doak bloodline.  Or, you know, all those great courses.  best of all, he's with his beloved Alice.

R.I.P.

Thursday Threads

Not only is the coffee slow to take effect, but there isn't much to gnaw on this morning.  Not the worst thing in the world, given that we're in the early stages of a storm cycle.

Want an example of the paucity of content?  This is one of the lead stories at Golf.com:

Kevin Tway signs multi-year equipment deal with Wilson Golf

Wow, I didn't see that one coming...  Of course, it does trigger the existential question of whether it's Mr. Tway or Wilson Golf that's the less relevant.

Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Consumer Reports For Golf - I've not previously heard of the man, but ESPN's Tom VanHaaren files an interesting and well-deserved paean to MyGolfSpy.com, the little website that could:

While that isn't to say any company has intentionally deceived its consumers, the uniqueness of the industry has allowed for claims that can't be refuted, products that may

be of dubious quality, and skyrocketing prices with profit margins going through the roof. 

Adam Beach, the founder of MyGolfSpy.com, recognized these faults within the industry and its products and knew consumers were unaware of what they were buying compared to what they thought they were buying. 

That inspired Beach to launch MyGolfSpy, an independent and unbiased website that has become like a Consumer Reports for golf equipment. Beach started the site to put the golfer first, refusing ad dollars from large retailers and unapologetically publishing test results rewarding good performance and uncovering poor quality.

And here you thought I wa sjust having fun with that Kevin Tway story above.  But I was playing a long con on you, because the allocation of a major golf publication's real estate to a story infomercial such as that vividly demonstrates the need Adam Beach saw.

To his credit, he attacked it in an entirely serious manner:

Beach and his 12-employee staff have a dedicated test facility in Virginia, where they conduct thousands of hours of tests on balls, clubs, shoes and even golf bags.

The testing is vastly different from what has been done in the past, where a blogger or reviewer testing a new club set to hit the market typically would hit a few shots and review the results for an audience. Beach and his staff, whether they're testing a ball or club, run through 10,000 shots with humans and a robot, a process that can take up to three months.

The other guys?  Not so much, as they're pretty much on the take from the major equipment manufacturers.  Gold medals in Golf Digest's hot list are the new participation ribbons.

There are two big stories demonstrating their reach that we've covered extensively here, Callaway and Costco.  The former is far and away the more substantive of these:

Callaway happened to be three-and-a-half years into a $50 million golf ball plant

renovation that the company believes will ultimately end up with Callaway making the best-performing golf ball in the world. But Toulon admits that because of MyGolfSpy's tests and reviews, Callaway has altered certain aspects of the renovation and even pushed the update along. 

Ensuring core concentricity -- that the cores are in the center of the ball -- is one focus. Another is improving the testing and quality-control process. 

"We had initially planned on one or two extra X-ray machines, not testing every single golf ball but testing definitely enough that you could come up with a metric that you could look at and judge quality against that," Toulon said. "Now, every single golf ball, I think we'll be at at least five X-ray machines, which will allow us in the United States, coming out of our Chicopee, Oklahoma, plants, which is all of our Chrome Soft business, we will now X-ray every single golf ball. That definitely has, we've been impacted by MyGolfSpy in a really good way and we're thankful for that."

Callaway took quite the hit to their reputation, and their initial reaction was unbecoming as well.  But all credit to them, they got past their hissy fit and took the findings to heart.  More importantly, given the cost of golf equipment and balls, how is it that no one else could be bothered to do such extensive testing?  That question was for you Golf Magazine and Golf Digest?

As for the Kirkland Signature, I loved that story both at the time and in hindsight, as all parties acted so strangely, not least Costco which actually initiated an intellectual property lawsuit against Acushnet.  You don't need to be Clarence Darrow to understand how crazy that was....  But ultimately it was a one-off, in that the original worked because they got a stash of unused cores cheap when Nike exited the business.  But MGS made that story, as well as the sequel when the later K-Sig's weren't as good.

This recognition is well deserved, as per this:

The genesis of the site was a desire to give power back to the consumer, to give an unbiased review of golf equipment and help educate golfers to where they can make smarter decisions for their game. Beach believes he and his staff have met their standards and upheld that original vision by disrupting a billion-dollar business and pulling back the curtain to level the playing field.

 You had me at hello....  Alas, VanHaaren should have turned off the mic right there:

"I can offer you multiple examples of companies that have offered lots of money to us and we've turned it down, because once you sell your soul, it's only for sale once," Beach said. "If you buy a product tomorrow and you find out the same thing to be true of what we told you, you're going to trust me more tomorrow than you did yesterday. We are trying to make the cream of the crop rise to the top and all the s--- go away."

Some folks just don't know when to shut up...  They've created a great organization and do good work, but perhaps they shouldn't be reading their own press clippings?

What Would We Do Without Experts? -  See if you think this sounds promising?

An expert in fan behavior explains why fans have it in for Patrick Reed

Is that something for which you craved an explanation?  I would have gone with blindingly obvious but, hey, I'm not an expert (though I do play one on a certain blog).

“In a sport like golf where the rules are sacrosanct, that’s a tough label to shake,” says Dr. Sam Sommers, author of This is Your Brain on Sports and a professor of psychology at Tufts University. 

The “label” Sommers is referring to is the yell directed at Reed in sudden death at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, a label that threatens to menacingly hover over the 29-year-old this season, if not longer. 

In a game comfortable with the status quo, Reed has long been a disruptor. But that was a station built on behavior that was coarse and brash yet not necessarily malicious, and while his past is cloaked in smoke, a smoking gun has been absent. 

Then came the Hero World Challenge, where Reed very visibly broke a rule. He said a bad camera angle was to blame, but that answer was not satisfying to some who watched the replay, as well as other videos surfacing on social media suggesting similar movements from past tournaments. In the face of mounting criticism, Reed remained unrepentant, doubling-down on his defense by pantomiming the use of a shovel at the Presidents Cup. It was behavior that to many confirmed their thinking on Reed. His reputation had a new, permanent mark. 

“We operate in the context of our previous actions and the narrative created regarding our tendencies,” Dr. Sommers says. “Once that reputation is in place, it colors everything that comes after.”

Amusingly, Dr. Sam is from your humble correspondent's alma mater, though I do think he misdiagnoses the malady.  Reed is perceived mostly as an a*******e, not as a cheater, though we can all agree the two are not mutually exclusive.

Shall we let the good doctor continue to... well, I'm not actually sure what he's doing:

That’s because, according to Dr. Sommers, Reed has tapped into a societal outrage that, for better or worse, has captured the zeitgeist. Some of it is extremely serious, such as the Me Too Movement or the impeachment hearings. But others—think of the college admissions scandal—can get a disproportionate amount of attention. 

“They [Reed, the Houston Astros stealing signs, parents of the admissions scandal] all are fraught with morally problematic actions, but we can agree they are not the biggest crimes in our society today,” Dr. Sommers says. But the outrage, however misguided, is still there.

Is there anything he didn't throw at the wall?  But as a Yankee fan, I completely disagree about the relative importance of the Houston Astros cheating....

Reed's mistake was obviously in his reaction to the penalty at The Hero World.  All he really had to say was, "I wasn't aware that I caught sand with those practice swings, but I understand the importance of avoiding any appearance of improving my lie, and will take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again".  End of discussion, right?

But, it's Patrick, so he has to blame others, such as the infamous camera angle....  And remember, this is a man who, when he wasn't given a drop, responded "I guess your name needs to be Jordan Spieth?".  By the way, I'd like to get Slugger White's reaction to that incident?  Does he think Patrick was being a gentleman there, accusing a rules official of favoritism?  And by the way, why would Jordan want to play with the dick after that? 

No, it's not the C-word that will follow Patrick, it's more the A-word.

But It's Don Cheadle... - Really, who doesn't like Don Cheadle?  This broke a day or so ago, but it didn't strike me as anything that demanded the attention of my rapier-like wit:

Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle is taking on a new role on behalf of golf.

Cheadle, of Iron Man, Avengers and the Ocean’s Trilogy fame, is the USGA’s newest spokesman. 

As part of the collaboration between golf’s governing body and Cheadle, he will serve as lead spokesman for the USGA’s movement toward environmentally sustainable public golf and as brand ambassador for the U.S. Open. 

You might’ve seen Cheadle in his new role already, as the face and voice behind FOX’s U.S. Open preview advertisement that ran during Sunday’s NFL playoffs.

This is obviously a nothing burger of a story, that is until Geoff goes on an epic rant:

Just A Few Reasons Not To Care About The USGA Hiring Don Cheadle As A Frontman

In a dated and dreadfully timed rollout, the USGA announced the hiring of actor Don Cheadle to serve as U.S. Open “brand ambassador” and as its spokesman on environmentally sustainable public golf.

Golf.com’s James Colgan reports the big news here. 

A few readers wondered why I had not acknowledged this circa 2005 news of an ambassador signing on to front PSA’s. Wonder no more. 

—$trategic alliances would be the only reason some golf news organizations reported Cheadle’s hiring. Even clickbait-desperados would have no other reason to report his hiring as news, just as they would not post a Q&A with the new USGA President unless someone ordered them to do so while holding a pen and checkbook in hand.

—The USGA took voluntary staff buyouts last fall laced with an incentive that would make anyone over 50 a fool to stick around. What better way to show new fiscal responsibility—brought on by the apparent need to trim costs—than to hire an actor to front PSA’s whose greatest purpose is to let FOX announcers can have a bathroom break. 

—The ball still goes too far. Not even Don Cheadle can’t fix that. 

—Legions of great old muni’s needing restoration could use some of the USGA’s money or remaining non-buyout expertise. Don Cheadle PSA’s won’t help those courses.

—The announcement came after the new World Handicap system debuted to five days of non-function and online griping. Here’s guessing not too many golfers feel the handicap system will improve with Cheadle’s hiring. 

—Don Cheadle is a smart, accomplished actor and activist. He will soon learn he’s wasting his time. One Annual Meeting should do the trick. 

—Golf rounds take too long. Not even Don Cheadle can’t fix that.

Ummm...Geoff, feel better now?  You do have little spittle running down your chin....

That's twenty years or more of Geoff's frustrations with the USGA, helpfully collected in one spot, but otherwise might be a slight over-reaction to a non-story.  Not that he's wrong about most of it...

Outlandish, You Say? - Shane Ryan promises outlandish predictions for 2020, and damned if he doesn't deliver.  But his lede is pretty good as well:

Cubs vs Indians

And then the world will end with the score tied in game seven in extra innings #apocalypse

— RaysFanGio (@RaysFanGio) November 4, 2014

It actually happened (well, except the Apocalypse part), and that man became an Internet legend for all the right reasons. At the same time, it wouldn’t have mattered at all if he was wrong, since it was so specific and no reasonable person would expect it to be right. He created the perfect system of no accountability for himself—it was all upside. Still, you can’t just blindly throw darts, or you have no chance of being right. Every wild prediction has to be grounded in some truth.

Don't think I ever saw that tweet, but awfully good.  As an aside, I'm getting better at embedding tweets, though I've yet to figure out how to center them.  Anyone got a teenager to lend me?

Anyway, let's see what Shane has:

1. Justin Thomas will take all four majors. 

In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway writes an exchange in which one character asks another how he went bankrupt. “Gradually,” he said, “then suddenly.” That’s also how Justin Thomas is becoming the best player in the world. We always knew he was great: He got the major monkey off his back early, and he was even No. 1 for a couple weeks back in 2018. But he’s also been second fiddle to Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy for most of that time. Now, things are changing. At the Presidents Cup, he became the fastest American to 10 points in Cup competitions (tied with Snead and Wadkins), and with his win at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, he now has more victories than anyone younger than 30 on the PGA Tour, and became just the fourth player (after Tiger, Snead and Nicklaus) to have 12 wins before 30. Things have been gradual until now, but they’re starting to accelerate, and we’re entering the “suddenly” phase of his ascent. Thomas will take home all four majors this year.

I just love that Hemingway quote and I use it often.  JT's a stud, but one sniffs a little recency bias popping up....

2. The year’s most unforeseeable comeback will belong to Victor Dubuisson. 

It seems like golf gets crazier and crazier with every passing day, with no end to the unpredictable drama, which means that we’re due for a stunning comeback. Who is the likeliest candidate, considering the chaotic state of things? That’s right, it’s Victor Dubuisson—desert match-play magician, undefeated European Ryder Cup hero and current No. 468 in the world. He’s doing no more than treading water on the European Tour at the moment, but I’ve got a feeling about this guy … we’ll be seeing him at Whistling Straits.

That would be fun, and is more of what I expected from Shane.

But this is more mortal lock than outlandish projection:

3. Sergio Garcia will do or say something controversial. 

Another hot prediction tip: Say something vague enough that it almost has to come true, and refuse to elaborate. (Long pause) I refuse to elaborate.

The bigger question will be whether he can control himself in Saudi Arabia, where he'll be under great scrutiny.

6. Golf media will grow by billions of dollars because of Patrick Reed. 

I don’t know about you, but in the past month I have clicked with an eagerness that borders on pathetic anytime I see a new link to a Patrick Reed story or video or Twitter thread or whatever. I have, in fact, produced plenty of my own content. There’s not enough time in the day to consume it all. A big question looming over golf media has been how we’ll all react when the Tiger bubble bursts, and his comeback granted us a temporary reprieve. But now I think we have an answer: Reed is our Donald Trump. He’s the content gift that keeps on giving. Golf Channel 2 is coming, and we have Reed to thank.

And how is that Trump thing working out for the media?  It should actually be an object lesson, but will of course be ignored.  Fatigue will set in, just not with me.

7. There will be a fistfight, between golfers, at the WGC-Dell Match Play. 

We’re in the age of the golf feud, and tensions between players have only escalated with the cauldron of social media. It’s only a matter of time before things boil over, and I’ve got Austin marked in my calendar as the place where it all goes down.

Perhaps, but it's not likely to top the Keegan Bradley- Miguel Angel Jimenez cage match back at Dove Mountain.  Come to think of it, that was probably my favorite moment from all the years in Tucson.

8. The Ryder Cup will be canceled due to “fan behavior.” 

Speaking of violence … you’re holding a major sporting event with nationalistic undertones a month before the most tense election of our lifetimes in one of the closest swing states? With alcohol? With history of boorish fandom? That, my friends, is a powder keg. This Ryder Cup ain’t happening … or at least it ain’t finishing.

Shane, this is a good one but I'd save it for Bethpage.

10. Brooks Koepka was secretly rattled by his PGA Championship win and will never be the same. 

Brooks Koepka is a known killer and has the best mentality of any pro golfer at the majors. His “half the people aren’t good enough, half of the rest will have an off week, and half of the rest will choke, so it’s basically me against 10 guys” schtick is brilliant. OR IS IT? At the end of the PGA Championship, Koepka faltered mightily, nearly giving it away to DJ, and my contention is that he’s secretly been rattled and will never be the same. Am I saying this mostly because I know he loves bulletin-board material and I have a hidden agenda to motivate him? Yes. Does this prediction go against my own rules, in the sense that it could blow up on me? Also yes. Is the entire thing undermined by the fact that he finished top five in his two majors after the PGA, and played fine on Sunday? Yup. But what would a list of outlandish predictions be if it didn’t violate its own rules? I’m sticking to it.

A couple of reactions here.  First, I caught some of that rebroadcast on Golf Channel over the holidays, and that was one of the stranger rounds of golf I've seen.   He really did lose it for a while there, and it was a bizarre vibe in the crowd.  That said, Shane himself makes the case against.

But Francisco Molinari has pretty much admitted that he was rattled by Sunday at Augusta, so this is a real thing.  

I'll see you tomorrow, unless we get a dumping.... 

Midweek Musings

There's a promise of storms on the way, but nothing that affects us just now.  There's an old saying that there are no friends on powder days....  No blog posts as well.

More Patrick? - From my Twitter feed, in retweeting Mike Bamberger's piece from yesterday, we get this trenchant insight from Lawrence Donegan:

This is a good, timely analysis. https://t.co/T6yMfPsBpo

— Bradley S. Klein (@BradleySKlein) January 7, 2020

Although the bit about the golf world not buying it seems more like wishful thinking.  See, for instance, Woods, Eldrick.

John Feinstein has a long form piece on the man, and it's quite the curious thing.  Good time to refill your coffee cup if you're so inclined:

There’s a scene in the first episode of the brilliant TV show “The West Wing” in which Rob Lowe, playing presidential communications director Sam Seaborn, tries to explain

to chief-of-staff Leo McGarry’s daughter that he’s really not as bad a guy as he appears to be. 

“I really am a good guy,” he says. “But I’m a good guy having a very bad day.” 

Patrick Reed would tell you he’s a good guy—and I’m one of those who would agree with him. But there’s no doubt that he’s had enough bad days that he’s earned a reputation on the PGA Tour among players and spectators as a bad guy that’s not likely to go away anytime soon.

Would Webb Simpson share that opinion?  Never mind, let's let him go on?

 Now, here's John again with his uniquely passive construction:

Reed has had more than one bad day during his often-tumultuous PGA Tour career, but when he’s willing to open up to people, it’s clear he not only is a good guy but wants to be a good guy. He could just use some counseling on how to handle bad days.

OK, John, I'm having a sad over all the bad days this poor lad has endured.  But, and I'm just spitballin' here, do you see Patrick as having any agency in the creation of those bad days?  Or it's just a cloud that's always over him?

But wait, things get curiouser and curiouser.  Here's John's rather careful rendition of the Albany incident:

Reed’s most recent bad day came in early December at the 18-man exhibition tournament to benefit Tiger Woods’ foundation—and the players in the event, who split up a $3.5 million purse with no cut. During the third round, Reed found himself in a sandy waste area. As he lined up for practice swings, he appeared to dig his club into the sand behind the ball. At the end of the round, after viewing the video, PGA Tour rules official Slugger White told Reed to add two to his score for the day—giving him a two-over-par 74. 

Reed insisted he wasn’t attempting to improve his lie, but also said he understood how the camera angle might make it appear that was his intent.

Appeared?  Oh, and that description is equally curious, and he seems to go to pains to avoid noting that Reed did it twice, as he appeared, we can all use these weaselly terms, to be unhappy with his lie after the first excavation effort.

Three things are worth noting here: First, Reed didn’t apologize then, hasn’t apologized as of now and—almost certainly—won’t apologize in the future. Two, White, who had an angry run-in with Woods over a two-stroke penalty he assessed him during the 2013 BMW Championship, said that Reed was “a complete gentleman” when he told him he was going to be penalized. Three, Reed bounced back the next day to shoot a 66 and finished third. If nothing else, Reed has proved over the years that controversy doesn’t often affect his golf.

OK, I'm of course flattered with John's comparison to that incident at the BMW, which your humble correspondent has done previously.  But I remain amused at how important some folks seem to find his civility to Slugger White...  Isn't this a rather low standard?

But that last sentence I think is horribly wrong, and conveys a fundamental misunderstanding of our antihero.  Patrick has shown that he thrives amid the controversy...  In fact, he seems to have a need for it, and has created it at every juncture of his life.  It's what he does to the rest of us, the U.S. Prez Cup Team being only the most recent example.

But we're not close to done yet:

Then came the 2018 Ryder Cup. Captain Jim Furyk elected to break up the team of Reed

and Spieth that had been so successful in 2014 and 2016 (and was initially suggested by Spieth at Gleneagles) to pair Spieth with Justin Thomas. Reed said he was “blindsided” by the change and added that it was clear to him that Spieth simply didn’t want to play with him. When Furyk explained he thought he could create two strong teams by splitting Reed and Spieth up, Reed called the explanation “b.s.” When he was roundly criticized for his comments, Reed noted that when Mickelson called captain Tom Watson out after the matches at Gleneagles he was praised, but “When I did it, I got destroyed.” 

There are, clearly, double standards at times. When Reed snapped a wedge over his knee during the second round of last year’s U.S. Open, it became a big story. Other players break or throw clubs with barely a whisper. Of course, Reed’s a major champion with a controversial past, so he’s more likely to draw attention for any misbehavior.

Wow, that's a world class nonsense-word ration, and John really should know better.   Reed's offenses from that 2018 Ryder Cup are legion, but all lead back to the fact that he was all too eager to sell out his teammates to excuse his poor play.  And he even sold out his hero Tiger Woods in the bargain...  

But the craziest thing is the comparisons with Phil's infamous 2014 press conference performance art.  As if that's an ideal that anyone should strive to match...

Can anyone guess how John tied this nonsense together?  It's a beaut:

That being said, Reed could use some public-relations counseling. His circle is a tight one: Justine, Kessler and Kevin Kirk, his swing coach. There is me-against-the-world approach taken by Reed and his team. Some of that is understandable, but backing off it and understanding that there has never been a public figure who didn’t make mistakes—and admitting to one almost always defuses the issue—might work better. 

Reed is almost certainly going to continue to hear it from fans—his past is too ingrained in the minds of the golf public for it to stop. Matt Kuchar, one of the game’s most popular players, was heckled frequently last year after initially underpaying his caddie following a victory in Mexico—even though he eventually did pay him more and apologized for the initial misstep. And if Reed is hearing it from the ordinarily docile galleries in Hawaii, imagine what will happen in louder venues, like TPC Scottsdale or TPC Sawgrass? Or in New York this summer at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot? This isn’t something that's just going to go away. 

Reed’s unlikely to get the benefit of doubt anytime soon. Except from those who know him best. 

Sam Seaborn did end up dating Leo McGarry’s daughter. Redemption is always possible.

OK, John, I'm going to try to break this to you gently, but The West Wing was a piece of fiction.   I'm pretty sure the writers didn't intend it as a How-To guide.

That first 'graph reverts to John's default passive construction.  That tight circle appears to be just something that happened, having nothing to do with actions of Mr. Reed.  Mr. Table For One is just a misunderstood child.... OK, got it.

Burying The Lede - I completely get that Orange Man Bad, but doesn't this Golf Digest header kind of miss the point?

American golfers remain committed to events in Middle East despite rising tensions with Iran

The reaction of the American golfers is a story, but a sidebar kind of story.  Isn't the real issue the Euro Tour's reliance on the Middle East to support their schedule?   These are Euro Tour events, and the involvement of Americans is basically their willingness to, you know, cash checks...

But wait, things get curiouser (it seems to be that kind of day):

The United States issued a security alert last week to all Americans living in Iran to leave 

the country following the death of Qasem Soleimani, head of Iran's Quds military force, after he was killed Thursday by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. Additionally, the U.S. state department advised caution when traveling to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates—site of the Euro Tour's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisors, all held in January—and encouraged citizens to "maintain a high level of vigilance" due to the conflict in the area.

There are Americans living in Iran?  Hasn't this been an issue since 1979?   

Koepka, who missed the Presidents Cup due to lingering knee issues, confirmed on Monday that he will make his first start since pulling out of the CJ Cup with injury in October at next week's Abu Dhabi Championship. The World No. 1 is also scheduled to compete in the Saudi International. Johnson (the event's defending champ) and Reed are also returning to the Saudi, while Mickelson is making his tournament debut. DeChambeau will make appearances in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. 

The Euro Tour added that it is closely watching the Iran situation, and taking the necessary steps to ensure protection to players and their families. 

“The safety of our players, staff and stakeholders and everyone involved in each and every one of our tournaments around the world is our top priority," the tour told Golf Digest. "The European Tour constantly monitors what is happening in all of our host countries, taking any safety advice from the relevant agencies where appropriate, and we will continue to do so for all of our tournaments around the world."

But what is the underlying assumption here?  That Iran would attack innocent golfers?  But I had been reliably informed that Islam is a religion of peace...  

Not a word for the predicament of Keith Pelley and his Tour?  Really, who cares whether Koepka, reed, et.al. cash big checks, but has anyone noticed that the Iranians have bombed the Saudi oil fields and threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz, yet the price of oil has barely budged?  Isn't that kind of important?  

Meanwhile, I think the players will survive, but I'm more worried about the safety of those Saudi greens.  After all, word is that Sergio will be in the field....

A Big Gamble - You know when people tell you it's not the money, it's the money?  Via Geoff, we have a look back at this deep dive and these comments from the Commish:

Of that estimated $150 billion wagered, approximately 2 percent – $3 billion – is bet on golf. 

Monahan said making money off legalized sports betting is not the main reason the PGA Tour is invested in what will be a new world order. The hope is to get one-quarter of 1 percent of the money wagered on the PGA Tour. That’s approximately $7.5 million annually if the estimates of what’s being bet are accurate.

Got it, Jay, it's most certainly not the money.  But of course my reaction is to channel my inner Peggy Lee, Is that all there is?  Puny, in other words.

This AP piece has some interesting background on how we got where we are:

Professional sports leagues struck out in their quest for a cut of sports betting money by claiming they needed payments to help protect the integrity of games. 

They also fumbled an attempt to claim a share of betting proceeds by saying the games are the intellectual property of the leagues, and that they should be compensated when others profit off them. 

But with two strikes against them, the leagues may have hit on a way to cash in: selling their official data to gambling companies, making the case that the leagues are creating new products for gamblers to bet on. 

Six of the largest U.S. bookmakers already use official league data under terms they negotiated directly with the leagues.

As one, my readership mouths "Shotlink"...

But:

Why is this important? Sports betting has very small profit margins, typically between 5% and 7%. With state taxes, payments to technology partners, marketing and other expenses, even a seemingly small additional cost, such as a quarter of 1% of the amount bet, quickly adds up and affects the bottom line for bookmakers. 

That is no small concern in what right now amounts to a gold rush in the year-and-a-half-old sports betting market in the U.S., with dozens of companies scrambling for market share — and the likelihood that not everyone in business today will be in the market in 5 years.

And here's the golf-specific hook:

The PGA Tour says it is creating new betting opportunities through its complicated (and expensive) ShotLink technology. 

“ShotLink gathers data from every shot; there are more than 30,000 shots in a golf tournament,” said Andy Levinson, senior vice president for tournament administration with the PGA Tour. “We’re collecting multiple data points, and they are going to be potential betting points. There’s going to be opportunities over a season to have millions of markets created in golf. You’re talking about distance, ball location, whether it’s on the fairway or in the rough. If a player has a 10-foot uphill putt, there’s going to be historical data on that shot. Our sport is perfect for it.

“That requires 60 people every week; we have to lug 5 miles of cable,” he said. “We have cameras, laser systems around our greens. It’s an extremely expensive process.”

Is it?  I just don't see it, but I'm quite clearly not the target market.  For instance, I scrupulously avoid Living Under Par, so I've got that going for me.

I just can't see this as a good thing for our game, though I'm sure all sorts of NFL officials decried fantasy football...  It's just that the combination of betting and fan proximity seems like an obvious problem, no?  I find Jay's eagerness off=putting, as he's the guy that's supposed to protect the game from these people.  But I've been wrong before, maybe once or twice....

Missing Links - I'm not sure I've done this before, but I'm motivationally challenged, so will just link to a few items that you want read with only minor comments.

A 2019 Golf Quiz - I got two of them wrong, though one I should have requested a breakfast ball on (the first question).

Still Not In The Golf Business - They run saloons with a golf theme, but are headed for a rich IPO.  

A Tribute To Those We Lost in 2019 - Life is poorer without Dan Jenkins, not that I ever expected otherwise.

A Deep Dive On That Shot - A fun take on JT's mind fart on No. 18 on Sunday.  A long list of things that will make your golf ball go left....

A Misnomer - Young Turk Alex Myers summarizes the latest in his weekly feature called The Grind, which is anything but.  

Channeling My Inner David Merrick - One of favorite quotes ever is Merrick's, "It's not enough that I should succeed, others should fail".  In that vein, I take alarming pleasure in the fact that Eammon Lynch has never played Lahinch.  Did I mention that you should get off my lawn?  It's not an admirable side of me, yet there it is....

Happy reading.