Your Friday Frisson

Unclear at this moment whether golf is to be played...So let's spend a few moments together and prepare you for the weekend ahead.

Tiger Scat - With PGA Tour Live broadcast over Golf Channel as a freebie, there was little excuse for not seeing each and every one of his 71 strokes.  Lots of takeaways:

Tiger Woods is back and 3 things you should know after Round 1 at the Memorial

Tiger Woods is contending 

Woods put his tee in the ground, placed his ball on top of it and striped his tee shot 327 yards down the right side of the fairway. He hit his approach to within 10 feet. He rolled

in the putt. Birdie. Woods hadn’t played since mid-February due to ailment and the PGA Tour’s three-month hiatus due to the coronavirus. At his last tournament, the Genesis Invitational, Woods had finished last among the players who made the cut. He was back, and he was back.

Woods added a birdie at 3. Two-under through three. He was 1-over from there and finished with a 1-under 71, five shots behind leader Tony Finau.

“Got off to almost an ideal start and got a feel for the round early,” Woods said. “I just didn’t make anything today. I had looks at birdies, but I really didn’t make much.”

If by contending one means that he's reasonably well positioned, specifically T18.  

But I have to think this guy is over-promising:

10 things we learned from Tiger Woods’ very first hole at the Memorial

Ummm, perhaps that one hole is the ultimate small sample size?

1. We’re doing collars this week. 

Woods wore mostly blade-collared Nike shirts in 2019, plus the notable mock-neck red he wore in capturing the Masters title. He went blade collar at The Match II, too. This week? Looks like we’re back to a traditional collar. As for the color? We’ll call Thursday’s selection somewhere between “sky blue” and “seafoam green.”

Well, at least he's focused on the important stuff.

6. Bryson ain’t the only one who can move it. 

Woods’ 3-wood off No. 1? It went 327 yards. (That was hardly a fluke, too: his 3-wood a hole later went 345. But that’s inadmissible for the purposes of this column.)

After a practice round earlier in the week, Bryson said Tiger hits it pretty far for an old guy...

8. That iron swing? Just the way you remembered. 

Woods’ approach shot was perfection — a pin-seeker to a back hole location on a blustery Ohio summer afternoon. After nearly hitting the flagstick on the way by, he was left with 10 feet for birdie.

His swing looked very much under control all day.

10. Tiger Woods makes everything in golf that much more exciting. 

No fans, sure. But there’s Tiger Woods, stiffing iron shots, making birdies, walking that Tiger Woods walk. Everything around him — Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, wedge shots, the Memorial — instantly elevates in excitement. 

Good news, golf fans: still 71 more golf holes to go.

More like 54 at this juncture... Only eighteen of which are guaranteed. 

TigerTracker was plenty pleased as well, though he did highlight this aspect of Tiger's game:

Woods’ par-5 play will likely be a point of emphasis heading into the second round. All of them are gettable, but he wasn’t able to go for any of them in two (either because he was too far back or out of position) and consequently made only one birdie on the par 5s.

As an opening round of the new season, after an inconceivable five-month layoff, the day obviously exceeded all hopes.  The alternative framing, however, is that this will be his only hostile action until the PGA at Harding Park, and that's a higher standard.  He certainly showed plenty of rust, so he'll need to make progress there and avoid going the wrong direction today.  He's in fine shape, but not so fine that a bad day wouldn't result in an innocent trunk being slammed....

Here was Tiger's own take:

“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve played,” Woods said. “Got off to almost an ideal start and got a feel for the round early. I just didn’t make anything today. I had looks at birdies, but I really didn’t make much. 

“I was very pleased the way I drove it, my feel for my irons. I just didn’t quite hit the putts hard enough. Most of my putts were dying, didn’t quite have enough oomph to it.”

And this from one of his playing partners:

“I think he’s always had a wonderful cadence with his routine. He does the same thing every single time,” said McIlroy, who shot 70. “I’ve always enjoyed playing with him because you can sort of feed off that. He got off to a great start. He was hitting it nicely. He sort of had most things under control today. I’ve always liked playing with him because of that rhythm that he has.”

And this on the subdued feel of the place:

DUBLIN, Ohio -- Next to play, Tiger Woods. 

Silence. 

No roars. No applause. No "Let's go Tiger!" coming from the gallery that would go rows and rows deep with fans trying to get a glimpse as golf's most famous player stood on the tee box at No. 1. 

Welcome back to the PGA Tour, Tiger, and welcome to how tour events are now being played. While the rest of the tour players have had five tournaments to get used to events without fans amid the coronavirus pandemic, Woods didn't get a first-hand experience until Thursday during the first round of the Memorial Tournament. 

"There were still a lot of moving carts and a lot of media that were moving around, but the energy wasn't the same without the fans," Woods said after his opening-round 1-under 71, which left him in a tie for 18th and five shots behind leader Tony Finau. "That certainly was noticeable, mostly different. But there were still a lot of moving parts with camera crews."

I'm still unclear on why they were doing any player introductions on the first tee...Tiger had this comment as well:

"I definitely didn't have any issue with energy and not having the fans' reactions out there," Woods said. "I still felt the same eagerness, edginess, nerviness starting out, and it was good. It was a good feel. I haven't felt this in a while."

He goes at 8:17 this morning, though I haven't checked to see if PGA Tour Live will extend the freebie...

Mikey Bams has predicted No. 83 this week, and isn't backing down based on Thursday's play:

Why Tiger Woods, after an opening 71, will likely be in the hunt this Sunday

Unlike the current generation of millennial scribes, Mike believes in consequences for bad predictions:

If Tiger is not contending by Sunday afternoon, this reporter will eat his package of Tour-issued Zehn-X sanitizing wipes. (Ten towelettes.)

Here's the crux of Mike's argument:

Tiger is more difficult to classify. In 2000, when he was playing golf likely better than

it’s ever been played, he wasn’t fast, but he was decisive. He knew what he wanted to do and how he would do it. He was under the tutelage of Butch Harmon in that period. In subsequent years, under Hank Haney and Sean Foley, Tiger often looked actually unsure of what kind of swing he wanted to make, even in weeks when he was contending and winning.

Which was one of the most striking things about his round on Thursday. Woods, who doesn’t have a formal coach now but talks about the swing with his friend and employee Rob McNamara, made one confident swing after another on Thursday. He looked like he was playing a casual round at home, and that’s not a comment on playing golf without a gallery. At home, at Medalist, he plays in a cart on a flat course and gets around in under three hours. His first tournament round in this age of the pandemic took well over five hours. The supergroup was waiting on one tee after another and sometimes in the fairway, too. If Tiger had even a soupcon of irritation it was not evident. It’s amazing, in golf, when golfers are swinging well, the whole mood lifts. 

Some 71s are better than others.

That last bit is true.  But truer is the fact that none of those 71s is as good as Finau's 66 or Palmer's 67, so there's much work to be done. 

Lions and Tigers and Bears - Well, we've covered the Tiger, and we'll get to Jack in a sec.  As for a lion, well there's always Phil... though that's not spelled correctly.

Did you see Phil and his putting hitch?  Egads, just when you think the man can't get any crazier:

Phil hasn’t been putting great recently, finishing 139th in SG: Putting in 2019 and 126th so far in 2020, so he’s tinkering again. In what appears to be a new addition this week, and as you can see for yourself below, he takes the putter back, makes a pronounced stop, holds it for a second or two, then resumes once again.

What I couldn't tell was whether the putter actually rested on the ground during that pause.

As for Bryson, he shot a one-over 73.  But let's admit it, his score isn't the number we're focused most on:

On the 17th hole, DeChambeau uncorked a tee shot, easily clearing the bunker on the left with 348 yards of carry, rolling down the hill toward the green to finish 407 yards away. That’s right, four-zero-seven. From there, he had just 66 yards left, and a very average approach left him with 20 feet for birdie. It was an easy two-putt par. If only that was his best drive of the day. 

Two holes later, on the 1st hole at Muirfield, with the wind in his favor, DeChambeau took a hyper aggressive line off the tee, up and over the corner. Needing about 335 yards of carry, DeChambeau got 345, bounding through the edge of the rough and down the hill toward the green. When his ball came to rest, it was 423 yards away from the man who hit it, and just 46 yards from the hole. 

“Those are usually numbers you see after an errant drive,” was immediately mentioned on the broadcast. 

“Yeah, when you had to chip out,” Christina Kim replied.

If I understood correctly from the broadcast, in the forty-five year history of the event there had been exactly two drives in excess of 400 yards, and the one guy matched that total yesterday.  But I had been reliably informed that driving distances are down from 2018, so it must be our lyin' eyes...

Jack of course paid a virtual visit to the broadcast booth and had these comments on our favorite topic:

Jack Nicklaus has seen enough. Well, he's seen enough for several decades now. After his course, Muirfield Village, was torched last week (the winning score was 19 under) and currently under attack from 400-yard drives by Bryson DeChambeau, Nicklaus called out the USGA and R&A to make equipment changes (to the golf ball) in the near future. 

"The golf ball is a very simple thing to fix and I've been preaching about it for ... 43 years I first went to the USGA," Nicklaus said in the Golf Channel booth during the first round of the Memorial Tournament on Thursday. "I mean, that's a long time to be studying something. Guys, stop studying it and do something, will you please?" 

The governing bodies of golf -- the USGA ad R&A -- have been studying distance reports for forever. Earlier this year, they actually said that golf does have a problem with distance (if you've watched Bryson hit a 423-yard drive, you would agree), but no steps have been taken yet to correct any of this.

He's implicitly siding with your humble blogger, though he got there long before I did.  Regardless of the causes of the distance gains, the ball remains to logical means of regulating distance because it's a manageable solution.

Of course, there's little evidence of the existence of the necessary will in our governing bodies, so mostly we're all just agreeing among ourseleves.

No doubt you caught this guy's name on the leaderboard:

Jordan Spieth has no trouble getting off to good starts. But can this one finally lead to a good finish?

The round included this bit of Peak Jordan:

Spieth eagled the par-5 11th hole, his second of the day, converting from four feet after an approach from 211 yards. But he gave it right back when he doubled the par-3 12th by coming up short in the water.

Not sure he's got four days of consistent play in him these days, but people really want him to make it back to the top.  They do get a little overly excited by any show of his old form, and that's getting a little tiresome.

Open and Shut - A couple of items "celebrating" what should have been Open Championship weekend:

The 15 best Open Championships, ranked

At least they don't the claim of being the definitive ranking....

Surprised that this one passed muster:

13. 1992, Nick Faldo, Muirfield

As Rae noted, Faldo was in the prime of his prime, going for his fifth major in six years. He had won the Irish Open, and at the start of this Open, he looked fundamentally unstoppable. He set a 36-hole record, beat his own 54-hole record and came into the final round leading by four shots. It looked like a coronation, but it was not—a miserable stretch from 11 to 14 saw him lose three shots, American John Cook catching him and taking the lead on 16. For Faldo, this “dominant” Open now became about resilience. Pulling himself together, he birdied two of the final four holes and squeaked out a one-shot win—a testament to perseverance and even acceptance in the face of what must have been massive disappointment, and the greatest of his three Opens.

I'd have this one third of the three.  His best was the '90 win at the Old Course, because it's the only one of his six majors that wasn't the result of a collapse by another player (Zinger, Cook, Norman, Hoch and Floyd, to name names).

Jack being my golf God, this one still stings:

7. 1972, Lee Trevino, Muirfield

In terms of the greatest shots in Open history, Trevino’s chip on 17 on Sunday ranks near the top. He had bungled the par 5 up to that point, and had hole out for par while Tony Jacklin, tied for the lead, had a 15-footer for birdie. It looked very much like Jacklin would head to the final hole with at least a one-shot edge. “I really felt, on the 17th, like I’d broken him,” Jacklin would later say. But in one of the great feats of match-play-within-stroke-play golf, Trevino turned the tables. Watch it play out, including Jacklin’s subsequent putts, starting at the 3:45 mark:

For Jacklin, who had watched Trevino hole out twice the day before, the loss was unbearable. Later, he said, “I was never the same again after that. I didn’t ever get my head around it—it definitely knocked the stuffing out of me somehow.” Jacklin had already won the Open in 1969, luckily, and would go on to transform the European Ryder Cup team as its captain, but what shows the emotional swings of better than that moment, which gave Trevino his second straight claret jug?

There's video at the link, but you can't make me watch it again....

And the winner is... 

1. Tom Watson, 1977, Turnberry

Students of the game knew No. 1 without having to scroll down, or else would have been enraged to find anything else in the top spot. “The Duel in the Sun” between Watson and Jack Nicklaus was simply one of the greatest golf spectacles ever, and one that, to quote Rae, “will forever be spoken about.” It was about the great rivalry between the two men, it was about the sportsmanship on display, and, of course, it was about the golf. “It went beyond natural chronology,” Rae said. “It was legendary.”

Watson, 27, and Nicklaus, 37, matched each other score for score in the first three rounds at Turnberry, hosting the Open for the first time, pulling away together where by the end, they were 10 shots better than anyone else in the field. In the closing stretch, where Watson birdied four of the final six holes for the dramatic victory, but perhaps it’s best summarized by a quote from that final-round Saturday, when Watson turned to Nicklaus and said, “this is what it’s all about isn’t it?”

“You bet it is,” Nicklaus replied.

I've avoided any of the St.Andrews Opens, because of this companion piece:

St Andrews Highlights

The best moments from Opens at the Old Course

1984 - The iconic Seve celebration 

Few celebrations in the history of sport are as iconic as the one enjoyed by Seve Ballesteros following his final putt at St Andrews in 1984. 

Tied at the top of the leaderboard with defending champion Tom Watson, who was behind him in the final group, Ballesteros knew a birdie on the 72nd hole would greatly enhance his hopes of victory. 

When his putt for a three found its target, Seve let out a roar of delight and repeatedly punched the air in jubilation, striking a pose that would become synonymous with the charismatic Spaniard. The birdie secured a second Open title for Ballesteros and he claimed a third four years later at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

That was quite the finish, one of the few heartbreaks for Watson in this event.  But they don't go back past 1970, as it's a companion piece for the R&A production that will air on Sunday.   From the first linked item, here's one with which you should be familiar:

12. 1927, Bobby Jones, Old Course at St. Andrews

In 1921, a younger, more impetuous Bobby Jones became so angry at his play in the

third round at St. Andrews that he tore up his scorecard and withdrew after 11 holes. He then insulted the Old Course, and the St. Andrews press fired back, writing “Master Bobby is just a boy, and an ordinary boy at that.” This, then, was a kind of comeback story, because in the interval, Jones had come to love both the course and the town. And as fate would have it, they loved him back. When he won by six shots, he was carried off the green by a jubilant crowd, and even asked that his trophy be kept in Scotland with the R&A. By 1958, Jones had become just the second American “Freeman of the City” in St. Andrews, an honor he shared with none other than Ben Franklin. At that ceremony, Jones said of the Old Course that, “the more you study it, the more you love it, and the more you love it, the more you study it.”

It's Bobby Jones and St. Andrews.  No more need be said...

You Don't Know Jack -  Watching the broadcast yesterday was the first time that I sense that Jack is losing some of his acuity, which made me very sad.  I was almost angry with Terry Gannon for keeping him on air for so long, understanding that part of the issue was the result of doing this remotely.

Did you catch this a day or so ago?

This is the 45th year of the Memorial Tournament, and host Jack Nicklaus has made a tradition of waiting behind the 18th green to congratulate the winner with a hearty handshake. 

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Nicklaus said Tuesday that he will not be changing anything. 

"I'm going to shake their hand. I going to walk right out there and shake your hand," Nicklaus said during a virtual news conference at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. "If they don't want to shake my hand, that's fine. I'll give them a fist bump or an elbow bump, but I'm not going to give them COVID-19, so that's -- I wouldn't put anybody in that position. I wouldn't do that, and if I was in any danger of doing that, I wouldn't shake their hands.

I know, none of the Usual Karens were amused....   They're outdoors and they can readily wash their hands, but you know how Karens are.  At least this Karen had an amusing take:

That's the artist formerly known as Curmudgeonly James Corrigan... being, you know, a curmudgeon.

Have a great weekend.

Bonus Thursday Content

My scheduled Governor's Cup match was cancelled, so what would you kids like to talk about?  Really, Bryson?  Is there anything left to say...

Dateline: Dublin, OH - Earlier this week we had comments from R&A majordomo Martin Slumbers to the effect that his organization and the USGA would be back on the sitance beat as soon as we're through with this pesky virus.  Jay Monahan has this in response:

Q. Jay, two things. Obviously the discussion most of the time seems to be on COVID, but the other part of the equation has been a lot on the length of Bryson DeChambeau. I know that you've had what I assume is the policy in the past of saying you're very comfortable with the golf ball, where it's going, so forth and so on, but slowly but surely you're starting to hear the critics say, this is something that we have to address again. Just to confirm, what is your position on the length issue?

JAY MONAHAN: Well, my position hasn't changed. You asked really two questions. You raised Bryson, I think, what Bryson has done. Bryson was able to use the time off in a way that I don't think anybody could have envisioned, and what he's done has been

remarkable, in a short period of time. I go back to what he accomplished at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, and there's a ton of focus on how far he's hitting the ball, and rightfully so, and how he has disrupted himself to be able to put himself in the best -- himself and his game to put himself in the best position to compete and to win, but look at his putting statistics, finest putting week I believe on TOUR this year, and to me it was a great demonstration of his skill.

As it relates to distance, I think the fact of the matter is that we always have looked at distance. We look at it over a longer term horizon, not in a short-term horizon, so if you look at our data right now, average driving distance is up slightly year to date, it's down relative to two years ago, and I think that the USGA and the R&A came out with their report, they issued that report, they said that they're going to work with their industry partners, including us, to identify solutions.

That process has obviously stalled. When it takes itself back up, we're going to be a part of that conversation and make certain ultimately that we represent what we think is in the best interest of PGA TOUR, our players and our fans.

But I think that any time you have a player that is doing what Bryson has done, I think it does call attention to driving distance. But I think you have to look at the manner in which he prepared himself to do that, and some of the remarkable things that he's doing in the process, some of which other players talked about over the last couple days

 That's a lot of words to effectively say, "Nah, nah, you can't make me."

This from the latest Distance Insight Reports might offer a bit more context:

That "stability through Regulation" is delightfully Orwellian...  I totally get it that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia, yet I still think they're hitting too damn far.

Jay has internalized the lesson that chicks dig the long ball, and he will zealously defend those perceived interests.  That doesn't mean that the rest of us have to looks at the shiny object to which he points.  Most interesting to me is that they asked the beast himself, and he had thees thoughts:

Q. I wanted to ask, Slumbers talked about the fact that they're going to have to address what's going on, and you seem to be now the newest poster boy for this. Would you be upset if they rolled things back in regards to equipment because you've shown them that you can hit the ball as far as you can hit it?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Hmm. No, I wouldn't. No matter what rules they give me, I'm going to try and do my best to maximize my athletic ability. They can't take working

out away from me. I know that. At least as of right now. Whatever -- look, 1998 the COR test was put in stone where you couldn't have a certain number off the face, and they've used that ever since. It's now a CT test. The ball speeds coming off the face are what they are, and they really haven't changed that much. If anything, the clubs have gotten longer, the shafts have gotten stiffer, and we can swing it faster with more control. Back in the day, the shafts were a little more flexible, and LA Golf Shafts has provided me with a shaft that's super stiff, super stable and allowed me to swing at the speeds while retaining the same control with the face.

Yeah, it's a lot of work on my end, too, to gain strength and to swing it hard, to train. It's a lot of hard work. People don't realize how hard I've worked to get here. It's been working out for at least an hour every single day for the past five, six months, fixing my body when it breaks down. I have to go, okay, I've got to go fix my body and work out and train in the right way to be able to tolerate all these forces going through my body and out of my body.

So in regards to whoever is saying we're going to have to look at equipment, I've got no problem. I'm, again, just going to look at my game and how I can improve it in the best way possible, no matter if they roll the ball back there's still going to be a percentage difference. Even if it gets rolled back there's still going to be a gap. Whether it's closer now, it is what it is. I'm not really worried about it. I'm just going to keep trying to make those athletic gains so that I can be the best golfer that I can possibly be.

My amusement comes from the widely varying reactions to these comments in the golfing press.  I myself have deliberately avoided the video, but here's Shack's reaction:

How refreshing to see Bryson DeChambeau tackle a question about distance, equipment rules changes and Martin Slumbers’ recent remarks with both class and wisdom. 

Many players might bristle or give signs of a narcissistic blow. Mercifully, DeChambeau is confident that the recent advantage he’s gained would likely remain if the governing bodies ever did something to lessen the role of technology over skill. He seems fine with any rule change and willing to take responsibility for adjusting to the rules. Many a lesser man would have taken all of this personally.

I must admit that that's how I took Bryson's comments, though given that I first read them on Geoff's blog, it would be fair to ask whether my opinion had been influenced by Geoff's.  Hey, all evidence aside, I'm only human and I;m genetically-predisposed to agree with the guy, except when he's in pandemic panic mode.

But where we see resolve and acceptance, this writer (or perhaps only the headline writer sees something else entirely:

DEFIANT DECHAMBEAU

With golf leaders again talking about rollbacks on distance, a steadfast Bryson DeChambeau retorts, 'They can't take working out away from me"

Given that they've closed virtually every gym in the country, I wouldn't get cocky.

Though, while you'd think it would be obvious, the point perhaps needs to made that under any regulatory regime, Bryson would still be longer than the other guys.  He is simply generating more clubhead speed, and at the same time hitting it amazingly straight, and that advantage doesn't evaporate with a rolled-back golf ball or any other changes contemplated.

Some additional notes that relate, including this guy going his own way:

Dustin Johnson isn't about to bulk up and chase distance like Bryson DeChambeau

That seems wise to me, as DJ has one of those perfect golf bodies...  Why?

The lingering question around a bulked-up Bryson: Is he at greater risk of injury?

This is an interesting piece well worth your time, as it makes the following counter-intuitive argument:

Through a variety of hands-on techniques, Roskopf helped DeChambeau reduce muscle tightness and pain, and once the activation was body-wide, there was a solid biomechanical foundation in place. That meant DeChambeau could start adding muscle in earnest. “He’s stronger now through greater ranges of motion,” said Roskopf, “and he’s gained clubhead speed and ball speed. His flexibility has actually improved since he first came to me in 2016.”

For Roskopf, that’s the key component. DeChambeau can add strength and mass all he wants now—he’s mentioned getting as high as 270 pounds—as long as flexibility isn’t sacrificed. There’s no longer a worry about any underlying physical problems. They’ve already “melted the ice.”

Got it, the ice has melted.  Greater strength combined with greater flexibility is the Holy Grail...  though I'd still skeptically add that time will tell whether his skeleton can support this over the long term.

Lastly on this topic is this:

The Bryson DeChambeau Show faces toughest test at the Memorial

Now the world No. 7 DeChambeau gets his toughest test. He’ll have to step up his game as the Memorial has nine of the top-10 and 18 of the top-20 players in the world in the field. And the course features gnarly, thick rough; firm greens; quick fairways; and rows of dense trees. 

DeChambeau said bring it on. Plus, he’s won here before – in 2018 – though that was some 50-60 pounds ago.

Thus far, his golf ball has enjoyed the aerial view down on those rows of dense trees, so not sure why this week would be any different.  Plus he's been hitting a ton of fairways, so I'm thinking that we'll need to get lucky with the weather for the course to play #firmandfast.  This doesn't smell like it'll work out for us:

I'm thinking that they'll need to give the course lots of water, so bombs away.

Dateline: Mamaroneck, NY - Jay Monahan apparently get the memo about staying in his own lane, and offered this up on an event he doesn't even control:

JAY MONAHAN: You know, obviously we've canceled -- we're not going to have spectators and we're not going to have pro-ams through the TOUR Championship in

Atlanta. Right now you look at the PGA TOUR schedule, the next event up is the U.S. Open, and I know that the USGA continues to work with the state of New York and is making plans to return fans. If I had to guess, that would be the first week that we would do so.

I think to give a little more texture to your question, we're spending a lot of time in each of the subsequent tournaments or each of the tournaments in the fall working on a number of different ways to stage the event, which includes full capacity, partial capacity, and obviously the way that we're operating now, which is no spectators, and that will be largely dependent on what we hear from the communities where we play.

 What is this "We" you speak of?

As I noted above, it doesn't take our Geoff much to go into "We're all gonna die" mode:

As noted yesterday, New York’s newly imposed quarantine restrictions on visitors from pretty much any place with a population seem like a bigger issue for mid-September’s rescheduled U.S. Open at Winged Foot. That said, even a small crowd would make a huge difference in giving the event a major championship field—if safe to do so. Oh, and help move some 2020 merch.

Two months is an eternity, but I had though that the USGA had thrown in the towel on spectators.  It does seem unlikely in the present moment, but I'm glad if they're still trying.

But since Geoff mentioned merchandising, did you catch this?

2021 Ryder Cup merchandise, uniforms will carry 2020 emblem

Back to you, Mr. Slumbers... Will 2021 Open Championship merchandise carry the 2020 date?  If not, anyone that scored some early swag will have quite the collectors' item.

Tiger, Delayed -  Since the reboot, folks have been wondering when we would see the Striped One.  Your humble correspondent did admittedly surrender for a brief moment to the Harbor Town Head Fake, but the answer was always self-evident.  Tiger would play where Tiger always plays...

But see what you think of his explanation:

“I just felt it was better to stay at home and be safe,” he said. “I’m used to playing with

lots of people around me or having lots of people have a direct line to me, and that puts not only myself in danger but my friends and family, and just been at home practicing and social distancing and being away from a lot of people.”

“I’m used to having so many people around me or even touch me, going from green to tee,” Tiger said. “That’s something that I looked at and said, well, I’m really not quite comfortable with that, that whole idea. Let’s see how it plays out first and let’s see how the Tour has played out, how they’ve started, and I feel that I’m comfortable enough to come back out here and play again, and I’m excited to do it.”

What the hell?  Maybe this made more sense in the original Cablinasian, but this was an opportunity to play without the crowds impinging his personal space.

The real answer is that he didn't play because he didn't want to play.  Forget any sense of obligation to the Tour, tournament sponsors or anyone not named Tiger...  The sad part is that he could have helped an event or two and he would have enjoyed the low-key atmosphere, but I'm sure he gave it little serious consideration.

For those with a Tiger Jones, he goes at 1:17 p.m. off the first tee, which means that he'll dominate the Golf Channel coverage window.  Of course, paired with Rory and Brooksie, his group will rarely be off-camera.

Checking In On The Ladies - The gals have been hardest hit for sure, but plans are afoot to get back to business:

The LPGA Tour’s long wait to restart is finally, almost, over. The LPGA Drive On Championship, set for July 31-Aug. 2 in Toledo, Ohio, will be the first LPGA event played since February. To get ready, Commissioner Mike Whan and his team took cues

from what the PGA Tour has done in its five weeks back. On Wednesday, Whan said collaboration with the PGA Tour has been consistent and valuable to the LPGA’s restart.

The PGA Tour has not staged pro-ams since its return, but they are the financial lifeblood of the LPGA. So, the tour is planning on having them, and the first will be at the Marathon Classic in Sylvania, Ohio, the second event of the LPGA restart.

On that Tuesday, there will be an off-site pro-am at Inverness—the site of the Drive On Championship being held a week prior—and then a pro-am on-site at Highland Meadows on Wednesday. Amateurs playing in pro-ams will be tested before coming on-site to play. The formats will also change: no more scrambles, with the goal being to keep three amateur players and an LPGA Tour player from congregating at one spot, for every shot. To reduce the number of people present, amateurs aren’t allowed to have caddies and ride in carts. The LPGA players will walk.

Making them play their own balls might be a human rights issue, but there could be no LPGA events without the Pro-Ams.  But you also see the logic failures, as if it's safe for the professionals to walk with a caddie, why not the paying customers?  I get that they'll skew older, but as long as they're all tested...

But how about this as Sign O' the Times?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., July 15, 2020 – The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) today announced that Cambia Health Solutions has been named its Official Mask Partner. As the world’s leading female professional golfers return to play following an extended shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cambia Health Solutions is helping to promote the health and safety of this year’s competition by providing face masks to players, caddies and staff across the LPGA and Symetra Tours. 

The use of cloth face coverings is recommended by the CDC when in public settings to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, along with other preventive measures, including social distancing, frequent handwashing, and cleaning and disinfecting frequently handled surfaces.

Of course, I'm old enough to remember when the CDC assured us that Masks provided no public health benefit...  I'm sure they got it right with one of those.

No, Next Question -  Mikey Bams with this provocative question:

Is it time to officially get rid of bunker rakes? The answer is complicated

I'm not sure "complicated" is the right word here, as Mike makes the relevant point:

Gary Purdum of the Country Club of Landfall in Wilmington, N.C., wrote to say that “if we want to go to no rakes, I think we need to rethink the type of sand we put in bunkers. We’d need heavy coarse stuff that packs well, not bright, white, fluffy powder.”

I'm basically in Mike's corner on the larger issue that bunkers have ceased to be as hazardous, a word removed from our golf lexicon, as they should be.  But now is an awkward time to be suggesting that every golf course should replace their bunker sand.

We at Fairview might well have found the model for the golf world.  As I've noted, we rebuilt all our bunkers over the winter and obviously put in new sand.  However, with an under-sized maintenance crew all season, the new bunkers have not gotten the attention they need, and the sand has not fully compacted.  I'm getting lots of practice given how many balls are failing to leave the bunker on my first attempt...

The result is that our bunkers are tormenting our members, your humble blogger very much included.  I've always considered myself a fine bunker player, but at the present moment they have me quite whipped, and I consciously play away from them.  Isn't that what Mike is going for?

 Ready For Its Close-Up - If you're prone to jealousy, you might want to avoid this drone footage of all 18 holes at Cypress Point.  I'd call Cypress the best golf course you'll never play though that understates the case.  It's actually the best three courses you'll never play, as it features distinct parkland, dunes and oceanfront stretches of holes.

As you likely know, I was lucky enough to play Cypress twice in the 1980's, though that was long before I was enough of a golfer to appreciate it.  The drone footage can be seen here, I'll just torment you with some of the accompanying photos:

There are no captions, though that looks to me to be the tenth hole (but please, these are thirty-year old memories).

This is quite obviously the famous 16th green:

One of the most famous holes in all of golf, which likely wouldn't exist if not for Marion Hollins.

I need to get back there somehow, though the chances of that seem to be evaporating.

That 90's Show - The Backspin is gearhead central at Golf Magazine, and Jonathan Wall and Andrew Turskey have come up with quite the fun premise.  They are watching and commenting on some 1990's golf club infomercials, and you should click through and watch, if only to see the unintentionally hilarious infomercials.

First up, do you remember the Alien Wedge?  I actually remember this one, though it looks just as well, alien, upon further review.  As the guys make clear, the premise of the club, higher bounce, as proven out over the long haul.  Of course the sales pitch is that club will do anything, which had me a little puzzled as to how that extra bounce would be helpful playing of a cart path.

The Hammer X Driver I don't recall, but I assume the infomercial with its shots of the space shuttle logically came after the Challenger disaster...curious that, no?

They are quite amusing, and props to the guys for a fun series.

A perfect item on which to exit.  I'm supposed to play golf tomorrow, though the weather forecast is somewhat iffy.  So, I've no clue as to whether you should expect content here, but you might as well stop by to check.  No sense taking chances on missing anything critical.

Tuesday Trifles

As I touched on yesterday, I have way too much golf planned for the remainder of the week, so blogging will be on a catch-as-catch-can basis.  Of course, that all assumes I survive my play date with our favorite five-year old boy later this morning.

Memorial Daze - It's just so great to be back at Jack's place.... seems like ages.  What?  Really...just last week?  

Our game has many problems during this annus horribilis, but PGA Tour Strength of Field has not been one of those:

As Shack and others point out, that's despite lots of dead wood:

Le Sigh!  And that's even before I note that Brentley missed one... and not just anybody, as Geoff explains:

Singh, 57, has yet to make a cut in 2020 in seven starts, has on top ten the last four years on the PGA Tour, and has made just 12 cuts in 42 starts during that time.

Le Singh?  Might have been early with that Le Sigh...  

Early in the pandemic I played a game with myself, trying to identify that which might change for the better because of the virus.  Yeah, but it helped me... for about a week, then the inevitable answer of "nothing" presented itself.

But is it possible that we could reexamine the issue of sponsors exemptions and the status certain elder statesmen have on Tour?  I get that these exemptions were likely arranged before the year went South, but does Jack think that Stewart Cink is a draw?  

Admittedly, this guy might be taking it a little hard:

Tron, is that the mashed potatoes guy?

The mellifluously-named Zephyr Melton reminds us of how the set-up will differ this week:

Faster greens 

One of the most striking difference for players — though it may not be as obvious to the viewers — is how much faster the greens will play this week as opposed to last. For the Workday Charity Open, the greens ran around an 11 on the Stimpmeter. For the

Memorial, the greens will quicken considerably to around 13. They had to slow the greens last week in order to unlock some different hole locations that are not possible with lightning quick greens, but more on that laster. 

Different hole locations 

With the greens being faster, there are fewer useable hole locations on each green. This means that hole locations should be easier for the Memorial — at least in theory. Some of the gentle slopes that don’t repel balls when the greens roll at an 11 will suddenly turn into slippery mountains when the greens roll at a 14. Hole locations should look more accessible to the naked eye, but whether or not they play that way is a different story.

Longer rough 

The rough will also be a bit gnarlier for the Memorial than it was at last week’s event. The thick stuff was measured in the 3.5-inch range last week while this week it will grow to around four inches. Loose shots will be much more penal as a result.

A/K/A the usual suspects.  I'd like to see them get the place firmer, but a quick scan of the weather forecast doesn't offer much optimism there.

 Writing in the local paper, Rob Oiler has this concern:

Memorial's challenge: Keep an already quiet sport from being silenced by having no spectators

For sure, though there's pleasure to be found in the quiet as well:

The PGA Tour’s Workday Charity Open that ended on Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf

Club was live (good) but not alive (bad), lacking the energy and jump usually associated with a firecracker finish to a sporting event. 

Now it is on to the Memorial Tournament, which this week faces a similar challenge: keep an already quiet sport in need of all the electricity it can get from being silenced by having no spectators.

It was riveting theater. Unfortunately the theater felt like it was located off-Broadway without spectators — as has been the case in the five tournaments since the PGA Tour returned from a coronavirus hiatus, and as it will be for the Memorial and at least the next four events on the schedule. 

Thomas lamented the lack of buzz because of the lack of fans following him and Morikawa over the final hour of play. “Just in terms of the ups and downs and the shotmaking,” he said.

The choices were golf with out spectators or life without televised golf...  I'm still thinking they made the right choice.

 Lastly, were you hoping they might pair some of the show ponies together?  

Never Let a Crisis Go To Waste - R&A panjandrum Martin Slumbers took time out from his core obligations of canceling championships to offer up some juicy quotes, veritable catnip to those concerned about the frightening distance golf balls are being sent these days.  He does go to some effort to make it clear that it's not personal:

R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers told Sportsmail that the next step of their review into distance, delayed by the COVID crisis, can't be kicked into the long grass forever. 

And, while Slumbers is personally impressed and fascinated by the way Bryson DeChambeau has beefed up to blow apart the competition, he isn't shying away from the need to restrain the top 'bombers'.

'I'm not sure I can remember another sportsman, in any sport, so fundamentally changing their physical shape. 

'I can't think of anyone. I'm thinking of some boxers because I love boxing. 

'But what is extraordinary is that Bryson isn't the first one to put on muscle in golf. 

'How he's able to control the ball, with that extra power, is extraordinary. All credit to him, he's a true athlete. 

'But I still come back to the belief that golf is a game of skill. And we believe we need to get this balance of skill and technology right.

Here's the gist of Martin's comments:

”Once we feel that the industry is stable again, which isn't going to be tomorrow, because 

we don't know what's going to happen over autumn and winter, we will be coming back to that issue in great seriousness. 

”It is too simple just to say change the ball. Way too simple. You can do things with the ball. 

'But it's the relationship between ball and club which is most important, to me. 

”The fundamental change in the golf ball since 1999-2000, with the introduction of ProV1 technology, is the ball spins less. 

”And drivers have been designed so it spins even less, which makes it go further.”

First, we'll just note that date in the penultimate 'graph, confirming two decades of abdication of responsibility.  In fact, it's more like active collusion, since those early distance reports seemed specifically designed to obscure said distance gains.

But you've been hearing me rant on the subject of spin for years now... I think we've erred in allowing the debate to be exclusively about distance.

But what of his larger argument that both clubs and the ball require consideration?  Shack seems to take encouragement, while also parsing Slumbers' grammar:

Or, farther. Either way, it’s good to know the intent is to target both ball and clubface.

Obviously these distance gains are the result of a variety of factors, including of course the construction of the clubs.  But it should also be noted that many of the predicates, think conditioning and launch monitor technology, are wholly out side the scope of the game's governing bodies.  My belief has always been that it doesn't really matter why they're carrying it 340 yards, it only matters that they're doing so.

While Slumbers is correct that it's not just the ball, regulating the golf ball is a far simpler process than regulating both the ball and the clubs.  And, as I've often noted, golf is the only sport where players choose their own golf ball, so I see a logic in the regulation thereof.  

Of course, the far bigger problems are political, in that the PGA Tour and the PGA of America are intractably opposed to any meaningful regulation.  I'm happy to have Slumbers on the case, but are Mike Davis and he prepared to see this through over the opposition o the various professional tours?  I have argued several path of least resistance points, including bifurcation (which, at least in theory, should make the PGA of America agnostic) in order to limit the fronts on which the battle is waged.

Shack links to this interesting Golf Club Atlas thread on our topic, including this Tom Doak perspective:

If they wanted to make changes, what better time to make them than when everything is in upheaval? That's exactly when capitalists pounce on the opportunity to do things they want to do. 

But when you DON'T want to make changes, that's when politicians say "it's too soon" to consider new policies and that "we don't want to be reactive," or "people need time to grieve." So we might as well start grieving, because it sounds like this report is going to limit the options for change.

I guess Tom is unfamiliar with the concept of regulatory capture. 

As the kids are wont to say, developing...  However glacially.

Did Someone Mention Dornoch? - yesterday we had an item on Royal Dornoch and it's new 7th hole, courtesy of our dear friend John Coupland.  Today we have a more detailed description of this change:

Royal Dornoch Golf Club in Scotland has unveiled its new seventh hole and is now preparing to build new tees for the eighth. The changes were proposed by Mackenzie & Ebert.

The seventh hole has been pivoted to the right so that the sea is in view for the entire hole, and a new green – a replica of the previous one – has been built. New tees for the eighth hole will be built on the location of the previous seventh green.

The work was first proposed after a course review in 2013 and approved by the club in 2015. “I very nearly did not include this concept because it felt almost inconceivable that the members would agree to alter the hole,” said Tom Mackenzie. “It was resoundingly approved – lesson learnt.”

The 7th featured an elevated tee that provides perhaps the best panorama available of the course, but I was having trouble understanding the re-routing, which is explained here:

“The view from the seventh tee is one of the most famous in the world of golf. Is there a first-time visitor to Dornoch who has not taken that photo down over the course? It

seemed frustrating that once down off the tee, the sea disappeared until the green on the highest part of the course. There was plenty of room to the right, so logically, it made sense to rotate the hole that way so that the entire hole enjoyed the same view with a new sea vista behind the green.

“The added advantage was that it freed space to restore the eighth, which had been overwhelmed by new clubs and balls. Thirty-seven years ago, when I first moved to Dornoch, even the best players chose whether or not to drive down the scarp. Many opted to stay on the upper level to benefit from a much better view and line to the green. Today, virtually every player drives down to the bottom. The removal of the old seventh green allows the hole to be extended and the tee shot realigned so that the drive is almost parallel to the top of the slope.”

Is it too early to book a 2021 tee time?  Or, you know, several...

Wither Whan -  Mike Whan has been a strong steward of the LPGA, repairing much of the damage incurred during the Carolyn Bivens Reign of Error.  But see how you react to this:

Mike seems unfamiliar with the concept of cause and effect.  He seems to think that LPGA ratings are low because they're not on national TV.  Whereas, it's far more likely that they're not on national TV because, shield your little girl, no one watches.

Somewhat related is this item from Ron Sirak, a consistent supporter of the women's game:

For as long as I’ve covered the golf – which is three times longer than Twitter has existed – I’ve heard from male amateurs who say they could beat the average LPGA player. Those claims used to come in letters to the editor at Golf World magazine. Now they are amplified on social media. 

I say let’s call their bluff.

Here’s my idea: Let’s have a contest in which three male amateurs with single-digit handicaps win the right to take on an LPGA player on an LPGA course set-up. For added interest, one of the men could be a celebrity. Peyton Manning comes to mind. 

The notion that any male with a 4 handicap could win on the LPGA not only severely underestimates the talent of women who play golf for a living, but it also grossly overestimates the proficiency of those men whose handicaps are established in a Saturday morning two-dollar Nassau.

Ron accomplishes quite the feat, in that he's likely 100% correct, while simultaneously missing the larger point.  

What Ron and Mike both miss, is that you can pass whatever laws you want, but you still can't force people to watch women's sports.  That audience has to be earned, but you'll not earn it by whining... Or by demanding 30 weeks a year of network coverage.  To me, that only deters them from figuring out how to sell the events and garner an audience.

In that vein, it seems to me that Sirak, as well intentioned as he could be, is pointing Whan in exactly the wrong direction.  He's likely correct that the 4-handicap man would throw up over his shoes, but where does that get you?  What it makes clear is that men golfers are simply far better than women golfers, and that if the four can't beat the girls then the two likely will.  It doesn't matter where you draw the line, the ladies lose this argument.

The women's tour needs to be sold with the understanding that these are not the best players in the world, though they're pretty darn good.  To a certain extent, their old "It's Different Out Here" ad campaign was right on target, although that was focused more on promoting the live event experience.  The ladies obviously need to be in the right kind of markets, smaller cities seem an obvious choice, and to make the LPGA experience more accessible than that bigger tour's.

I also differ with Mike on the silver bullet of network coverage.  Given the niche size of the golf audience and that the PGA Tour will be on one of the networks, do we really need two network broadcasts of golf?  I actually think Golf Channel is exactly the right place for the gals, and their promotion of the ladies' tour can be mutually beneficial.  Not to mention the benefit of knowing where to find the broadcast...

But I want to be clear, LPGA lives matter.

Picking a Horse - I unintentionally skipped over this from the Tour Confidential round table yesterday, a question we might have years to think about:

4. Who ends up with more career wins: Morikawa, Matthew Wolff or Viktor Hovland? 

Zak: As the first person to answer I’ll take the obvious choice and choose Morikawa. Though that putter is concerning. 

Dethier: These questions are funny because they ALWAYS draw us into becoming prisoners of the moment. Thus far, Hovland and Morikawa have had some similarities in the way they’ve made so many cuts but only contended a handful of times each. They’re each really solid off the tee, elite irons players (yeah, Morikawa is better) and shakier (relative to Tour players) around the greens. Both seem like more sure bets than Wolff, unless things really turn to a long-drive competition (which isn’t out of the question). But I’ll take Hovland after he puts in a TON of work on that chipping. 

Sens: Morikawa. The most consistent ball-striker. That gives him the edge.

Bamberger: I wouldn’t know how to even venture a guess. I don’t think the three of them together will come close to 82, though. Half that would be a lot.

The funniest part of this is that we'll probably have three new names to obsess over within a few weeks.  Sam Burns, anyone?  Or Bryson will put on another thirty pounds and it'll all be moot.

Quick Hits - Way too many open browser tabs, so shall we dispatch with a few:

Like Now?   Martin Kaufmann has been MIA from his usual focus on golf broadcasts, but the moment seems curious for this travel piece:

Couples Destination: 72 Hours in the Twin Cities

I have this nagging thought that Minneapolis has been in the news lately....Though our romantic getaways invariably involve looting and rioting, so we're all in.

Not For the Faint of Heart -  There's little that depressed me more than this:

Future Ryder Cup sites through 2037

There's Bethpage, where we only have to worry about fan behavior, to a series of unexciting venues such as Hazeltine, Congressional and Olympic.  As for the Euro venues after Rome, Adare Manor has been named for 2027, but the checks haven't cleared for anything after that.  Which means we can defer our depression to a later date.

In the early years of the event it was held at all sorts of wonderful links, including Birkdale, Muirfield, Lytham and Walton Heath (that last is obviously a heathland course).  Not to mention Southport & Ainsdale, which I had cause to mention recently, that actually held two Ryder Cups back in the 1930s.

The fantasy would be a Ryder Cup on the Old Course, which would be just perfect for match play.  Chances that it could happen?  Yeah, let me know when you've stopped laughing...

Statue, Toppling - He's a non-person now, the PGA of America award named for him is no more, but you still might want to give this a read:

Legacy of first Masters champ Horton Smith comes under scrutiny

It should come under scrutiny, as the PGA of America's Caucasian Only policy is a dark stain on the game, not least because of how long before it was changed.  But it seems to me that the organization is protecting itself from its own history and laying the blame on individuals.  I agree that the award should not be named for Horton Smith.  But I also believe that that was the case for decades, yet the PGA of America was happy to trumpet Smith name.  What changed?

Have a great week and do check in, as I'll try to share some thoughts before the weekend.