Weekend Wrap

I did watch some golf yesterday, just not the golf I wanted to see...  Thanks, Cablevision, you're very special...

Eyes Wide Shut - Yup, that's a thing now, which we'll get to in a bit.  But first, just when you think we're through with the enfant terrible of the golf world, he's back:

All week in Mississippi, the story was Sergio Garcia’s eyes-closed putting technique, as it should have been. Garcia, a notoriously bad putter, had found something that was working, and then said he

had been doing it for a few years now (the jury is still out on that). But it didn’t matter if he started it three years ago or this week at the Country Club of Jackson. It was working, and it was working well now, so it was obviously going to be a big topic.

However, Sergio fittingly wound up winning this tournament on Sunday thanks to his irons, the best clubs in his bag for his entire 20-plus-year career as a pro. Yes, he did still putt quite well during his final-round 67, the best he had all week actually, but the deciding shot came with an iron.

A good-looking shot? Try phenomenal. Try tournament-ending. It came from 171 yards out, and it set up the easiest putt of the week for the 40-year-old Spaniard (we still have trouble believing El Niño is 40). Eyes closed or not, that one was going in, and it gave him his first PGA Tour win since the 2017 Masters. He did win on the European Tour almost exactly one year ago at the KLM Open, but even with that victory Garcia still dropped out of the top 50 of the OWGR for the first time in nearly a decade. A timely win, and more importantly, a special one, as Garcia explained.

Sergio is one of those polarizing figures that will always generate a split verdict.  I've always loved watching him swing a club, and he's long been the guy I point to as explanation of the concept of lag in a golf swing.  But the demons are often in control, whether it's spitting into the cup or damaging greens.   

He's also the poster child for our inflated expectations after breakthrough wins.  The Era of Good Feeling that was anticipated after his Masters win (not to mention marriage and family) arrived stillborn in the Saudi desert.

The Tour Confidential panel takes on the underlying existential issues involved:

Sergio! Three and a half years after his Masters victory, Sergio Garcia is a PGA Tour

winner again, stuffing his approach on the 72nd hole of the Sanderson Farms Championship to edge Peter Malnati by a stroke. What’s the significance of this win for a 40-year-old who, in 2020, missed qualifying for the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time in his career and who also just recently had slipped out of the top 50 in the World Ranking for the first time since 2011?

Dylan Dethier: It means a ton. Look, Sergio is no stranger to the winner’s circle — he’s got a worldwide win in each of the last 10 years, tied with Justin Rose for longest in the world — but winning on the PGA Tour in this fashion was a heck of a statement. If this signals the beginning of another run for fortysomething Sergio, nearly 20 years after his first W, that’s a good thing for golf.

It might mean a ton, but only to Sergio....  The surprise here is how such a great ball-striker can go into such a tailspin, but the margins are just that fine out there.

Alan Shipnuck: It’s great to have him back in the conversation. Few players in golf are as polarizing as Sergio, or more fun to watch. We’ll see how much grind he has left and if he wants to be a consistent contender, but for now let’s just enjoy the show. I’m sure Padraig did — an in-form Garcia would be a huge boost for Team Europe.

Polarizing?  Where have I heard that before?  Normally I'd scoff at the RC implications, but that Euro squad shapes up as uniquely shallow.  Of course, Alan has notice the same, which only resulted in him being the toast of the 2018 Euro victory celebration... 

Sean Zak: Anytime you can re-prove to yourself that you’re one of the best in the world, it’s significant for confidence, alone. I’ve still got it. I’m still this good.

Josh Sens: After the big win at Augusta, when he finally got the best-player-to-never monkey off his back, a lot of us expected a lot more of this from Sergio. So in a way the surprise is that it took him this long to win again. But a big deal, for sure, especially for such an emotional player who has seemed to undermine himself with a kind of Eeyore gloom and self doubt. This has got to be a sweet boost for him. Funny game, right? You never know when the magic is going to strike.

Michael Bamberger: I would say this win for Sergio means to him what Phil’s win at Pebble last year means to him. Nice to know you can still do it, but no real impact on your life.

There's a reason Bamberger bats clean-up.  

I'll just add that Sergio las long topped that list of great ball-strikers that can't putt.  Accordingly, when he seems to find something with his putter, the tendency is to over-interpret and to assume it can be maintained.  Of course the harsh reality is that he's been a poor putter for those 20+ years, and everything regresses to the mean... 

Shack makes a good point (and makes it amusingly) that I'd like to second.  Sergio won the event with this shot from the 18th fairway:

To which Geoff responded thusly:

Two shots down the stretch took putting out of the equation and remind you why fairway shot tracer is as vital to the future of watching PGA Tour golf as having a functional mute button:

Of course this event wasn't broadcast by CBS, therefore the mute button wasn't quite as critical...  But shot tracer everywhere, please.

If the eyes shut thing is new to you, check this piece out.   Was he really closing his eyes at Augusta?  Color me skeptical, but here's the TC gang's reactions:

Garcia turned heads this week by putting with his eyes closed. “I would love to putt with my eyes open,” said Garcia, who added he’s been employing this method for three years, including during his Masters win, “but I feel like my stroke is more consistent when I kind of try to forget about it and just kind of feel it.” (The practice worked in Mississippi, where Garcia picked up 1.79 shots on the field in SG: Putting, which was 28th best in the field.) Should more players — both pros and hackers alike — give eyes-shut putting a whirl?

Dethier: Oh, definitely. This isn’t so different from the Jordan Spieth look-at-the-hole trick that people were trying everywhere during Spieth’s run a few years back. When you’re looking at your ball, it’s easy to add a certain hitch or let fear creep in. Eyes closed? You’re guaranteed to keep it smooth. Even if golfers don’t incorporate it on the course, it’s a great exercise for the putting green just to find the feel of a worry-free stroke. 

Shipnuck: Hey, why not? Whatever works.

Zak: I was personally surprised to see just how poor a putter Sergio has been for most of the 2010s. Do whatever you’ve gotta do, mate. Get that ball in the hole.

Sean, the problem with sharing that bit is that it sort of argues to ignore your opinions.  How could you watch golf without noticing that?  I mean, there's reason Sergio destroyed greens in Saudi Arabia and not tee boxes... 

Sens: You mean, there are people who put with their eyes open? I’ve never been able to bear watching myself.

Bamberger: Does he mean this literally? [Editor’s note: he does!] I don’t recall ever seeing him putt with his eyes actually closed. Maybe cameras, TV and otherwise, don’t pick that up, but I think he means not so focused on the ball, or a line on the ball. But Johnny Miller did at times putt with his eyes closed, so who knows? I think Shivas may have, too.

Shivas?  I'll take your word for it, because I couldn't get fifty pages into that impenetrable morass.

So, before leaving this event, how much do we love Peter Malnati?

Malnati, 33, hadn’t had a top-10 on the PGA Tour since the 2016 Hyundai Tournament of Champions but closed with a 9-under-par 63 that gave him the clubhouse lead until Garcia sank a 2-footer on the final hole.

Malnati, who teed off 1 hour, 40 minutes ahead of the leaders, waited out the rest of the day’s play by having a picnic with his wife, Alicia, and son, Hatcher, who turns 1 in two weeks. Malnati went to the range to warm up for a potential playoff a hole before Garcia won his first PGA Tour title since the 2017 Masters.

He actually said he was going to get in the pool with his son, which seemed unwise.  The images of him with his family were appealing, as are comments like these:

“This is my dream job, and I get to do it every day, and it beats me up and it’s so hard, and the competition out here is so strong, and you fail so much,” Malnati said. “What I did out there today felt like, it just felt awesome.

“I feel like I won the tournament.”

Compare this to Bryson berating a cameraman and worried bout his brand... It is a dream job, though we don't often see the guys act as if they understand that.  

Scotland, Denied -  Tough year for your humble blogger as relates to Scotland.  First, the small matter of that summer trip we cancelled...  That still hurts, but did you catch any of the Scottish Open on Saturday?  Cold and wet, with more than a wee breeze, and watching the guys handle those conditions was good fun. 

But, having taped the first three rounds under my prevailing schedule, Cablevision decided that I had no interest in the final round and failed to tape it.  Anyway, it was apparently good fun:

Tommy Fleetwood pulled some late Sunday drama at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, but ultimately Aaron Rai had the last word. When Fleetwood, the European Ryder Cupper, holed a 20-footer for birdie at the closing hole to catch Rai at 11 under, it meant a playoff

between the two Englishmen.

Fleetwood fell to Rai on the first playoff hole. Even though Rai hit it in a bunker off the tee to give Fleetwood the early advantage, Fleetwood three-putted from just off the green to give Rai the title.

For Rai, it’s a bit of redemption after finishing runner-up at last week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. His win at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland, also moves him inside the top five in the Race to Dubai Rankings and into the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

You guys know I'm a cheap date when it comes to links golf, and we were denied our full portion size this year.  A couple of interesting aspects to the event, first being the role of TV in the proceedings:

Nothing against Lee Westwood but for the 2nd time today sky TV and Ken Brown using replay to help find his ball yet even though they showed Lucas Herbert's drive go in the grass I never saw any TV replay to help him and he never found it.

How can this be fair?@SkySportsGolf pic.twitter.com/oNfdiKrh0b

— David Shacklady (@ShackersGolf) October 3, 2020

Our Shack, not to be confused with LadyShack, had these thoughts:

I didn’t think much of the assistance because television is part of the competition in so many different ways. Plus, only those devoid of a heart want to see an avoidable lost ball. (Though many commenters expressed delight in pros experiencing what we mere mortals go through.)

 Since the fan-free return, Brooks Koepka predicted lost balls earlier this year and we did see two consequential ones created by Winged Foot’s rough. But this situation was different:

A) This is the most linksy course professional golf has visited since the restart, with lost balls

more easily found due to the variety of grasses and other odd landmarks. (One of Westwood’s lost balls came down near some yellow wildflowers and a tree stump, which the Sky team relayed to the on-course reporter).

B) There was a view that one player, a likable veteran, received assistance because he’s a likable veteran, while another leader did not earn similar treatment. While happenstance is mostly likely the culprit, the inequitable treatment had a fair share demanding that television stay out of the proceedings in the name of fairness.

I don’t believe this is a Rules issue as much as it’s a philosophic question of what role should television play? With betting projected to become a prime revenue source and the fan based connected to the proceedings via capital, these weird little first world dilemmas take on a different edge with outside money on the line. We already know how upset viewers get when they perceive a slight when tallying up shots shown, so imagine if one player is seemingly helped more than another?

This topic may be moot when spectators return and any television assistance will return to its former role as the equivalent of fans identifying where a ball went. But for a while attendance will be light, cameras will still roll and I suspect, there will be a randomness to lost balls identified with the help of television.

It's  certainly not a rules issue, per se.  I'm not actually sure it's an issue at all, though betting will, as Geoff notes, intensify reactions to these random incidents that will happen in a game played dover hundreds of acres of partially manicured land.

The other interesting bit relates to the future of this event.  I suspect that you'll be surprised to hear this about the last four years:

After being played at the same venue for the last four years as part of a cost-saving exercise, the men's and ladies' Scottish Opens could be set to go their separate ways again.

A return to the events being held at different courses going forward was indicated by Martin Gilbert as he sat down with the media at The Renaissance Club today for the last time wearing an Aberdeen Standard Investments hat.

Mainly to save on the cost of infrastructure, the two events were held at the same venue for the first time in 2017 at Dundonald Links, with the arrangement being repeated at Gullane in 2018 then at The Renaissance Club for the past two years.

"We thought it would help economically, but it hasn’t really. It’s not as clear-cut a benefit as we would have thought," admitted Gilbert, who officially retired as chairman of Aberdeen Standard Investments earlier this week and has been saying his farewells at the men's event taking place on the East Lothian coast.

“It was an economic decision that doesn’t really stack up. I think you could separate them. The ladies deserves a separate course.

He doesn't really explain what he means by not working out.  Did the savings not materialize?  

There's a few things undoubtedly going on here, though those venue selections (Gullane excepted) could be part of the issue.  Dundonald and the Renaissance Club are links most Americans have never heard of, so that might be wee issue.   

The problem, of course, is that they just sound so clueless about things, this for instance:

As for future venues for the men's tournament, that has still to be decided, though Gilbert, who is staying involved in golf as a new European Tour board member, is not giving up on his dream of it returning to somewhere like Carnoustie one day.

Under Peter Dawson's reign as the R&A chief executive, the European Tour were told that Open Championship venues were off limits for the Scottish Open, but Gilbert is ready to test the water on that with Martin Slumbers.

"It would be fantastic," he said. "You would love to go to Carnoustie and St Andrews, though I don't know you'd ever get St Andrews. We'd also love to go back to the west coast as well at some stage. It's finding a course of the right calibre."

Carnoustie is the last place they should take a Scottish Open.  First and foremost, the Scottish Open is not the Open Championship, and they'd do well to bear that in mind.  We see these venues sufficiently often, and this event has worked best when they blaze their own trail, and here I'm thinking Castle Stuart, Royal Aberdeen and the aforementioned Gullane.

But, of course, the other issue is that Carnasty is just too difficult .  I'm old enough to remember when this event was played at Loch Lomond, profoundly silly the week prior to the Open.  A links primer is a good hook to get Americans over a week early, but they very much don't want to be beaten up the week before a major.  Given the uncertainties of the weather, it would be counter-productive to make them grind at the Scottish.

At least they seem to get this basic issue:

Asked if the plan was to keep the event on a links course, he added: It's obviously a decision between the Scottish Government, Aberdeen Standard Investments and the European Tour, but I'd say so.

"It's become a success since we moved it to a links course and I saw a video of players being asked about their favourite courses in Scotland and they were all links courses apart from one. I said to myself, 'that just shows'.”

There's just no reason to go to Scotland and play inland...

Looking Forward - the ladies are playing their KPMG/PGA event this week at the worthy Aronomink, and that Tc panel previews it for us:

The third LPGA major of the year, the KPMG Women’s PGA, kicks off this week at Aronomink, outside Philadelphia. What storyline are you most excited to see play out?

Dethier: Nelly Korda is staking her claim as the best golfer in the world. Can she win her first major championship and grab that top spot?

Shipnuck: Yes, how she bounces back from the crushing loss at Dinah will be quite revealing. But look out for Mel Reid! Her win this week sent a jolt through the golf world. Her games sets up well for tough courses and Reid has star quality – all she needs to do is keep winning and golf fans will fall in love with her.

Have we confirmed there will be no blue wall in Philly?  

Zak: It’s still Lydia Ko for me. She has been ascending again, if ever so slowly. It’s fun to watch it play out over months and years instead of a one-week resurgence, a la Sergio. Ko has played well in the toughest events this year, and Aronimink will be no pushover. Would love to see her back in contention at yet another major. Won’t even get started on asking for a victory. The pursuit is too fun to watch.

Sens: Zak beat me to it. How can you not be drawn to Ko? A great fall from the mountaintop, and now clambering back up from the abyss. And doing it all with such class and grace. To my mind, she’s the easiest player to root for in the game. Not just the women’s game. In golf, period.

Class and grace?  I guess firing everyone around her is the class, and this would be the grace.  The bride and I walked with Lydia and her parents at Westchester Country Club in the initial installment of this week's event, and she presented as genuine and appealing (I especially remember her offering bottles of water to the kids on a hot day).  It's not that she doesn't have class and grace, it's just that there's another side that's been painful to watch.

Bamberger: How Sophia Popov plays in another major. How these great young golfers take to an old-timey course. How the PGA of America sets up the course.

Hey, I'm just glad that Sophia gets to play in another major.  I'm old enough to remember when winning a major guaranteed a tee time in the nest one, but Mike Whan has other ideas.

And this on the coming slate of PGA Tour events:

The five remaining events before the Masters will be conducted at an eclectic mix of courses, including two rookie sites: Shriners (TPC Summerlin), CJ Cup (Shadow Creek), Zozo (Sherwood), Bermuda Championship (Port Royal), Houston Open (Memorial Park). Which of those Masters warm-ups are you most intrigued by, and why?

Dethier: Memorial Park. I love a good muni project, and Houston has dived into this one under the watchful eye of Tom Doak, with an assist from Brooks Koepka! I’m excited to see how it plays, first off, and then to see how the community responds to a new gem of a city track.

Shipnuck: Seconded. Though Port Royal is really fun and funky and the views are amazing.

Zak: Personally, I’ve never seen Sherwood! Hoping to understand why many seem to like it. Or if there isn’t much there for the TV viewer who will never play it…

Sens: Count me in for some muni love, though getting another closeup look at Shadow Creek should be good fun as well.

Bamberger: Memorial Park, followed by Memorial Park. My memory of Port Royal is that it is WAY too short to contain a touring professional, so curious to see how that plays out. But as Beck always says when he’s on the British chat shows: Public golf. It’s where it’s at! I got two lob wedges and a microphone. I have no idea what that means or why he says it. But he does and he is often ahead of the curve, both in music and in golf. Sam Snead used to speak of the connection between the two, but that’s another subject for another day.

Beck?  Mike is just a national treasure...

I'm marginally interested in seeing Shadow Creek with normal production values, because it looked dreary during that Tiger-Phil pillow fight.  Of course, Cypress Point would have probably looked dreary as well, given the quality of the golf that day.  

The bigger question is will they ever return to China...  

My New Fave - After Peter Malnati, perhaps, but did you hear this story:

Superstitious pro hilariously wears same outfit on back-to-back days

If you think that's hilarious, wait until you see his lockdown beard:

 Laugh all you want, but it seems that it worked.  This gave rise to some fun in that TC panel:

After a third-round 67 gave Korn Ferry pro Evan Harmeling the lead at the Savannah Golf Championship, he elected to wear the exact same outfit in the final round. (Why mess with a good thing, right?) Harmeling’s sartorial strategizing paid off: On Sunday he beat Kevin Dougherty in a playoff. What’s the wildest golfer superstition you’ve encountered?

Dethier: First of all, big-time props to Harmeling, a Massachusetts man and my contemporary on the New England mini-tours who used to play events like the Greater Bangor Open (he won the 2013 Charlie’s Maine Open) and now may well be headed to the PGA Tour. As for superstitions? My frequent roommate on the Canadian Tour, Brian Hughes, would frequently play entire rounds without watching either of his playing partners make a single swing, saying he wanted to avoid “bad vibes.” He’d look away, wait for the sound of impact and then play his shot. An all-timer.

There are for sure some swings that I don't advise watching...

Shipnuck: I love how Ernie Els discards his golf ball after every birdie, under the theory that every ball has only bird in it.

Zak: Wearing a red shirt during the final day of an event. Every single tournament.

Good thing Patrick isn't doing that any longer...

Sens: “Oh, Billy, Billy, Billy. Oh, Billy, Billy, Billy.” That was pretty weird, but it seemed to work.

Can't we ban gratuitous Caddyshack references?

Bamberger: I caddied for a player who liked to play balls stamped with an 8. Sometimes he couldn’t get them and played with other numbers, but he wasn’t happy about it. This player was one of the smartest people I ever knew. If you want to find out why 8 was meaningful to him, you can ask Tiger’s mother.

 Peter Teravainen, I assume, for whom Mike caddied on the Euro Tour, and which comprised the delightful and unexpected first half of this book.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Your Friday Frisson

I have only a couple of hours for you, so let's have at it.  Just a few oddball items that you can use to fill those awkward moments in your Saturday fourball.

Golf Channel, The Good, The Bad and The Curious - As golf, the sport, enjoys it's moment, Golf, the channel, goes along for the ride:

Single-Sport networks?  I'm thinking that's setting the bar awfully low...

Geoff has this from an NBC Sports press release:

• GOLF Channel’s Total Day viewership in the quarter (118,000) ranked #1 among all single-sport networks, posting a 33% increase from the same time period in 2019.

• Among viewers in the Adult 25-54 demographic, GOLF Channel’s third quarter marked its most watched quarter in Total Day viewership in two years (Q3 in 2018, which featured The Open, Tiger Woods’ win at the TOUR Championship and the Ryder Cup), and delivered a 40% increase from last year’s third quarter.

So, the cleaned The Backgammon Channel's clock, which is good to know.  But didn't they also have two majors, one in prime time (and that 2018 Open Championship would have been morning air times).  

And these data points as well:

• The conclusion of the PGA TOUR Playoffs combined with the return of the U.S. Open to NBC Sports Group led to GOLF Channel’s second most-watched September ever (124,000). GOLF Channel also delivered its most-watched August (113,000) since 2017.

• Early round coverage of the 2019-2020 PGA TOUR season after the restart on GOLF Channel was the most-watched for these events vs. the same/comparable 12 events since the start of the FedExCup format in 2007.

Is it me, or are these numbers awfully unimpressive?   

With the country still under house arrest and other professional sports actively repelling their fan base, shouldn't these numbers be better?

All of this is against the backdrop of large layoffs at the channel and a consolidation of its operations in Stamford, CT.   Shack also had this earlier post with some other, less happy news from the channel, in which we learn all sorts of useful things.  For instance, did you know there was topclassactions.com website?  Here's a screen grab of their logo:

Helping right consumer wrongs?  I'm pretty sure that's not how one spells "Enriching trial lawyers", but whatever...

The basic allegation is that Golf Channel illegally sells viewer's data:

Plaintiff Justin Breault claims NBCUniversal sells or rents subscriber information to third-parties in order to supplement its revenue.

The information allegedly being rented or sold includes customers’ names and addresses, as well as “detailed transactional information” about the titles and subject matter of the media purchased by subscribers.

Detailed transactional information?  I'm a little confused here, because, well, read along:

“For example, as a result of Defendant’s disclosures of Personal Viewing Information, any person or entity could buy a list with the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all women over the age of 50 who reside in New York, earn an income of over $80,000, own their home free and clear, and have purchased the Golf Channel from Defendant,” the class action lawsuit states. “Such a list is available for sale for approximately $120.00 per thousand customers listed.”

I actually take this privacy stuff fairly seriously, but the surprise would be that Golf Channel would know that I'm over fifty and own my house free and clear (if, in fact, I do own my house free and clear).

But if I understand the allegation, it's not really Golf Channel that knows or is selling that granular material.  The reader inevitably glosses over these paragraphs:

The information allegedly being rented or sold includes customers’ names and addresses, as well as “detailed transactional information” about the titles and subject matter of the media purchased by subscribers.

Once the data is disclosed, the third-party recipients of the information can add other personal and demographic data for those customers, then re-sell the personal viewing information to other third-parties, the class action lawsuit says.

The nature of three-card Monty is misdirection, so follow very closely.  GC is accused of selling viewership data, but it's third-parties marrying it to the more detailed and scarier data:

The NBCUniversal class action lawsuit includes a screenshot from NextMark Inc.’s website that shows consumer records available for sale.

“The Personal Viewing Information of 13,089,254 American consumers who purchased Defendant’s video products is offered for sale on the website of NextMark, Inc. (‘NextMark’) – one of many traffickers of this type of Personal Viewing Information – at a base price of ‘$85.00/M [per thousand records]’ (8.5 cents each),” the NBCUniversal class action lawsuit says.

I don't actually know whether this is legal and/or morally acceptable on the part of Golf Channel/NBC Universal.  But I do know a few things that should cast skepticism on the claims.  First and foremost, class action lawsuits are out of control, most serving the purpose only of generating legal fees.  Anyone that invests in the stock market has received no shortage of legal documents related to such claims, most of which are resolved with no benefit to the actual claimants.

The other obvious point is that the claimants go ut of their way to add a bunch of lipstick to their pig of a claim, the egregious behavior not apparently coming from their defendant, chosen quite obviously for the depth of their pockets.

Amusingly, Geoff adds background on a couple of other legal matters in which Golf Channel has been ensnared, first this about the name of its Golf Pass service:

GolfClub’s GOLFPASS, which is a United States Golf Association official golf club that partners with local golf courses and allows customers to book tee times through a mobile application, alleges that the group of defendants misappropriated its business name when they launched their own version of Golfpass in February of 2019 in violation of the Lanham Act and monopolized the market for digital tee time booking in violation of the Sherman Act and Clayton Act. Court documents filed by GolfClub and its CEO, Christopher Silano, allege that McIlroy, who is described as a "Founding Partner" of Golfpass, and the defendants knowingly took the name GOLFPASS despite GolfClub first using it and establishing trademark rights.

Court papers further allege that as soon as Rory McIlroy and NBC launched their platform, consumers and potential partners immediately began confusing the two platforms to GolfClub’s detriment, and that Silano regularly started receiving a barrage of emails from customers complaining about the McIlroy/NBC service and app.

Interesting...I suppose.  One assumes that NBC has an adequate supply of lawyers and that said lawyers can do public records searches competently, so I struggle to take this seriously.   But Geoff, who has always seemed to enjoy the more absurd side of things, left the best little nugget unblogged.  This source reference includes a photo of the plaintiff with this caption:

Chris Silano, Founder and CEO of GOLFPASS, who has been described as a McIlroy doppelganger

That's just bizarre...

And one last piece of weird litigation, in which Golf Channel employees from the Orlando facility are suing Lockheed Martin for...well, it ain't pretty:

For decades, Lockheed Martin manufactured heavy weaponry at its facilities, generating “dangerous wastes,” including different types of metal sludge, oils and greases, metal cuttings and scraps, cyanide and spent acid solutions, the lawsuit said.

Instead of carefully managing the waste, attorneys alleged Lockheed Martin stored toxins in leaking storage tanks, collected and transported waste in leaking underground piping systems and dumped tons of toxic waste sludge inside trenches dug at the Orlando facility.

“Lockheed Martin’s stunning indifference to environmental protection and human health resulted in staggering levels of contamination at the Orlando [facility],” the lawsuit said.

Regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit certain chemical contaminants in drinking water to 5 parts per billion (ppb) with a goal of having zero. The lawsuit alleges two contaminants were detected in groundwater underneath the Lockheed Martin facility in concentrations as high as 386,000 ppb and 213,600 ppb.

Well, we hear so much these days about toxic work environments.  Just a weird confluence of litigation, though it's unclear that any of it much matters.  Though it does reinforced something I've been saying for years, that you'd have to be out of your mind to start a business these days.

Unrelated to golf, but there are many others that don't want you to start that business as well:

I've got the revolution penciled in for November 4th...

Tear Down All the Statues - You knew this one was coming, right?

What’s in a name? For some clubs in the South, uneasy ties to the Confederacy

This was the first club to pop into my mind after seeing the header:

For years at Secession Golf Club in Beaufort, S.C., a private, links-style course surrounded by marsh brimming with nature, the club featured two sets of tees after Union generals (Grant and Sherman) and three after Confederate generals (Lee, Stuart, and Jackson).

Or it did up until late August. The tees now carry the names of important people in the club’s history. In response to the May 25 killing of George Floyd at the hands of police and the ensuing nationwide protests over racial injustice, the walking-only course, which opened in 1992, has taken a number of small steps in recent weeks to avoid the perception that it is paying homage to the Confederacy. In addition to replacing an adaptation of the Confederate States’ first flag with the state flag of South Carolina in their crossed-flag logo (the other is Old Glory), the club also has removed a copy of the Ordinance of Secession, which was first drafted in Beaufort, from a wall inside the front door. (Full disclosure: I know this because I was once a member.)

I find this all rather dreary, as there's simply no appeasing the mob.  The actual history is far more complicated and messy, but is it strictly necessary that every reference to that era be stricken.

I'm open to the concept that certain names might be problematic, and General Wade Hampton offers one such example here.  On the other hand, how about we circle back to these Civil War era issues after we've removed every last reference to Woodrow Wilson?  You'll quickly see the issue...

That'll Leave a Mark - I have no interest in the first round action at the Sanderson Farms, and it's true enough that this guy has never won much of anything.  But, even with those concessions, this header seems a tad overly hostile:

Must be Thursday: Charley Hoffman grabs share of Sanderson Farms lead

 Maybe you guys should hug this out?

Who Was That Masked Man? - To me, this isn't much of a story, except for masks being an outsized part of our zeitgeist these days.  It all relates to the story told under this 1912 N.Y. Times header:

Give it a read.

Alan, Asked - Since I'm on the clock, we'll saddle up Alan Shipnuck and ride him hard.

We open big:

As the self-appointed new leader of the USGA, what are your first executive orders? – @NickGoblirsch

– Driver heads for the pros may not exceed 260cc.

– Golf may never be used as a verb.

– Every private club on the Top 100 list must allow public play at least two days a week.

– Only Michael Bamberger is allowed to use the terms “linksland” and “golfing his ball.”

– Golf influencers may post only one Instagram story per day.

– Golf Twitter prognosticators can complain about TV coverage only once per year.

– O.B. shall be converted to orange stakes — drop a ball within 2 club-lengths of where it crossed the hazard line and play on.

– Being creepy with the beverage cart attendant is a 2-stroke penalty.

– Iron covers, ball retrievers, blade collars, mock turtlenecks, joggers and using the term “width and angles” are punishable by death. Fans who holler “You da man!”, “Mashed potato” or other such drivel are subject to more extreme measures.

– If you didn’t start the company, you can’t wear the logo’d merch.

– All golf balls must be white.

– All golf podcasters must report for a recreation of The Hunger Games; only the lone survivor shall be allowed to continue podcasting.

– At every tournament, reporters shall be given the best parking and on-site spa services.

– Holes-in-one are banned until I make one.

I assume Alan feels better for having solved all of golf's problems... or at least all of Alan's golf problems, most notably that last one.  Though I think we can all agree that iron headcovers deserve their own bullet point.

How many weeks until Will Zalatoris has full status, and will he be in the top 10 of the Fedex Cup by the end of 2020? – @Golfingbrock

What a great story this kid has become, further proof that golf is the ultimate meritocracy … even if confusing Tour rules occasionally hold back a rising young talent like Zalatoris. No reason he can’t crack the top 10 — the dude is playing with a ton of confidence, and while plenty of other pros appear to coasting to the end of the year Z is coming strong every week. It’s clearly only a matter of time until he locks up his Tour status and then keeps building from there.

I have no real sense of how good the kid is compared to his peer group.  But what always jumps out at me is how hard it is for the kids to break through, the big tour being, in my opinion, too much of a closed shop.   A complicated issue, for sure, but I'm always concerned that the balance unnecessarily favors the entrenched.

This one is good fun:

#AskAlan Is there better “elitist country club guy” name on tour than Hudson Swafford? I bet the Swaffords would have gotten an invite to the Smails’ yacht christening. Maybe Harris English or Charles Howell III? There can’t be many Hudsons living below the poverty line. – @BillMarksHusker

 You make an excellent point, but it’s tough to top Brandel Chamblee, which sounds like an $800 bottle buried deep in the Augusta National wine cellar. And Davis Love III may have retired the category — I mean, he’s too soft to even have an aggressive ‘d’ sound at the end of his first name! Love’s surname makes us go gooey and the Roman numerals are *chef’s kiss*.

Back in the day there was a guessing game about who on tour might be gay, and Davis Love's name came up frequently.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but elitist is the least of his worries... Of course there were also those nasty rumors about DLIII's wife, so perhaps we should just move on.

Do you see a journeyman type making next year’s Ryder Cup team? Someone that parlays a career year into a spot like Brett Wetterich, Chris Riley, or Jim Gallagher, Jr? If so, who for either side? #askalan – @SonofaFitch46

Don’t forget Vaughn Taylor! And J.J. Henry! It was those two, along with Wetterich, making the 2006 U.S. team that led the subsequent captain, Paul Azinger, to overhaul the qualifying criteria to make it less beholden to old results. Azinger also demanded more captain’s picks, a system that has stuck and thus reduces the chances of a rando sneaking into an automatic qualifying spot. Because of Covid the 2021 captain, Steve Stricker, will have a whopping six picks, so there is virtually zero chance a Wetterich or Vaughn makes the team. Europe has also tweaked its qualifying formula over the years, weeding out the Ignacia Garridos and Peter Bakers, though, in fairness, those fringe players tended to come up big, one reason the U.S. has consistently been upset over the last quarter-century.

Well, the real problem was that you had the three of them on the one team, and that they played like, well, journeymen... Of course, that event was played at the K Club, so the only thing worse than the U.S. squad was the golf course.

#AskAlan have you seen Ogilvy’s work at Shady Oaks? Do you believe he can be the next Great Designer? – @pintosjavi

I was just talking with a friend today about how badly I want to tee it up at Shady and Colonial, two citadels I’ve visited but never played. I’ve heard the restoration work Ogilvy did is terrific. He has such a high golf IQ and reverence for good architecture it’s hard to imagine he won’t build a bunch of great courses, if he has the patience and persistence to see the projects through, which even before Covid was a tedious process for every would-be MacKenzie.

I know nothing about this project, except that the caddie yard at this Fort Worth club produced Hogan and Nelson... But my mancrush on Geoff Ogilvy remains active, all the more so as a result of his prominence related to the return to Winged Foot. 

This is quite easily the most interesting and substantive of the topics:

Do you think Tour players see a shorter career for themselves than in generations gone by? For example, Bryson, is he thinking ‘I’ll hulk up and give it everything the next 3-4 years’ while his body holds up rather than a 10-15 year timeline? – @StevenStewart18

Well, Bryson is a bad example because he plans to be playing the senior tour at 110 years old. But, yes, I do think in general players are going to peak younger and burn out faster. We might already be seeing that with the likes of Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. Top juniors are like shrunken down Tour players in their early teens, pushing themselves harder than the old-timers could ever imagine. (Brooks Koepka’s and Jason Day’s bodies are breaking down, just as Tiger Woods’ did before them.) Huge money and non-stop social media scrutiny await the most successful players, both of which make early retirement more attractive. So, enjoy these young stars while you can because their reigns may be fleeting.

Like Alan, I do think this is the case.  I'd further add that, at the same time, the Tour has become about a few strong weeks vs. consistent week-to-week results.  

But what I find most interesting is the names cited by Alan in his response.  He throws out five names as candidates for early retirement, all of whom except Spieth have dramatically bulked up their bodies.  he mentions that the bodies are breaking down, but fails to note the literally connective tissue.  Isn't that really the issue begged here?

here's todays "Don't Know Much About History" entry:

Are you the most famous golfing Alan? – @TomIrwingolf

Honestly, it’s a very sad list. Allen Doyle has to take the top spot here, even as he spells his own name incorrectly.

Ahem, (waving hand in air).  There was this guy. 

Bobby D., call your office:

Feelings on plastic tees? – @ameyer77

A crime against humanity.

I just have trouble understanding the liberal mind.  Alan is in favor of reusable shopping bags for sure, but an advocate for single-use golf tees.   Think of the carbon footprint...

Who was better, Duval or O’Meara? – @WallDwarf

Duval and it ain’t close. That O’Meara is in the Hall of Fame but Duval isn’t is a testament to how we overrated sustained-pretty-goodness over transcendent-but-fleeting brilliance. From 1997-2001 Duval played at a level few golfers have ever attained. It’s a shame ennui and injuries ended his run, but even so, his record is damn close to Fred Couples’.

Agreed.  One question I always ask is whether they were ever considered the best player in the game.  That answer is arguably yes for Duval and Couples, but a resounding no for O'Meara, even in 1998 when he caught lightning in a bottle. 

If we took the top 30 of the FedEx Cup standings, and had a pro wrestling battle royale, who would win? Who would do surprisingly well? Who is out immediately? #AskAlan – @NYRfan46

Out immediately: Webb, JT, Abe Ancer, Bryson, Morikawa, Kisner, Leishman, Horschel, Finau

Surprisingly well: Na, Xander, Berger, Sungjae, B. Todd, Cam Smith, Rory

Winner: Tyrrell Hatton

You think these guys want a piece of Bryson?  I'd take that bet...

On that amusing note I'll wish you a good weekend. 

Thursday Themes

Well, September certainly rushed by in a hurry... Suddenly, everyone is asking my plans for ski season, and I don't have any answers.  But since there's still much golf to be played, let's focus on that.

Sanderson Farms Week - I know you've had this week circled on your calendar for some time, not least because of their delightfully wacky trophy:

There's typically little reason to spare a thought for event, but this year's installment features lions and tigers and...well, other things:

The return of the pro-am: Push carts, COVID testing and gift cards, oh, my

JACKSON, Miss. – Instead of a pro-am pairing party, the Sanderson Farms Championship had a COVID-19 test party.

“We gave everybody an hour window where they could come and be tested, 15-minute results and 100 percent negatives and everybody’s here,” said Steve Jent, tournament director. “We’re just trying to turn lemons into lemonade.”

The PGA Tour resumed pro-ams last week at the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic, following in the footsteps of PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour, which first did so at the Ally Challenge and Price Cutter Charity Championship, respectively, in July.

Gone is hobnobbing amongst pros the night before at the draw party, the chummy team photo and the fist bump celebration for a birdie putt.

Those of us that survived the Great Pushcart Famine of 2020 might be amused by this:

The biggest change of all may have been amateurs using push carts. In an effort to limit the number of people on site, caddies for the participants were eliminated this year.

“We’ve always done a walking pro-am and cart-path only is no fun, so, how do we do it without caddies? I thought, why not push carts,” Jent said. “I ordered 250 (from Bag Boy). You can’t find these things. They are not to be found. The local Edwin Watts has asked me if they can buy some.”

So, you can't find these things but you scored 250 of them on short notice?  Though this bit struck me as a tad vague:

Jent said some of his corporate guests were renting out space at restaurants to do team dinners in smaller groups or grabbing take out and going back to their hotels. “We told them you need to semi-self-quarantine before you come here,” he said.

Semi-self-quarantine?  Is that anything like a modified, limited hang-out?

Amusement aside, pro-ams are a necessary fact of life in a sponsor-centric world, so this constitutes progress.  Good as well to see this guy in the field:

JACKSON, Miss. – Watching the U.S. Open on television gave Scottie Scheffler, well, a sick feeling. The reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year withdrew from the national championship

after testing positive for coronavirus on the Sunday before Bryson DeChambeau bludgeoned the field by six strokes.

“Not a break I necessarily wanted, but I felt all right, so it’s good to be back out here feeling healthy again,” Scheffler said ahead of the Sanderson Farms Championship.

With a clean bill of health, Scheffler, who was asymptomatic, is set to launch his 2020-21 PGA Tour season this week as the second highest-ranked player in the field (World No. 30, and behind only Sung-Jae Im). Scheffler was the first player on the PGA Tour to test positive after a run of six weeks without a positive case. Scheffler failed a required in-home test in Dallas before traveling to New York for the championship at Winged Foot.

Given what we've heard about the testing, who knows whether he in fact had the virus.  But he took the set-back graciously, so good to have him back out there.

On a tangentially-related note, Shane Ryan has this feature up at Golf Digest:

11 tour pros most likely to emerge as the fall's breakthrough performers

 Curiously, this is the pic supporting his premise:

It helps that Shane admits that Rory is long past "breaking through", but still it's curious:

5. Rory McIlroy

Remember this guy? He’s a professional golfer who has won four majors and various other events, and was once considered the best player of his generation. Joking aside, McIlroy rarely plays many non-WGC fall events on the PGA Tour, but this season he’s committed to at least the CJ Cup and the Zozo Championship, likely for Masters prep. We all know how badly Rory wants the green jacket to complete the career slam, and if he’s ever going to become a legend of the fall, 2020 is the time.

I certainly agree that this November Masters is a unique opportunity for Rory, especially because the course could potentially be softer than is typical.  But my take on Rory is that the more he wants it, the more poorly he plays.... 

As for this other guy, hasn't his time passed?

6. Rickie Fowler

Let’s go back to that strokes gained vs. FEC points comparison. Rickie Fowler was 31st in strokes gained and just 94th in the FedEx Cup, meaning he under-performed his true skill level. Prior to 2019-’20, his worst FEC finish was 43rd in 2011, and if you believe the numbers, he was at least a little unlucky not to be better than that last season. Everything here points to a rebound season. Anecdotally, it’s crazy how his profile has diminished after just one down year, although the failure to win a major has played a part. Like McIlroy, Fowler will be playing at least two events this fall and could emerge as the guy ready to re-take his spot at the top of the game.

You think this is just about the one down year?  Maybe Rickie breaks through in a big event, but I know I've long since ceased to expect it...

Reports Of Its Demise... - One inescapable conclusion of the pandemic has been the obvious failure of our governing institutions.  We tend to focus on the CDC and FDA, but I would add this one as well:

Yale G.C. closed for the 2019 season last November. Three months later its superintendent of 17 years, Scott Ramsay, left, weeks before the course’s scheduled 2020 opening. Two weeks later the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing Yale University to shutter its campus and facilities, including the golf course. The university reduced the course maintenance staff, which hovered anywhere from 18-24 members, to two. They were limited to four hours of work per day, total, for three months as the university shifted its way through ever-changing health and safety protocols.

Members say there wasn’t much communication between the university and the members. Why, they wondered, with golf enjoying a renaissance during the pandemic, was their course closed? “Yale has never been good at communicating plans,” Mullally says.

Worse, rumors began to spread about the course’s condition. Yale officials told Golf Digest over the summer they were trying to keep up as best they could. Conversely, it doesn’t take an agronomist to understand the consequences of no superintendent and a skeleton crew. A few members found a way in to discover for themselves, and what they found was startling.

Here is a sampling of those pics from June:

Yale is not just any university golf course, its widely considered the best of them, due to its architectural lineage to Macdonald and Raynor.  In a world filled with issues deserving outrage, the magnitude of the endowments at certain institutions is worthy of a spot on the list.  This back-and-forth is so very typical:

Members who requested anonymity told Golf Digest the photos were distributed not to embarrass the university or its administration, but to raise awareness—and alarm. On that front, mission accomplished, as the photos spurred a wave of commentary from media, club members and architectural purists, all wondering how Yale, with an endowment of $30 billion, could let such a masterpiece be defiled.

The photos made the rounds as news that Peter Pulaski, Yale’s director of golf, was leaving in June after two decades of service. Not helping matters were developments with fellow Ivy League members Dartmouth (which was closing its golf course) and Brown (which eliminated its golf program). With the fallout of COVID-19 forcing many institutions to rethink their budgets, and continued silence from the university, there was worry Yale G.C. would be no more.

“People always cite the endowment, and we know there are other things needing money than a golf course,” Massimilian said. “But the golf community never felt like the university knew what it had, and when everything happened during the pandemic, some wondered if that would be it [for the course].”

Le Sigh!  Yes, people keep citing the endowment, because it's thirty billion dollars!   That's billions with a "B"...  Of course it's Yale, so there's always the need for that Seventy-third Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion...

They hide behind "safety", but the State of Connecticut (not to mention common sense) had established that golf is a safe activity.  Perhaps more than just safe, it's actually beneficial both psychologically and because of that which we've learned about the importance of Vitamin-D levels.  But that would involve actually caring about your students and members, but they've got an endowment to maintain...

Masters Notes - Sebastian Munoz has actually played the place in November, and has an account worth noting:

“It was cold,” Muñoz remembers. “I booked for two days, so the first day it was gorgeous. I played like around noon or a little later. It was like 70, 65. It was just long that time, but they told me it was playing different in April.”

The temperature average in November is slightly cooler than it would be expected in April. The typical April high is 77 degrees, while the lows drop into the upper 40s. In November, that high doesn’t usually get above 70 degrees, while the lows drop down to the lower 40s. Not a significant difference, but enough to potentially force players to battle different conditions than the ones they’re used to.

We've seen cold Aprils as well, most notably the Zach Johnson year.  Not all bad some of the clubs we might see pulled:

On the par-4 11th during Muñoz’s lone round at Augusta, he hit a 3-iron (!) into the green for his second shot. The hole plays out to a meaty 505 yards during the Masters, but in the spring players typically don’t have that much club into the green. He was also unable to reach the fairway bunker on the 18th hole, which normally comes into play for nearly every player in the field.

No. 14 has evolved to a drive-and-pitch hole, so maybe an old-timey Masters?   

Outrage in 3, 2, 1... - As I noted earlier in the week, the marriage between the Saudis and the Ladies European Tour seems, well, problematic.  Accordingly, this comes as no surprise:

Amnesty International has voiced deep concern after the Ladies European Tour announced it will

stage two events in Saudi Arabia in November. The LET insisted that it was a “landmark moment for women’s sport in the kingdom” when confirming the tournaments on Monday.

The Saudi Ladies International and Saudi Ladies Team International will deliver a combined $1.5m in prize money and mark the first professional tournaments for women in the country. They are, however, highly controversial given Saudi’s high-profile human rights violations.

“With leading Saudi women’s rights activists currently languishing behind bars, there’s an unmistakable irony to the spectacle of Saudi Arabia throwing open its heavily-watered greens to the world’s leading women golfers like this,” Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, told the Guardian.

“Under the Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia has embarked on a major sportswashing drive – attempting to use the glamour and prestige of big-money sporting events as a PR tool to distract from its abysmal human rights record.”

Quiet, please?  That's certainly how the Saudi's like their women...

But the biggest winners are those players such as DJ, Phil and Brooksie, that cashed the Kingdom's appearance fee checks.  I find interesting that this article and the Amnesty International  objections seem grounded in their general civil rights records, as above buy also with a reference to the Kashoggi murder as well.  Left out of the discussion is any reference to the status of women in the Kingdom.... Why do we think that is?

Another Damn Thing To Worry About - For years we've been hearing about the need to attract Millennials to our game... In fact, that was the justification for deep-sixing longstanding terminology such as "all-square", a horribly obtuse term that we couldn't expect the snowflake generation to understand.  Shack has been all over this nonsense, but apparently that concern is no longer operative.  Apparently the death of our game is more attributable to Gen-Z:

The Sports Industry’s Gen Z Problem

The next generation of consumers isn’t following in the footsteps of sports-hungry millennials

So now they're "sports-hungry millennials"?  

For those of you needing a scorecard, here's the definition of Gen-Z:

New research, however, indicates the next wave of consumers — Generation Z — is much less enthusiastic about sports. According to a Brookings Institution analysis of Census Bureau population estimates, those born between 1997 and 2012 accounted for 20.3 percent of the U.S. population as of July 2019.

If I ran a professional sports league, this might be a concern:

Gen Z’s relative disinterest in sports is reflected in its viewing habits: While 42 percent of all adults, and 50 percent of millennials, said they watch live sports at least once a week, only 1 in 4 individuals ages 13-23 said the same. In addition, Gen Zers were twice as likely as millennials to say they “never” watch live sports.

Zach Leonsis, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at franchise ownership group and media company Monumental Sports & Entertainment, said the keys to growing live viewership among young fans are accessibility and opportunities for engagement.

“Sports properties need to make sure that their games are digestible and available via streaming products,” Leonsis said. “They need to make their games engaging by fostering gamification, daily fantasy, free-to-play games and, ultimately, sports betting.”

Gamification?  The good news is that our game, at least at the club level, comes gamification-ready...  But this actually sounds more like Fan Duel press release than a serious analysis...

Jura On My Mind -  I used to have a feature called Great Places In Golf for just such locales:

It’s safe to say that anyone who goes to Ardfin will never forget it.

It isn’t an easy place to get to. The course is on the southern tip of Jura, a Hebridean island off the west coast of Scotland and it will take a long drive and at least one boat to get there. When you do, you are greeted by one of the most dramatic coastlines in Scotland.

The Ardfin estate was purchased by the antipodean multi-millionaire Greg Coffey. He wanted to build a golf course to play with his friends and family in his retirement. He made a phone-call to the Australian architect, Bob Harrison, who had created Ellerston - another millionaire’s retreat.

The course opened in 2015, but only a handful of golfers have seen Ardfin. Stories emerged of luxury accommodation and breathtaking holes; but it was unknown whether those outside of Coffey’s immediate circle would ever be able to play the course. However, in early 2020 it was announced that the course would be open to visitors – but only for those willing to pay stay on the property. I cover the logistics, accommodation and overall package in the Tour Tips section below.

It's dramatic for sure:

 For those with a few minutes of available time, this video flyover will wow you:

I watched the video before reading that UK Golf Guy review linked above, and it reminded me more of a Pebble Beach than a proper links.  That was confirmed by this:

Building a golf course here would have been virtually impossible until recently - it isn’t sandy, traditional Scottish links, terrain. Rather, it is built on a rocky outcrop and it must have taken incredible vision to conceive of it as a golf course.

Jura is actually not horribly out-of-the-way, an easy ferry ride from Troon.  Jura is also adjacent to Islay, where the ready availability of brown liquor for Employee No. 2 and The Machrie  are an effective siren song.

There's also this one additional issue precluding a trip there:

Much has been made of the expense of playing at Ardfin. You may even hear it is £1,560 for a round. Well, it can be. That’s the cost for 24 hours on the property. It includes your accommodation (more on that below) and at least 2 rounds of golf. There are never more than a handful of people on the property at any time so you will be able to play pretty much whenever you want when you are there. There’s also a 9 hole pitch and putt, with another one on the way.

If you are staying somewhere else on Jura, or nearby Islay, and fancy just a round of golf then you still need to pay the £1,560. I would encourage you to stay, and play as much as you can!!

Which accomplishes the unlikely in making the cost of a round at Pebble seem downright reasonable.

OK, kids, I'll see you tomorrow.