Weekend Wrap

I'm hoping that so much time has passed that you'll forget that I snuck out on Friday.... Of course the joke was on me, given the quality of my play.

JT in Full - That Thomas kid might just have himself a career, but see if you can spot the gaffe:

JEJU, South Korea (AP) — Justin Thomas beat Australia's Marc Leishman on the second playoff hole Sunday to win the inaugural CJ Cup in South Korea and cap his

breakout year on the PGA Tour. 

Thomas sealed his fifth PGA title in 2017 — and his first of the new 2017-18 PGA season — when he birdied the second extra hole and Leishman made bogey after finding the water. 

The pair went to a sudden-death playoff after completing the first U.S. PGA Tour regular-season event in South Korea tied at 9-under 279.

Mr. AP (the item is unbylined), you know that September 2017 is a distinct season from October 2017, and results thereof shall never be combined.

Now the Tour is struggling greatly with sponsorships at home, but seemingly uses its expansion to the four corners of the world as a misdirection.  Nothing to see here, literally as it turned out....

On the not so positive front, there was the collapse of Golf Channel's feed as players were headed to the second playoff hole and the announce team was reiterating the "big feel" of the event. Unfortunately, someone at the event forgot to extend the satellite window.

Oops!   Here's Golf Channel's statement:

The satellite path of the television feed provided by tournament organizers stopped feeding at 2:30 a.m. ET. Golf Channel personnel immediately alerted the tournament production group to the problem. We apologize to our loyal viewers who stayed up late to watch coverage live. The CJ Cup at Nine Bridges playoff will be available shortly in its entirety via Golf Channel Digital and will be replayed on Golf Channel today from 6-10 p.m. ET.

Maybe they assumed that if the event were as prestigious as they pretended, that it would necessarily have an 18-hole playoff on Monday?  And Shack has some fun with the nonsense, including the fact that CJ's majordomo comes with lots of baggage:

First, the good news. Justin Thomas won the inaugural CJ Cup in a playoff over Marc

Leishman to cap off a breakthrough season (Will Gray's report here). Wait, no, to kick off the new season. Either way, he's very pleased to be shutting down for a while to enjoy a well-earned vacation.

Also, wasn't it great to see CJ Group Chairman Lee Jay-Hyunon the 18th tee to help with the playoff draw? Still fresh off a pardon and a little time in the slammer, the Chairman seems to have recovered from a kidney transplant.

 It's a game for gentlemen....

Shack also has some tasty excerpts from the Monahan/Votaw pressers, including some delightful translation misfires:

Q: It’s great that we have got another event in Asia. From the next season, 2018-2019 season, you are going to make some big changes with possibly the playoffs coming soon and the PGA Championship moving. It looks to me as though you are going to free up more dates in the fall, in the post-labor day area. Are you planning more tournaments in Asia? Japan or China?

Jay Monahan: I would answer that by confirming that we have what you just mentioned, which is we have the commitment to move the Players to March and PGA Championship to May. You were right in that it does freeze some time in the fall. The next step we are going to take in order affect change is to essentially complete other parts of our schedule the tournaments that exist in that pre-labor day window in the U.S.

But we are a global game. If you follow the logic trail of being here, you look at the fact that you’ve got 3.5 million participants and 36 million rounds of golf played, we love what we are seeing in terms of emergency screening technology, the fact that we’ve got such a rich number of players.

Most of you will struggle to understand the importance of emergency screening technology, but I can assure you it was a killer point in the original Klingon.  It also distracts from the niggling detail that those 3.5 million souls are barely scratching out ten rounds per annum...

No doubt it's a global game with strong interest in Asia.  As to whether this Tour needs to be running events there, I'll defer to the six people watching when the screens went dark.

Q: Are you surprised to see only a few foreign press covering the event, given that this event is quite significant? Why do you think that there aren’t many global press covering this event here? 

Ty Votaw: There is no question that we are very excited about the opportunity to be here, first time being an official event. The media landscape in all countries is changing and as you know, the golf media in the US is also changing with decreased budgets and decreased stabilities to cover even some domestic events in the US. We now have opportunities with other platforms and other areas.

Significant?  Oh, never mind.... There's lots more discussion in Geoff's post, if you can't get enough of the opportunities and platforms....

Hopefully Jay Monahan is saying what he needs to say to buy time to fox the hot mess that Nurse Ratched left him.....

Meanwhile, On the Home Front - Because things are all coming together so well in its traditional market:

The upscale food chain that turned “The Colonial” into the “Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial” is on the verge of pulling out early, two years into its six-year commitment

with the event. 

Dean & DeLuca has notified the PGA Tour and Colonial that it may be unable to meet its financial obligations for tournament sponsorship in 2018, according to a letter from Colonial Country Club president Rob Doby to its members obtained by the Star-Telegram. 

“While certainly disappointing, it is not a situation that we as a Membership and Staff are unfamiliar with,” Doby wrote. 

The board is scheduled to meet with Dean & DeLuca representatives as early as Thursday about potentially renegotiating the terms of the contract, but at this point the club is preparing to look elsewhere for a title sponsor.

For those of you keeping a scorecard, that's three events in the coming season with no sponsors, including the Houston and D.C. stops.

We know contraction is coming, we just didn't expect so many events to be volunteering....

Sergio in Full - Perhaps it's from watching too much baseball, but doesn't the home team always win?

In the just over six months that have passed since Sergio Garcia famously won the

Masters, the Spaniard has had a lot going on. There was marriage to new wife, Angela. There is impending fatherhood to look forward to next March. And there has been much wearing of the iconic green jacket at functions around the globe. All have kept the 37-year-old busy off the course. 

On the course things have been a little less exciting. A tie for 10th at the Tour Championship was Garcia’s best post-Augusta finish on the 2016-'17 PGA Tour. And T-2 behind Andres Romero at the BMW International Open in Germany last June has been his best effort on the European circuit. Not awful by any means, but it would be fair to say that finally breaking his long-standing major duck has hardly been the prelude to a string of further and immediate successes. 

Until now anyway.

Doesn't he know not to wear a red belt after Labor Day?

Though I do think the Tour Confidential guys are a bit overly optimistic:

3. On Sunday, Sergio Garcia won the Valderrama Masters for his third victory of the year (he also won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February and, of course, the Masters). Now married, with a major title and a baby on the way, is it possible that the 37-year-old Garcia's best golf is still ahead of him?

Shipnuck: It's fun to think so. Sergio has always been such a flighty guy and clearly he's never been happier off the golf course, so why not? His swing still has the same explosive athleticism of his youth, and he seems to have conquered his demons on the greens. I can't wait to see where he goes from here.

Perhaps.  I'm not especially down on Sergio, though the combination of family distractions and equipment changes makes me think the lights are flashing yellow.  And it's just so hard to win out there....  In fact, I'm so happy for him that as long as he doesn't spit in another cup I'll lay off him.

This Week in Rules Fiascoes - Did you hear about the Ladies' event this week?  OK, I see now what a silly question that is... here's the only reason this might have come to your attention:

The deluge of rules controversies is ever-present in the pro golf game, but if they don't occur at a major, they often get overlooked. The bizarre brouhaha at this week's Korean LPGA event is an exception. 

During the first round of the KB Financial Star Championship at Black Stone Golf Club, players struggled to identify exactly where the fringes ended and the greens began. Two players, Choi Hye-jin and Park You-na, accidentally marked and picked up their balls in the fringe thinking they were on the green, resulting in two-stroke penalties for each player, according to a report by Reuters. 

Apparently four other golfers had made the same error in round 1 but were not penalized. Given the unequal nature of the enforcement of this rule, officials later decided to rescind the two penalties. That's where the controversy begins. 

The decision caused an uproar among the golfers in the field, with impassioned arguments and threats of quitting on both sides of the debate. After a long meeting Thursday night, the officials decided the best course of action was to erase the first round scores entirely. 

According to Reuters, the controversy was so bad that the lead rules official Choi Jin-ha resigned from his position.

Can't anybody here play this game?  The Tour Confidential panel took this on, though I think it was the question that was the misfire:

5. A Korea LPGA event wiped out its first-round scores after some players were penalized for marking their ball on the fringe — players had trouble deciphering the green from the fringe — while others were not. (The head rules official even resigned due to the fiasco.) Where does this episode rank in the pantheon of bizarre rules controversies?

This to me is not really a rules issue, in the sense that there's nothing wrong with the rules.  There seems to have been a misfire in the course set-up and with the folks administering the event, and I can't imagine how this wasn't picked up during practice rounds and the Pro-am.

But this, as well as the satellite feed issue from Korea, is what inevitably happens when an organization is spread too thin.

Oh, and then there was Scot McCarron..... Whatcha gonna do?  The ball was in play.

Wither Tiger - It is officially the Silly Season, and that TC panel got another silly question:

2. Last Sunday, Tiger Woods tweeted a video of himself hitting driver, and a day later reports surfaced saying he was cleared to resume full golf activity. His former coach, Hank Haney, said on Twitter that Tiger's new move is "a swing he could win with." Are you more bullish about Tiger's prospects than you were, say, two weeks ago?

Given that he hasn't had either a sex scandal or a DUI in the last two weeks, sure....  But that's setting the bar pretty damn low.

Bob Harig takes a shot at the meaning of the video here, but it's all rather tiresome.  I think the deepest meaning is probably psychological...  Any time he's willing to share and actually has a golf club in his hands is a positive.  That said, we know nothing about the state of his body and whether it can withstand the punishment of Tour speed swings.

Get 'Em While You Can - It's Baaaaack:

The buzz in the GolfWRX forums this afternoon: Costco’s Kirkland Signature Four-

Piece Urethane Golf Ball is back in stock.

Now available to members only online, the K Sigs are still retailing for $29.99 per two dozen; $4.99 shipping & handling. Orders are limited to two (24-packs) per member, and of course, supplied are limited. 

Referred to colloquially as a “K Sig” by its many admirers, Costco, it seems, has no intention of halting production of the controversial, disruptive golf ball.

A three-piece, 338 dimple golf ball appeared on the USGA’s conforming ball list over the summer, leading many to speculate that the embattled four-piece ball had indeed met its eternal demise. 

However, the packaging for this Four-Piece Urethane Golf Ball is the same as the popular, and routinely out-of-stock ball whose production was halted in January.

I'm not sure whether this is the same ball as the original, which came from excess TaylorMade cores.  It's of course also interesting that they seem to be moving forward despite the certainty of a protracted legal battle with the folks at Acushnet.   

A Tale of Two Nines - Jorge Fernandez-Valdes shot a ho-hum two-under 70 in the Lexus Peru Open over the weekend... and by ho-hum I of course mean deliciously wacky...  Not a card we see often...or ever:

I'd make a joke about the ill-timed swing juice at the turn, but that's not really how it went down....  He was fine until that 18th hole, and I haven't seen a description of that quad went down... But it no doubt cost him a pretty penny.  

Thursday Threads

Have you been watching any baseball?  Not only has it been magical, but airing the games at 5:00 has actually allowed me to see my guys play.... What a thing.

Stymie Day - God Bless Shack, who refuses to listen to the haters on his backstopping jihad.  We'll kick this off over at Gofweek, where Geoff and the usually-sensible Brentley Romine debate the B-word.  Shack ledes with this:

Shackelford: Time is now to put a halt to backstopping 

Backstopping must stop. Now. The image and integrity of the PGA Tour depends on its members playing by the rules. The weird and rapidly evolving practice of leaving courtesy backstops in the vicinity of the hole bends the spirit of the rules and can only lead fans to ask: “If they’re willing to do this for the opposition, what other collusion is occurring?” 

Yes, it’s a breath of fresh air that today’s Tour players are pals and wish the best for their opponents. But not at the expense of a hallmark trait that has drawn people to a very difficult sport. We admire the honesty of golfers in a sports world often tainted by corruption. Corporations look past small audience sizes to associate with these noble athletes. Golf has thrived on a paucity of scandal.

Well argued, Counselor, I can't see any openings for the other guy.

Romine: Rushing to judgment about intent is irresponsible 

It’s almost impossible to prove intent, which is why people shouldn’t be so quick to speculate about what’s going on in the minds of Tour players. 

Sure, Tony Finau’s ball took a fortuitous bounce off Jason Kokrak’s ball at the Safeway Open. But who’s to say if Kokrak intended to help Finau?

Simply put: Collusion demands intent.

Brentley, you ignorant slut!

All joshing aside, you no doubt can sense the hyper-legalistic defense involved.... as if we need to prove collusion to understand.  Shall we next discuss the standard for proof, be it the preponderance of the evidence or reasonable doubt?

Over to Geoff:

On Twitter, I've gotten a very frequent reply that goes like this: you want the stymie back but you are offended when players leave a ball down (in a form of silent, possibly creepy collusion that does not protect the field.)

Yes. I am offended by backstopping and hope we return the stymie to match play. 

Because in match play, golf would be faster and far more confrontational if players could clean their ball, then leave it down the rest of the way to the hole. Foursomes, four-balls, individual matches, you name it would all have occasional moments of social-media-friendly drama. Virality, baby!

Virality?  

Of course you can't play the stymie in medal play, which should help clarify the inappropriateness of back stopping.  That said, the movie of The Greatest Game Ever Played they showed Ouimet stymied in a stroke play competition.  I'm not sure how Mark Frost allowed that to happen, but it's a common mistake.

But the best part is that Geoff went deep into the Pathe archives fr examples of the stymie, and they rock.  Here's one from the 1951 British Amateur:

And this of Hogan finding an alternate route (though there was no audio):

It's a useful thought experiment I think.  Picture the same situation in match play, and you'll see the issue in balls left on the green in places where they can only help the playing partner.

Oh, and as to the concept of looking into a player's heart to judge intent....  well, there was that comment from Justin Thomas:

Just as Romine arguing legalisms was a poker tell, so is Justin leading with the disclaimer that it only MAYBE happens five times a year...  But we don't need to prove collusion when the defendant readily admits it.

Guys, it's just a really bad look.

In The Mail - That Jordan Spieth fellow is getting a head start on his Christmas gift list:

It's not often a golf club used during a famous a bogey is encased in glass, but Jordan Spieth's bogey 5 on the 13th hole during the final round of the British Open was far from 

ordinary. 

Royal Birkdale tweeted on Wednesday that it received a "special delivery to the club" -- Spieth's three-iron. 

Remember why it's so well-known? Rewind to British Open Sunday at Birkdale, where Spieth and Matt Kuchar, playing in the final pairing, stepped to the 13th tee tied at eight under. That's when Spieth hit his worst drive of the week, which came to rest well right of the fairway and on the wrong side of a massive dune. Spieth took an unplayable lie and was allowed to go back as far as he liked on the same line—and he ended up on the driving range, roughly 70 yards farther back from where his ball came to rest. After what seemed like an eternity, Spieth finally hit his approach. He missed the green, chipped on and one-putted for an eventful bogey. He fell one shot behind Kuchar, who parred.

Best.  Bogey.  Evah!

But the amusing part remains how much he hated the shot after he hit it....  But missing it a titch left it short of the nasty greenside bunkers.

Shack had this:

(Todd Lewis took us on a rare tour during this year's Open and I can concur after a tour from former club champion Ethan Davies that it's as good a display of historic clubs as any in golf.)

The question remains, does Spieth's drop warrant a plaque? I say yes, even if only the driving range attendants will be the only ones who see it!

Does it deserve a plaque similar to Arnie's there and Bobby Jones' at Lytham?  Yea, that's an easy question....   But if only the ball picker will see it?  

That Todd Lewis video is fun as well....  In fact, the only thing I don't like about the Birkdale clubhouse is, well, the clubhouse.  

Captain, My Captain - I almost missed this great quote from Cap'n. Furyk:

But with a Ryder Cup looming one year away outside Paris, Jim Furyk, the thoughtful

realist that he is, wishes to tug on the reins a bit. 

Winning a Presidents Cup in a walk against an International team that was not in very good form at Liberty National outside New York and winning a Ryder Cup on foreign soil are two very, very different quests. 

“We have 25 years of scars to overcome,” said Furyk, who will captain the American side and is in France for a few days to commemorate the 2018 edition of the Ryder Cup being one year out. Furyk played in nine Ryder Cups and doesn’t hide his record. His teams were 2-7.

You know who else was on all those losing teams?  That would be Phil, a fact to keep in mind as we revisit that Gleneagles presser....

Alan Being Alan -  From Shipnuck's great weekly mailbag feature:

"How are people so delusional to think Tiger can be competitive again? #AskAlan" -Matt (@PurdueMatt05) 

For the same reason some people believe in mermaids and ghosts and Sasquatch –

because it’s fun! And we all need something to believe in. It was cute that a few folks got excited about the videos of Tiger’s action, not least Hank Haney. But at this point cobbling together a functional swing is the easy part for Tiger. He has to get healthy, and stay healthy. He has to try to overcome the shame of the DUI, and the lingering wounds to his self-image from the scandal before that. He must keep the chip-yips at bay and try to fix a deteriorating putting stroke. He must heal the scar tissue of the 85 at Memorial, the first tee chunk at the Old Course and assorted other disasters. And then he would have to try to keep up with younger, hungrier talents who are brimming with confidence and unencumbered with the demands of being a single dad. Other than that, he’s definitely ready to be competitive.

The scandal before that?  Can you refresh my memory?

"Thoughts on increasing purse disparity between the PGA & Web tours coupled with the decreasing talent disparity - should there be a reform?" -@the_fried_egg 

I’m fine with the status quo. The leading money winner on the Web last season cleared $562K – that’s serious cheddar. The top 62 all made at least $100K, plus some small endorsement money, which is more than enough to pay the bills. It’s a developmental circuit, not a place to hang out and make a good living.

It's more like indentured servitude, at least for the best of those coming out of the amateur ranks.

"Which Monterey Peninsula–area course would you bulldoze and rebuild if you could?" -Gary (@WillotheGlen) 

Oh, it has to be Spanish Bay – such a gorgeous site, such an unsatisfying course. I actually like it more than most, but there are a bunch of awkward holes. Even if the old environmentally-sensitive areas have to be honored, we could still do so much better.

Not Poppy Hills?  Though maybe that's because they've already bulldozed the place....

 This, you'll agree, is extremely well-argued:

"How do reporters keep their independence when they are playing golf courses for free?" -@joshysam 

This is a very important point: If I’m playing $200 to play course A and $100 to play course B and get to play course C for free that could certainly influence my feelings. So that’s why it’s vitally important that I play every course for free, so I can evaluate them objectively.

And this is right in my wheelhouse:

"Golf in Ireland - what are your top 5 courses?" -@Paddy_golf

1. Lahinch

2. Royal Portrush

3. Royal County Down

4. Ballybunion

5. Waterville

I could quibble, but those are five exceptional tracks and the order isn't terribly important.  Interestingly, nothing on the East Coast, Portmarnock or The European Club, makes the list....

But this is just cruel:

"Name the next event Phil wins?" -@brad_brezinski 

The U.S. Senior Open.

Nah, he'll have a one-stroke lead on the 18th tee and pull driver....

But this one is just priceless.... a little long, but stick with it for the payoff:

"Your house is about to burn, family and respective pets are clear, what one golf momento is spared a fiery fate?" -Todd (@Titleist_TB) 

Hmmm, my first thought is the framed pics from some overseas golf trips with friends…but those are probably replaceable. There’s the signed scorecard from my mini-golf match versus Dustin Johnson, which shows me pressing on the final hole and taking him down. Maybe my caddie bib from the First Tee Open? The hundreds of media credentials hanging from a bookcase? 

Actually, I know the answer: it’s the drawing I commissioned 15 years ago that mashed-up Tiger Woods and Tupac Shakur. If I recall correctly, it was for a fanciful Golf Plus column that imagined a hip-hop spin on the golf world. I thought it'd be fun to combine the visage of two icons who, to say the least, had very different public images at the time. The illustration never ran, and I don't think the column did, either. But the sketch is taped to the wall next to my desk and makes me smile every time I look at it.

It's now the first thing I'd grab as well....

Midweek Musings

I had plans to play yesterday, but thought I could get a few items up for you before leaving...  I was wrong.

Meet The New Boss - Along with your GHIN update comes a New Augusta National Chairman, the first that has actually teed it up in their little April get together.  He seems enthusiastic:

The first time Fred Ridley drove down Magnolia Lane was in 1976. He was a 23-year-old amateur who had been invited to play in the Masters Tournament as the defending 

Anyone recognize the other guy on the left?

U.S. Amateur champion. Never before had he set foot on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National; he had only seen the Masters on television.

On Monday, more than 41 years after that initial trip, Ridley made the drive for the first time as chairman of Augusta National and the Masters Tournament. 

“When I drove down Magnolia Lane yesterday as my first day as chairman of the club, I promise you that I did so with the same excitement and anticipation that I had over 41 years ago,” Ridley said Tuesday during a teleconference. “I’m very grateful to have this opportunity.”

Wouldn't you be?  No doubt, he's hitting the right notes:

Ridley, 65, is now two days into his role as the seventh chairman in Augusta National’s history. The Lakeland, Fla., native, a lawyer, former USGA president and previous Masters chairman of the competition committees, views his most prestigious job yet as more of a custodial position. 

“It’s not something that I own. It’s not something that I possess,” Ridley said. “And that’s because the only legacy that matters here is the legacy of Mr. (Bobby) Jones and Mr. (Clifford) Roberts. They are the ones who established the mandate of constant improvement, which is going to drive me and my goals as chairman of the club, and I feel that if I follow that mandate, I’ll be in a position when my time is over to pass this honor on to my successor even stronger than it is today.

The first time an incoming Chairman fails to mention Bobby Jones is when you'll know the apocalypse is upon us.... We can only hope he means it.  

He does get to that missing name, though I fear that these comments are being way over-interpreted:

One question posed to Ridley on Tuesday was the golf course and if Ridley had plans any significant changes to it. (Earlier this year, Augusta National purchased land from nearby Augusta Country Club for what is believed to be expansion of the tee on the par-5 13th hole.) 

Ridley didn’t address specifics but he did talk about the original design philosophy of Jones and Alister MacKenzie, that strategy and skill were equal components in how the golf course should be played. 

“We will take whatever action, whatever course of action is necessary to protect the integrity of Augusta National golf course,” Ridley said.

In the immortal words of Vladmimr Ilyich, Что делать?  For those of you that don't speak Russian, that translates as What is to be done?

I just think that expecting an individual club, and I completely get that this is no ordinary club, to save us is too big an ask....

For those pining for Augusta in April, yanno, all of you, there's Geoff's comments here, as well as Mike Bamberger's thoughtful suggestions for Fred here.  They range from the substantive:

VI. LEAVE THE COURSE BE 

Enough with the lengthening. If you think they hit the ball too far, give them a limited-flight ball to play with. Don't take it out on the course. It doesn't matter if 13 is called a par-5 or a par-4. It's one of the most spectacular holes in the world, exactly as it is today. We would urge you to leave it.

 I couldn't agree more about No. 13....  Far better to change par than move that tee box an inch...

But there's even more existential issues:

VIII. RETURN THE DURKEE FAMOUS SAUCE TO THE CLUBHOUSE TABLES DURING THE TOURNAMENT  

Somewhere, Arnold will be smiling.

Please don't make me choose between rolling the ball back and that....  Talk about Sophie's Choice!

BFF's Trending -  If one occurrence is an anecdote....what the heck is this?

I Think… 

It’s more of a trend than a coincidence that three top-20 players, all in their 20s, parted ways with their caddies this year and put one of their BFFs on the bag. Rory McIlroy

was the first, trading out J.P. Fitzgerald for childhood mate Harry Diamond at the WGC-Bridgestone in August, saying “sometimes to preserve a personal relationship you have to sacrifice a professional one.” Along the same lines, Jason Day sat down father-figure Col Swatton in September but retained him as swing coach. Day’s replacement was Luke Reardon, his roommate at a golf academy in Australia who was working roof construction near Day’s home in Ohio before lifting Jason’s tour bag at the BMW Championship. Day framed it as McIlroy did, not wanting on-course tension to turn his relationship with Swatton into a toxic one. “I love him too much not to have him in my life,” Day said. In a lower profile but producing more immediate results is the chemistry between Tyrrell Hatton and Jonathan Bell. Since turning their friendship into a work relationship at the British Masters, the Hatton-Bell team has produced a third, an eighth and back-to-back wins, vaulting the 26-year-old Englishman to 17th in the world. This after a long season with Chris Rice caddieing that included missed cuts in four majors.

And he doesn't even mention Phil with brother Tim on the bag.  But Hatton explains the logic to us:

That’s an understatement. As Hatton noted after winning the Dunhill, “It’s good fun having Jonathan on the bag.” Sometimes that’s all it takes, having somebody the same age who you can relate to, somebody that listens to the same music and somebody who simply represents a change."

How is it that these guys just happen to be available on short notice?  If you're the BFF of a touring pro are you automatically on standby?

We've Seen This Movie - After having our hearts broken repeatedly, wouldn't you think we'd tone down the excitement.  But no, it's Tiger swinging a driver....

Woods has been cleared "to resume full golf activity with no restrictions," Bob Harig of ESPN reported. "He got a nice report and is allowed to proceed," Woods' agent Mark Steinberg told Harig. "He can do as much as he needs to do. Tiger is going to take this very, very slowly. This is good, but he plans to do it the right way."

As opposed to the former "right way", which turned out not-so-right.  And Hank Haney can't help himself:

We’re not sure how many of those who replied are swing experts, but one of them most assuredly is, Woods’ former instructor Hank Haney, who weighed in with this: “That’s a swing he could win with, it’s not across the line and stuck inside coming down, a little stiff looking but it’s good enough.”

For those that can't help themselves, Sam Weinman has the history.... Where's George Santayana when we need him...

Did Someone Mention History -  Happy Birthday to The Open Championship, which began 157 years ago in 1860 at Prestwick.  From Golf History Today:

The 1860 Open Championship was a golf competition held on this day 157 years ago at

Prestwick in Ayrshire, Scotland. The inaugural event was contested on the 12 hole Prestwick Golf Course over thirty-six holes on a single day. Until his death in 1859, Allan Robertson was regarded as top golfer in the world. The 1st Open Championship was to grant his successor. 

James Ogilvie Fairlie was the principal organizer of this inaugural Open Championship. In a proposed competition for a “Challenge Belt”, Fairlie sent out a series of letters to Blackheath, Perth, Edinburgh, Musselburgh and St. Andrews, inviting a player known as a “respectable caddie” to represent each of the clubs in a tournament to be held on 17 October 1860.

Respectable caddie seems an oxymoron, as they were an unsavory lot....  A short video of the winner's great-grandson:

Willie also had a brother named Mungo, one of the great golf names of all time....  I'm like a broken record, but if you have any interest in how this all evolved, do yourself a favor and read Tommy's Honor.  I'm glad for the Alan Robertson citation, because he's the most consequential figure in our game that has been lost to our collective memory, but he gave Old Tom his start.

That Prestwick course had quite the daunting opening hole:

Can you appreciate the audacity of a hole that length in the mid-19th century?  

Horsing Around - You've heard that there are horses for courses, but have you heard of the H-O-R-S-E Course?  If not, click through to this from Shack and watch the spectacular drone flyover....

That bunkering is sublime.

Ryder Cup Fever - I know, it's a bit early..... But I don't remember this photo:

They don't tell us the year, but that guy looks colorful even in B&W.  The news peg is next year's captains recreating this shot:

I've never noticed this in prior years, but do the captains always go to the same barber?

Pat Perez, Up Close and Potty-Mouthed - Turns out it's not just his diet and workout schedule that are non-conforming:

Regular readers know I have something of a fetish when it comes to capturing on-course audio during golf tournaments. It’s a relatively simple, inexpensive way for networks to

create a better experience for viewers. 

There is one downside to this audio, and it can be summarized in two words: Pat Perez. Even while cruising to a four-shot victory, Perez kept Golf Channel’s announcers on their toes. 

“Pat should have to, but as is customary, we’ll apologize for the language right there,” anchor Rich Lerner said after Perez punctuated a poor bunker shot with an f-bomb on No. 6 Sunday. 

Perez went to his favorite expletive again on No. 11 when a poorly struck tee shot barely cleared the water. “As Rich said, maybe we shouldn’t have to, but we will apologize for Pat Perez and his comments he made there,” said tower announcer Phil Blackmar. 

After Perez missed a birdie putt on 15, Lerner said, “He might have as many expletives as birdies by the end of the day.”

Well, he grew up playing junior golf against that Woods guy, who's been known to drop an F-bomb or two.   

'Dem Bones - John Strege is on Golf Channel's newest personality:

Jim (Bones) Mackay proves he can carry a mic as effectively as a bag

The longtime caddie remains one of golf's most respected voices. He's just talking to a new audience.

He's a likable guy that we want to succeed, though thus far he's been more competent than inspired.  He's sticking tightly to his script, noy necessarily a bad idea as he learns the ropes.

But methinks they're over-thinking things here:

Mackay has not yet been assigned a grouping with Mickelson in it, notwithstanding the

fact that from a golf fan’s viewpoint, it would qualify as must-see TV, to resurrect an old NBC slogan. Roy has not ruled it out in the future. “I think the day will come when enough time has passed to do it,” Roy said. 

His concern in the near term is the potential for a distraction caused by the vocal few in a crowd who consider “mashed potatoes” imperative to a tournament sound track and might be inspired to weigh in on the Mickelson-Mackay parting. 

“One thing we want to be cognizant of is that we don’t want to put anybody in a bad spot,” Mackay said.

Well, you wouldn't want to do anything that interesting.... wouldn't be prudent.

Cheap Shots -  In which we maturely respond to headlines in the news:

Being Robert Allenby's Caddie? - A hard way to make a living: Here are the 12 worst jobs in golf

Ummm, which part is alleged? - Retired porn star allegedly kicked out of Dodgers-Cubs game for punching a fan in the face.  

I thought he got help for that? - The Grind: Tiger Flashes Signature Moves

Never, Final Answer - Let's project when Tiger Woods will make his return to golf

Make the Check Payable to Billy Walters - Start your bidding for a tee time with Phil Mickelson

He Would Do Very Well on That Tour - Jason Day’s British Open Joggers Would Be Against LPGA Rules

Weekend Wrap

Lots to cover this morning, enough that I'll make you forgive Friday's absence.

Perez in Full - If nothing else, Pat Perez will always entertain and amuse:

Pat Perez picked up his third career PGA Tour victory on Sunday by winning the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, finishing four shots clear of Keegan Bradley. 

And, true to form, the 41-year-old was as candid as ever after his victory when asked about re-setting goals for the 2017-18 season. 

"I'm not going to change anything," he said. "I'm still not going to workout. I'm still going to have a bad diet and I'm going to enjoy myself."

You haven't been working out Pat?  I couldn't tell...Anyone that wants more Pat is directed to this January feature on the man by Alan Shipnuck.

Riffing off this event, our Tour Confidential panel got this intriguing query:

Who, in the mold of Perez, is primed to be the comeback player of the 2017-18 season?

You're gonna need a bigger mold....

Wood: That's awfully difficult criteria; there just aren't many in the refreshing mold of Perez anymore. There are quite a few candidates for comebacks, but I'll go with Geoff Ogilvy. I can't quite put my finger on it, but he seemed like he was looking at golf from a fresh perspective as an assistant at the Presidents Cup, and that could put him in a good frame of mind to play really well again.

As readers know, my man-crush on Geoff Ogilvy is well into it's second decade, and yet picking him based upon an event in which he didn't, you know, actually play seems a tad out there.

Shipnuck: Can I pick Keegan? He's been trending in the right direction for a year-plus. Luke Donald, too.

 It would of course be fun to have psychotic Keegan and his stink-eye back on the prowl, but can the guy putt well enough?  But, Alan, I'm pretty damn sure that the Luke Donald era is behind us.  Short and crooked is not a recipe for success out there.

Amazing Grayson - Have you been following Grayson Murray?  The young lad has had some recent success, including a timely win in an off-field event that should secure his playing status for the next few years.

We spent some time with Murray back when he was calling out other players on Twitter for their chosen path to the PGA Tour.  I know, that sound you hear is Dale Carnegie spinning in his grave...  Not only was it rude and ill-informed, but he was calling out players with far better resumes than his own.  Of greater concern was a profile that indicated that at every stop on his developmental journey he had similarly troubling incidents....

He caught a huge in that this item hit my monitor on a  day when I was consumed with generous feelings for my fellow man...  Yeah, it was that day.  It seems that he's some kind of personality disorder, perhaps not exactly the right concept, but he feels grievances and think he's somehow not given his due.  Probably not terribly unusual, just it occurred to me that his chosen profession might be a bad fit with his challenges, the life of a struggling pro being of course filled with stress and loneliness....  Hey, look at what this game is doing to your humble blogger, and for me it's just a hobby.

I saw this header over the week from Malaysia:

Grayson Murray has had a roller coaster of a week at the CIMB Classic

Rut-roh!  Please tell me the Twitter account is still mothballed....

It turns out that it's just the golf....

Yes, golf is weird for sure, as well as maddening and the like.  And even that 64 was a roller caoster ride, per this:

64 with a triple?  You don't see that every day.

Then this morning Shack had this video of the lad during his final round (sorry, still don't know how to embed the Instagram vidoes- anyone have a teenager they can lend me?).  You make the call, can this kid control himself for the long-haul?

Shack's focus is on the PGA Tour staff posting it and the MLB tie-in, good stuff indeed.  Just another evidence point that there's a new sheriff in town, and thank God for that.

Counselor Jordan - MJ sticks up for his buddy Tiger in an interview with Cigar Aficionado, including this:

"He's in a transitional period; we athletes, we go through that," Jordan said. "Then we have to be adults, we have to make sound decisions. He is, to me, in a very unique

situation. Tiger played in his peak somewhere towards the end of my career. And the what changed between that timeframe to now — social media, Twitter, all those types of things that has invaded their personality and their personal times as individuals. I don't know if I could have survived in this Twitter time where you don't have the privacy that you would want, and what seems to be very innocent could always be misinterpreted."

Isn't that one of the sillier things we've heard?   MJ defending his friend is well and good, but the concept that he wouldn't have adapted to the environment strikes me as quite comical.  Equally so that Tiger's issue is social media...  Given that I don't have the same reservoir of goodwill as above, I might note that Tiger's only problem seems to be that he got caught.

MJ also had this:

They also talked about the greatest of all-time debate between Jack Nicklaus and Tiger. Jordan said it's unfair to compare the two.

Unfair to whom?  Isn't it funny how Jack's friends don't feel the need to defend him from such discussions...

And Tiger has now released video of himself hitting driver, and the saliva is trickling out of the corner of the mouths of several wags....  As an example, this was another of the responses to the TC question excerpted above:

Sens: If you believe what you see on social media, there's a certain former World No. 1 who has been posting videos of himself hitting smooth iron shots in Florida. His return would be the most newsworthy of comebacks. Meanwhile, though, back here in reality, neither Rory McIlroy nor Adam Scott has exactly dropped off the map. But they've been struggling by their standards, so a return to the form we expect of them would amount to a big bounce.

Don't go there, Josh.  The first five installments of this series weren't to my liking, so wake me up after he posts a top ten.  

Yes We Can! - David Owen is back on the pages of Golf Digest with this challenge to us all:

Yes, You Can Beat Slow Play 

Shaving seconds and minutes could cut half an hour off your round.

I'm delighted to see his byline, but unsure of his current status.  He previously wrote the Muny Beat column that appeared on the back page of the dead-tree version, but that's been discontinued.

This is David with some serious suggestions that deserve serious consideration:

HIT FIRST, THEN SEARCH. If a member of your group slices one into the weeds,

play your shot before you wander over to help. This isn't rude. He'll probably have found his ball by the time you've hit, anyway, and you won't be holding up the group behind you by joining the search. 

HIT FIRST, THEN TALK. I've played with golfers who save their jokes until it's their turn to tee off. They've got a captive audience, because no one can move until they've hit, so they tee up a ball, then lean on their driver and unwind. Tell them to save it. leave your driver's headcover in your car. Ten seconds a hole? Twenty seconds a hole? Painless and easy.

I have no particular objections, as I hate slow play with a passion.  My only quibble is with the concept that a half-hour has significance....

The issue with slow play, to me at least, is waiting on tees and in fairways to hit shots....  Now I understand that the quicker the course moves the less of the itksome waits will happen, but if you think you're gonna get that guy in the second bit to give up his audience, I have some real estate in which you might be interested.

Your Cheatin' Heart -  Josh Sens writes an amusing take on cheating, offering style points where appropriate.  He includes the technique which shall forever be known to your humble correspondent as The Schrager:

3. FLUFFING UP A LIE 

Strictly speaking, fluffing should be reserved for hair salons and porn sets. But so long as you and your partners have agreed to allow it, we won't give you too much grief about it. 

Despicability Rating: 3 

But if you break the course record, it doesn't count.

My only critique is that the despicability rating should be higher for those that also position their carts between any viewers and the ball....

But I also liked that he drew an important distinction with this one:

4. THE FOOT WEDGE 

Here we must distinguish between the flagrant foot-wedge, employed out in the open

with a dramatic flourish, and the clandestine foot-wedge, used under the shadowy cover of trees. The first is a kind of performance art that we find mildly entertaining. The second locates you on the evolutionary scale somewhere between the cockroach and pond scum. 

Despicability Rating for a flagrant foot-wedge: 3 

Just don't do it on every hole. 

Clandestine foot-wedge: 10 

It's straight from the 18th green to the 19th rung of hell for you.

My favorite footwedge of all time came from a gentlemen playing the Road Hole as the bride and I enjoyed a libation at The Jigger Inn.  He had the look of having lost his will to live, and as he wedged his ball back onto short grass the entire outdoor seating area erupted in cheers and offers of a drink.

Passive Aggressiveness Much? - In an interview with Shane O'Donahue for CNN, Annika Sorenstam has some way curious remarks about her golf course design business:

"It's been tougher than I thought," Sorenstam told CNN Living Golf's Shane

O'Donoghue. 

"Being a female, when they throw my name in the ring as a designer candidate a lot of times they say, 'oh, well then this course will be short and easy.' 

"I don't know where it comes from. I think they just have that predetermined notion of women designing shorter courses, and that's not really what comes to my mind. 

"I consider myself, of course a female, but I'm also a golfer and I feel like I can play any golf course out there and I guess maybe my defensive mechanism is, 'hey, I'd play you anywhere, anytime and then we can go from there."

It's a pity party, and I didn't bring anything.....  Sheesh, her whole fame derives from having been a tremendously accomplished woman player.....  It reminds of the McEnroe interviewer that asked him, "Why the qualifiers?" in speaking of Serena.  

Shall we engage deconstruction mode?  I know, a rhetorical question....

As you know, I'm a fan of the ladies' game, but this is chutzpah....  Annika's entire career is based upon her double helping of X chromosomes, so it seems whiny to complain about the downside of it all.  In fact, why else would you hire her to design your course?

But that last bit is priceless.... She's awfully anxious to show off her BSD, but who is it that she's challenging to play?  The prospective client or the other designers against whom she's competing?

Today in Curious Flashbacks - Another Tiger item is included in this curious (that seems to be the word of the day) item from the Irish Independent by Dermott Gilleece, in which he recounts this 2004 exchange with Tiger about a tournament golf ball:

DG: "Would you be prepared to play with an official tournament ball designated for each event?" 

TW: "What do you mean by 'tournament ball'? Do you mean with the same spin rate, same launch angle, hover, same speed of core?" 

DG: "I mean a uniform golf ball that would be the same for everybody." 

TW: "So everybody plays with the same spinning golf ball?"

DG: "Same golf ball."

TW: "I don't think that would be right because there's too many guys have different games and different types of swing. But I think you should put a limit on the speed of a golf ball, the spin-rate of a golf ball. You can increase the spin of the golf ball and make it so that we don't hit the ball as far. You can decrease the speed of the core. There's different ways you can get around it so that we're all playing under certain speed limits. Hopefully that will be the answer to a lot of the problems that we're having with golf course design around the world."

This is of interest, most obviously because of the simple fact that such concerns were discussed back in the more innocent days of 2004... but also because, without going into the technical long grass, Tiger had obviously put much thought into this and saw a specific way forward.

But other than sharing this and other anecdotes, the article is a bit unfocused...  For instance, this is the lede:

Holiday golfers of dubious competence will be familiar with the experience of dispatching golf balls to a watery grave on some fiendishly tricky par three on the Iberian Peninsula. Then, almost as the ultimate indignity, there would be the presence some holes later of industrious locals laden with the same, identifiable balls - for sale. 

In no other sport is the ball a more precious part of the player's equipment. While in the process of building a score, we will scavenge for it like it was hidden treasure in hostile terrain and almost leap with joy when its beguiling whiteness comes gloriously into view.

OK, but there isn't another sport where at the professional lever the player picks his own ball...

Nor does he seem aware of the history of our game, where it took many hours of manual labor to produce a featherie....  which was so expensive that only gentlemen could afford to play the game.  Factor that in as you read his anecdote about the punishment for stealing a ball....

I'd certainly like a deeper dive on this story:

When Frank Thomas was in charge of research for the USGA, he had special tests done on earlier equipment. This led to the shock discovery that the Tourney ball used by Nicklaus for several of his 18 Major triumphs, was so poorly constructed as to make the player's achievements with it border on the miraculous.

The Big Hurt worked for the USGA?  Who knew?

But here's where he goes off the tracks:

Remarkably, Woods seemed to have no interest in gaining an advantage over his contemporaries through superior equipment. In fact, his great rival Phil Mickelson publicly acknowledged as much. And there was telling evidence from Mark Calcavecchia, a foursomes partner at The Belfry in 2002. "I hit Tiger's ball at the Ryder Cup, and it went nowhere," he said.

What does all of this prove? For one thing, it demonstrates that Nicklaus and Woods were even better golfers than we imagined.

That's not really what it shows, though I'm not sure the lede could have been buried any deeper.

We can assume that Tiger and Jack competed against peers playing roughly comparable equipment.  The far more interesting question is how the changes in equipment affect our understand of their relative greatness....  My own belief is that technology has narrowed the differentiation in ball-striking, due to distance but also the reduction in spin, and that's a point in Tiger's favor in the Tiger v. Jack arguments that MJ thinks are unfair.

Mid-Am News - The USGA's Mid-Am was recently completed, and was seemingly a workingman's love fest, the final featuring a Firefighter vs. a Wedding Caterer.  The former won, but didn't have much time to celebrate:

Parziale, 30, had taken time off from his full-time job in the Brockton, Massachusetts

Fire Department to play this week's U.S. Mid-Am. He'd played in the event three times before, but had never won a match. This time, he won them all. 

"Oh, gosh, that'll be a good problem to have, I think," Parziale said when asked how he might work major championships in among his regular shifts. "None of that has sunk in, and everything is such a blur right now. I was trying to go through my phone, and everyone has just been so supportive, reaching out, following along, it's really been incredible."

The only way this could have been better would be if he were a Northern California firefighter, but then I'm guessing he's have withdrawn.  His father, also on the Brockton force, caddied for him, so that's be cute at Augusta and Shinnecock.

But this from the TC gang gives us pause to ponder:

4. Matt Parziale, a firefighter by day, won the U.S. Mid-Amateur last week to earn a spot in next year's U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur and Masters. Parziale played on the mini-tours for a few years but regained his amateur status in 2013. In fact, according to the USGA, 43 percent of the Mid-Am field consisted of reinstated amateurs. Do you have an issue with former pros taking on full-time amateurs?

I'm actually not sure how I feel about that...  Nor do the writers, as you'll see if you click through.

That should be enough for you folks, at least for today.....