Thursday Threads

We promise, we deliver....

Castles In The Sand - Here's the funny part.... I teased you yesterday with some PReed catnip.... well, that's not entirely the case.  It was actually a copy-and-paste tease, Shack being the coquette in question.  But Geoff has nothing on this part of the Peter Kostis-No Laying Up podcast....  Is he protecting Patrick?

Peter Kostis has been walking fairways for CBS for years, and has seen a few things.  Some of what he's seen might be of interest:

“I’ve seen Patrick Reed improve his lie, up close and personal, four times now,” Kostis said, before explaining one of the situations, which happened in 2016 when Reed won

The Barclays at Bethpage Black. “That’s the only time I ever shut [Gary] McCord up. He didn’t know what to say, when I said, ‘Well, the lie that I saw originally wouldn’t have allowed for this shot.’ Cause he put four or five clubs behind the ball, kinda faking whether or not he was going to hit this shot or that shot. By the time he was done, he hit a freaking 3-wood out of there. It was a sand wedge lay-up originally.”

Now, my immediate reaction is to ask why this is the first we've heard of this?  But...it's been there all along:

Yowser!  I must say, notwithstanding that absence of the C-word, Peter makes pretty clear what he saw there.  Question No. 1:  Did Patrick receive a phone call from Ponte Vedra Beach on that?  How about from his fellow players?

Here's a quote you might find relevant.  It's PReed at the Prez Cup explaining that bit of excavating at the Hero:

But I wasn’t intentionally trying to improve the lie or anything like that. If I was, it would have been a pretty good lie and I would have hit it really close.”

Like at the Barclays?  Got it.

The next thing we should do, I suppose, is see what else Peter has:

“I was in the tower on 16 at [the Farmers Insurance Open in] San Diego, and [Reed] hit it over the green and did the same thing,” Kostis said. “He put three or four clubs behind it, and it was really a treacherous shot and nobody had gotten it close all day long from over there. By the time he was done, I could read ‘Callaway’ on the golf ball from my tower.” 

Kostis pointed to two more incidents — another in San Diego and one at the Travelers Championship in Hartford — where he claims to have seen Reed improve his lie. As for the question of whether Reed’s actions were intentional, Kostis stopped short of providing an answer. 

“I’m not going to assign intent, all I’m going to tell you is what I saw,” he said.

Witness testimony is notoriously unreliable, but this seems to meet all the markers of specificity, confirmability and lack of an ulterior motive.  Yeah, Peter is pissed, as we saw yesterday, but there's no reason to think he's pissed at Patrick....  And, obviously, unsupported allegations of this type would undermine his criticisms of CBS, the Tour and just about everyone else in the golf world.  But it's quite damning because of its obvious similarity to that which we all saw at Albany...  

Firing up the Waybac machine to early December 2019, we discussed in those days whether or not Patrick's actions were appropriately considered cheating.  As Peter himself notes, intent is a difficult thing to judge from the outside, but I thought that a hard rap to make stick.  It just seemed inconceivable to me that a player on Tour as long as Reed wouldn't have internalized the concept that you're always on camera....  And, per Occam's Razor, my tendency is towards the simplest explanation.

But I also made a couple of other points.  First, I saw no point in forcing the C-word label on him, when his actual sins were sufficient.  His reaction was so off-putting, his own words confirming his lack of fidelity to the rules of the game.  And I do believe that that's what folks were instinctively reacting to.  But the other thing I noted is that if the man is that kind of cheater, then surely there are other witnesses that we'll hear from.  

Contra Koepka, and I dare you to say that five times quickly, Peter actually thinks this is a rarity (out there, not for our hero):

But with multiple alleged incidents now involving Reed, does rule-breaking run rampant on Tour? 

“No. It’s rare, it’s really, really rare on the PGA Tour; 99.9 percent of the guys play by the rule book,” Kostis said. “It’s been my experience that people who are trying to get away with something think they’re invisible. That nobody’s watching, that they’re so cool doing it that nobody will get it.”

Patrick cool?  That's quite the stretch....

Now, about those Ryder Cup captains' picks...  I've long been puzzled by what Tiger sees in this man, especially when the man himself disrespects Tiger.  From the Paris Ryder Cup most folks focused on his manspat with Jordan, whereas I thought it was his treatment of Tiger that would cause him long-term issues.  His public questioning of the Jordan divorce implied an unhappiness at being paired with Tiger, allegedly his hero.  But the worst of it, I assumed, was when he told Karen Crouse that Tiger had apologized to him for his play.  Given the rigidly-enforced Omerta in Tigerland, I thought that would get him voted off the island....

The first obvious question is what have others seen?  I certainly don't see that anyone has rushed to a microphone to defend that man, though I'm also unclear as to when that NLU podcast was actually available.  Patrick is in the field in Mexico City, so I would imagine someone will broach this topic.... 

The second obvious point is that I'm especially interested in the reactions of those U.S. Presidents Cup teammates.  They were in quite the compromised position for sure, and none more so than Webb Simpson....  I'm awfully happy that Webb won recently, but about that interjection of "Unfairly" Webb?  Any second thoughts?

you

But the other question I'll leave you with is what were Peter's obligations here?  He couldn't have been clearer on that Barclays broadcast, but should he have gone public?  I have no ax to grind with Peter, and no interest in criticizing him on this.  But I also know that the Tour would bury this in a heartbeat...  Let me pose the question this way:  As golf fans, what would we have the Peters of the world do if they see a guy cheating?  Discuss among yourselves....

That's A Wrap - So, Rory?  It so happens, it's not just Caroline's heart that he's broken:

MEXICO CITY -- Rory McIlroy dealt a serious blow to the prospects of the proposed

Premier Golf League, saying Wednesday that he is not in favor of a plan that would see the top players splitting from the PGA Tour for a guaranteed financial windfall on a rival circuit.

"The more I've thought about it, the more I don't like it,'' McIlroy said at Chapultepec Golf Club, site of this week's WGC-Mexico Championship. 

"The one thing as a professional golfer in my position that I value is the fact that I have autonomy and freedom over everything I do," he said. "I pick and choose -- this is a perfect example.

Got it.  This would be the money quote:

So for me, I’m out.

Now, my experience is that when people say they're out, sometimes they're actually, you know, out.  Other times, it's more of a negotiating ploy, as one could learn from this authoritative precis on the topic.  And Rory recently let us know that he's an avid reader....

I do take him at his word, though there are a couple of curious aspects to his comments.  The first fills out Rory's thought process from the except above:

"Some guys this week made the choice not to come to Mexico. If you go and play this other golf league, you're not going to have that choice. I read a thing the other day where it said if you take the money they can tell you what to do. And I think that's my thing, I've never been one for being told what to do, and I like to have that autonomy and freedom over my career, and I feel like I would give that up by going to play this other league.

I don't know what he read, but it certainly wasn't a logic primer...  The WGCs were designed to ensure that we'd see the top global players head-to-head, and noting their failure to do so is that which an attorney would call an admission against interest.  

This is the other mildly curious point he makes:

My position is I'm against it until there may come a day that I can't be against it. If everyone else goes, I might not have a choice, but at this point, I don't like what they're proposing.''

I certainly get that that's a remote possibility, I just don't know why he felt compelled to say it.

Shack asks this in his post on the subject:

Will Rory's Stance Torpedo The Premier Golf League?

Here's his take:

Given the strength of the professional game in so many ways, it’s fairly stunning that there is even a split in the first place. And that split seems bound to force significant changes, regardless of the PGL’s fate. 

In looking at McIlroy’s comments more closely, it’s no coincidence his stance comes after a wonderful week at a historic tournament and venue, with the revitalized Florida swing looming. So it’s nice to see a sentimental player still exists. 

However, that McIlroy also opened the door to joining a mass exodus, hardly makes his stance fatal.

Now, if Tiger reiterated what McIlroy said about the Premier Golf League? That’s a different story.

I'm going to shimmy way out on a limb and predict with absolute certainty that time will tell...Hey, I always say, be bold or go home.

I think it's a stretch to call it fatal, but it's also hard to see another player that's more important to their undertaking.  Ultimately the PGL has to stage golf tournaments, and Good Luck, Sir! if you think that it's Tiger and Phil that will bring the eyeballs for a tour commencing in 2022 at the earliest.  Can I interest you in anew set of mortality tables?

Yesterday I spoke of the Prisoners' Dilemma game theory, though without that link, so just ponder how much harder their job became.  Even if Rory wasn't actually on board, the mere fact that he might sign on would be part of the hard sell.  It's simply inconceivable that this could go forward with the Ulsterman...

Geoff I think also overstates this comment from Tiger:

“So this is a natural evolution, whether or not things like this are going to happen, but ideas like this are going to happen going forward, whether it’s now or any other time in the future.’’

Sure, Saudi princes have a lot of money to piss away....And when this guy is the voice of reason...

“It’s interesting but for me it’s not that interesting,” said Bryson DeChambeau. “If you can’t get the top guys, then what’s the point?”

The more interesting point to me, because I never saw this achieving lift-off, is whether some good can come of this.  In fact, Rory's initial reaction was speculation as to what could be improved on the PG Tour, though I haven't seen a reporter ask the obvious follow-up question.  We have hints of it in Rory's comments, but have to make assumptions and the like.

Matt Kuchar is in Mexico and relieved to be talking about anything but caddie compensation:

“It’s intriguing,” Kuchar said of the PGL. “If you could design a better version of the PGA Tour, it wouldn’t look like the current version. What we have is awesome, [but] I think there’s a lot of hope that the Tour moves in a direction that is slightly different moving forward, and guys like Rory have an influence on that direction.” 

Those directions, according to a source, could include more prize money, potentially fewer events and therefore a shorter season, and the possibility of incentivizing stars for playing in certain events (or, again, for money).

Of course one can't tear it all down in the real world, but the guy that would most like to do so might just be Jay Monahan.  Because in that perfect world the PGA Tour would control at least one major and the Ryder Cup.  This running the world thing is never as easy as it looks on TV....

One more related item, although interestingly this is related to a number of our recent themes.  We've had Geoff waxing poetic about the epic week at Riviera, the historic venue, the perfectly firmandfast conditions, and that great final round grouping.  So, how did everybody like it?  Let me rephrase, how did both of you enjoy it?

Comparing the 2019 Genesis Open with the 2020 Genesis Invitational’s numbers, it appears the golf audience tuned in like normal on Golf Channel and for Saturday’s CBS broadcast. 

But Sunday’s final round featuring a strong leaderboard and compelling finish drew a 2.03 overnight according to ShowBuzzDaily.com, down significantly over 2019’s 3.0.

The loss of essentially 1.3 million 18-49 year olds is most likely attributable to a new entry on the sports TV landscape this year: XFL football. The Genesis ran up against a Dallas-LA game on ABC that drew a 1.52 overnight rating and just under a million 18-49 year olds.

The 2019 Genesis drew a 1.0 Saturday when a rain delay eliminated live golf, so 2020’s 1.47 featuring live action understandably saw a huge uptick. Golf Channel’s coverage also remained largely steady, signaling that Sunday’s Genesis killer was XFL football and an absence of Tiger Woods contending.

Speaking of football, the NFL has unveiled a planned playoff expansion starting in 2021, with a 17-game season in 2022. Both would have significant impacts on early season PGA Tour golf.

Your worried about Saudi princes, and the XFL is drinking your milkshake....  CBS has become the Deet of the broadcast world, it's active ingredient repels viewers, but we remain a niche sport at best with a tiny, apparently insufficiently loyal audience.  So yeah, I'm thinking alarm bells should be sounding in PVB...

Mexican Re-runs - At liberty last evening, my channel-flipping led me to the replay of the final round from last year's event in Mexico City, in which they replayed this still unbelievable shot:

When Tiger Woods hit that incredible, helicopter-finish bunker shot around a tree at the par-4 ninth at the 2019 WGC-Mexico, it felt like a real turning point in the event. It happened to be his final hole of the day, and a birdie would have given him a six-under 65. It was surely going to be a vintage Tiger finish to a vintage Tiger

Sheesh!  You two want to get a room?  

But Woods missed the putt, settling for a 66 and a momentum-killing par. On Saturday three bogeys and a double kept him out of serious contention, and he wound up finishing 13 shots back of winner Dustin Johnson, rendering the Friday bunker magic somewhat irrelevant.

That doesn't make the shot any less memorable

That's pretty bad framing work.  Memorable golf shots are, well, memorable, for reasons that fall into two broad categories.  The first is the context of the shot, think Sarazan at Augusta, and the second the the shear brilliance, difficulty or elan of the shot.  This one was none of the former, but oh so good as to the latter...

They've placed a plaque there, hopefully not in the bunker, not that any of us care.  There's also video of the shot, and give it a look if you're struggling to place the memory.  It's really good, because you see him practicing the exaggerated, as well as the trees he needs to circumvent, but that's just the appetizer...  What makes this memorable, is that crazy first bounce on the turf....  I've always said that there is nothing more exciting in our game than the action of the ball on the ground, but this one is just sick.

But I was also reminded of another incident, one that I was quite unhappy about.  Rory played with DJ in that final round, and early in the day DJ was granted relief from a cartpath under what I'll characterize as a most charitable of rulings.  

A hole or two later, Rors found himself in somewhat similar circumstances, though here it was clear to the TV viewer that no such relief should be granted.  The cameras caught Rory making a case that he would play the shot a certain way, and it was perfectly clear that he would do no such thing.  The rules official, bless his soul, denied relief and can you guess what Rory did next?

He played the shot left-handed.....  which means that his discussion with said rules official was a lie.  Which is, pardon the candor, cheating.  

Now, I like Rory, as I hope was clear from the discussion above.  I'd like him to do certain things differently to improve his game, but there aren't too many guys on Tour that I'd prefer to join for an adult beverage.  Rory tries to be more open with us, and I really appreciate that from him and I'm not remotely suggesting that he be banished from polite society.

But this was wrong, and I'm not sure that anyone has ever told him how wrong it was....  We all slip up and at times we all push the rules to their breaking point, I would be happy to share a couple of my own such incidents if that's of interest.  The question to me is, do these guys get such feedback?  Because I'm thinking they should, but probably don't.

Midweek Musings

At first glance, it looks like we'll be covering two of the big three issues in the game today.  The Distance Insights Report is the odd man out...  But be bright of heart, we'll make for that with some incoming for Patrick...

Timing Is Everything - So, how about that week at The Riv?  Not all was as it seems....  We at first wondered what might make Phil skip the adoring crowds in Scottsdale and head to Saudi Arabia?  Well, turns out that perhaps that incredibly deep field was there for other reasons:

There have been widespread rumblings throughout the week about the proposed Premier Golf League splinter tour. A meeting Tuesday night at the nearby home of a Middle Eastern financier drew agents for most top stars and seven PGA Tour players, though Woods was not among those present. Outwardly, he remains focused on this week, this leaderboard.

This photo and caption I found amusing:

BROOKS KOEPKA AND PHIL MICKELSON WALK BY THE 13TH HOLE HOME WHERE A PGL MEET-AND-GREET WAS HELD.

 OK, did they all wear one of those "Hello, My Nam is...." tags?  'Cause I'm thinking that no introductions were necessary....

But the irony, she burns.  Because the event about to unfold was everything the PGL has promised, and told us doesn't exist currently in our game.  But a good call to get everyone together on Tuesday, because our Phil, that guy I had been reliably informed had rediscovered his form, was not on the premises over the weekend.

From Geoff's long post, Phil is twisting in the breeze:

On site rumors were flying that Mickelson was ready to reach a decision on the proposed league last week. Since he’d almost assuredly be a founding team captain and a major draw even as he nears 50, Mickelson’s verdict could make or break the proposed Tour. 

When asked at Torrey Pines he was “intrigued,” before playing in Saudi Arabia with league officials in that week’s pro-am. Asked after missing the Genesis Invitational cut where he stood, Mickelson told those of us assembled he was “not really ready to talk about” his position. 

“I’m going to play Bay Hill and Players, I’m going to guess by the Players I’m going to have a pretty good opinion. I would guess. I’m not going to promise that. I’ll probably have an opinion by then.”

Unlike rectums, Phil has no shortage of opinions.... Alas, most of them recently seem to come via the aforementioned orifice.

But this to me is a surprise, that they're at a point where Phil could say yea or nay....This has struck me one of those classic chicken or egg deal, where regardless of the underlying merits, it's hard to see how it can happen because:

1. The players won't commit until the money is assured, yet:
2. The money won't be committed until the players are on board.

And that second point has its own prisoner's dilemma contained within, as you can't get Phil without Tiger.  But how can you get Tiger on board without Phil.... Strike that, Phil not on board might be more a feature to Tiger and less a bug....But you see the challenge, as does JR:

“I don’t see a situation where eight guys go, or four go. It’d be an all or none situation, and I don’t know how it gets to that point and I don’t even know if that point is good.”

And one assumes that money will have changed hands....  And if you need them all, as JR agrees, then that means a lot of money changing hands, long before any actual golf can be played.

If last week (or in a few weeks at The Players, and doing it on the Tour's home turf has all sorts of "I drink your milkshake" schadenfreude to recommend it), what happens next?  It's a hard question to answer.  Jay has made clear that it will be war, though he spoke in terms of once the competing league is up and running.  Players will never be allowed to belong to both Tours, Jay feels very strongly about his own milkshake.  But just an announcement of his intention to participate?  Stay tuned...

But mostly it seems too early...  That Jay would want to have this out now, because the PGL has far too many questions unanswered, such as:

One of Rose’s primary questions involves venues. The group’s documents pledge to take events to the best courses in the world and list several ambitious sites, including last week’s Genesis host, Riviera Country Club. But the combination of modern day tournament needs and a reduced number of classic courses capable of testing the world’s best, could be a limiting factor.

“Venue quality is one of the most important things,” Rose said. “Whether the purse is $8 million or $9 million, that’s not how I’m choosing my schedule.

“When I hosted the British Masters, golf course was everything for me so I think that’s a huge thing. Now we’re talking about 18 brand new events, the talk is the best golf courses around the world. I’d like to see a list.”

I can't find it right now, but apparently the PGL guys have been throwing out venue names, including that of Riviera Country Club.  Again with the timing guys, because the Riviera folks have to be feeling in a good place right now, with field strength far superior to this week's WGC.

But even the things they're offering should have huge asterisk:

Rose is, however, bullish on many elements of the proposed schedule as an “international player” who is torn with the “loyalty question” of wanting to support both the PGA Tour and European Tour.

“The attractive thing is the schedule,” Rose said of the proposed January to September schedule. “I always feel for me, taking time off and trying to play the European Tour as well, I don’t play much on the PGA Tour in October, November, December, January and I wake up 2000 points behind. You’re always playing catch up in the season long race, so to have something that was a bit more easy as an International player, would fit me better.”

Of course it does, and I do hope Jay is taking notes....  It's almost like the Fall wraparound schedule is a joke or something...

But folks are talking about the Hero World and Australian Opens being part of the PGL schedule, and my calendar indicates December dates for those.  

To me, the appeal comes down one thing...  Oh, they'll try to distract us with misderection like this:

“Format wise it’s about seeing the top players playing against each other more regularly. I think we’d all like to see that but it’s often not as simple as that. There’s 100’s of questions that need to be answered, which don’t seem to be getting answered very quickly.”

Taken to its logical extreme, that means the ultimate in golf is the Tiger v. Phil Las Vegas cage match.  Hey, you want to players in the world against each other?  And I've been reliably informed that Phil is one of the best players in the world.  A good thing, too, because had I not been so informed, it would be impossible to conclude from watching actual golf.

As I've occasionally cautioned, when folks tell you it isn't about the money...

Rose was referring to an increasingly problematic notion facing the PGA Tour. Namely, that top players see tournaments continually added where purses are funded by the same media rights pool that also funds lesser events. Meanwhile, when the people who do sell tickets, they aren’t paid.

This is, of course, true, because there wouldn't be any other way to organize a tour.  The argument has to be about the relative allocation, but we can all stipulate to the fact that Tiger is underpaid.  

But this also highlights to me the weakest part of the PGL proposal, the mechanism by which new talent will emerge.   

I found Freddie's take amusing as well, when he was asked late last week about the PGL:

"I saw Jay Monahan's quote. That's how long I follow it," Couples said Thursday, where the two-time Chubb Classic champion was practicing for this week at The Classics at Lely Resort. 

"You play there, you don't play on the Tour," he summarized Monahan. "Your choice. You want to win one of these things or you want to win the L.A. Open?

That in a nutshell is the prestige argument....  Though it comes with its own side dish of irony, because, as astute readers will quickly note, there is no longer an event called the L.A. Open.  I would argue that all parties would be well served to call it the Genesis L.A. Open, but that's an argument for another day...or Invitational, but still.

Also ironic is that prestige and/or tradition argument is Jay's ace in the hole, but again and again we see the major organization unnecessarily shedding their ties to the game's incredibly rich heritage.  For instance, how's business at the Tom Morris shop next to the 18th green at the Old Course?  Oh right, Tom Morris is just a dead white guy...

Consider The Source - It seems I'm not the only old guy that's demonstrably in the "Get off my lawn" stage of life.  Peter Kostis might want to see someone about that anger...

Obviously Peter is going to dish for us, and for that we are grateful..  Of course it presents an issue, because he's still obviously in the throes of his firing-triggered PTSD ...  There's no surprise in his take-no-prisoners rant, but does it ring true?  These comments were made on the No Laying Up podcast (which Geoff encourages us to listen to, but fails to provide a link), though your lazy blogger is merely copying-and-pasting from Shack's post, thus leaving him entirely on the hook for any errors in the jotting down thereof:

—On his non-renewal last fall from CBS. “I don’t think there was a plan in place.

They had not signed other announcers. prior to not renewing Gary’s and my option years. So I don’t think there was a plan in place.” 

—On who drove his non-renewal: “I honestly think, and this is my opinion, and it’s been corroborated by some anonymous inside sources, that media likes to use these days, that it was the tour that told CBS to get younger, I think the Tour had an issue with me not being a cheerleader, I think they had an issue with Gary sometimes…

Peter, I'd have advised you to skip that first point...  It might even be true, but the fact that the only they were sure of is the need to be rid of you seems, as the lawyers would say, an admission against interest.

That second point seems entirely believable, as all of our major golf organizations have been caught pandering to the millennials.... Peter just doesn't seem like a Live Under Par™ kinda guy.  But the concept that Peter wasn't a tour sycophant?  That's a stretch....  Maybe they couldn't tell Gary and you apart?

—On his call with CBS Sports head Sean McManus: “I asked Sean McManus, why he was doing it, was it something I did or didn’t do. He said ‘Things had gotten a bit stale and we wanted to go in a new direction.’ He denies it now but that was the exact quote and that’s what he told Gary as well.”

The diagnosis was spot on....  The treatment, however, has been ineffective.  He's correct that real problem with the broadcast is to be found in the 18th hole tower, but those guys are harder to swap out.

—Majors are off-limits. Kostis tells of interview a player on his first win, and noting that it came with two years of job security and a Masters invitation. “I got a call the next day from New York, they had gotten a call from the Commissioner, that he had won 500 FedExCup points and didn’t want me talking about majors.” He then mentions he did it again in another interview. “I did it again, because they told me not to do it, if you notice toward the middle of last year, I stopped doing interviews with the winners. They shifted it over to Amanda.

It was me being told I wasn’t listening correctly.”

Which Commissioner?  I sense the presence of Nurse Rtached....Utterly believable, though I frankly doubt it had anything to do with his firing...

—On where things are headed. “The Tour wants more control over what’s being said. I think they want more cheerleaders on the telecasts. More people that are going to “promote the Tour’s product,” you know which, we’re bridging into the stuff that people are really upset about: the quality of the telecast: I’ll say this, from the bottom of my heart, I believe this, no one in management of a network, or leadership of the PGA Tour, give’s a rat’s ass about the quality of the telecast. They don’t care about the quality of the viewer experience. They don’t care about anything other than promotion.”

See, this is where Peter isn't helping himself.  The problem isn't that they don't care, it's more a combination of prioritizing their objectives and being out of touch with the actual audience.  

And Peter seems ignorant of the real world here:

—”When the Tour keeps up and upping the rights fees, CBS has to get the money back somehow, hence, a gajilion commercials. The Tour goes to the Korn Ferry Tour, we’re going to give you pops, FedEx ex number of times…

“So they use the telecast to pay off, if you will, people who bring money into the tour. It clutters up the telecast to no end.”

So, I'll just mark you down as a Bernie Bro then?  peter, we completely gets that these are business, yet is seems to come as an unpleasant surprise to you.... Did you think CBS was a charity?  Business will be conducted, Cialis will be hawked, the FedEx Cup will be mentioned...   

Now here I think he's onto something:

—On the next model. “The word on the street, there is not going to be a CBS compound, NBC compound, but an Olympics world feed” and then later says, “Imagine what’s going to have to happen on the telecast…I’m not one feeling good about the tour taking over more control.”

Nor am I...  And that's why Jay wants to dispense with the PGL threat now, before he invests in developing this capability.  

As for this?

—Gambling. “Everything is going to revolve around gambling” in the PGA Tour’s future models for revenue growth.

Silly me, I thought it was all about golf.

Takeaways -  Alan Shipnuck shares thoughts on that which we learned at Riviera, doing so under this amusing header:

7 things we learned at the new fifth major (aka, the Genesis Invitational!)

According to Kostis, this denigration of The Players, now relegated to the sixth of four, should get Alan fired.... Still, we like funny...

So, Alan, what did we learn?

1. Tiger’s back … is both a declarative and cause for concern. Over the final 63 holes

Woods’ swing looked constricted and out of sorts, and he putted like a guy who was too stiff to practice. Chilly mornings, as in L.A. in February, are always going to be problematic. Florida heat and non-poa greens will surely help. But Tiger’s milquetoast play at Riviera was a reminder of how delicate this ongoing comeback remains.

Didn't we know that already from Prez Cup Saturday?

2. The distance debate is over … as long as we can play tournaments on Golden Age classics with firm, fast greens. Just as with Pebble Beach, petite Riviera more than held its own, thanks to a dry winter that allowed for a fiery setup. Alas, golf is an outdoor game and soggy Florida is on the horizon, with the ensuing spring and summer showers ensuring that bomb ’n gouge will once again reign supreme. Le sigh.

Everyone talks about the weather....

3. Adam Scott ain’t done yet. That’s now wins in back-to-back starts for the sweet-swinging Aussie. Scott has always said his goal is to win the career Grand Slam, which has manifold talent made seem realistic. It remains a tall mountain to climb but once again Scott is on the ascent.

Like Webb Simpson, I do give Scott all sorts of credit for working his way back from the anchored putting ban.  But he remains as he ever was, a great ball-striker that struggles with the putter.  Ultimately, such a good ball-striker (or more that he just has the prettiest swing out there), that his career seems a disappointment.

4. Rory is still gonna Rory. McIlroy’s best golf has never been more awe-inspiring but Riviera was a glum reminder that the world number one can still lose the plot at any moment. There’s no use pining for a Tiger-like grind because that’s simply not Rory’s personality. The key, I suppose, is not to overreact to these shockers, knowing that they are inevitable. The good news is that McIlroy is never far from finding from it.

Pulleaze.... you and your mates in press get the vapors when Rory has a Sunday collapse, as if he's suddenly found magic.  The man is a horrible putter, and plays his worst golf when he wants it most....  I get the abundance of natural talent, but the boyhood friend on the bag tells me all I need to know about where his head is.

5. Max Homa is more than Twitter star. It’s not an accident that his breakthrough last year came at a big-time course like Quail Hollow. Since then, Homa has made it a point to play well on the Tour’s best courses, with a strong run being the latest example. Prepare for DEFCON 1 on social media because it appears that Homa is going to be a consistent contender for a good long while.

I wouldn't know, because I watched the event on CBS.

6. Dustin Johnson remains diminished. Once the Tour’s most prolific winner, DJ has reached the one-year anniversary of his last victory. Now 35 and coming off knee surgery, Johnson could have made a statement at Riv but he retreated badly on Sunday. It’s still too early to panic but golf is a lot more fun when Johnson is in full flight. Here’s hoping he returns to form soon.

News flash:  Rory is gonna Rory, and DJ is gonna DJ....  If Adam Scott isn't the biggest underachiever on Tour, then America will turn its lonely eyes to this guy...

7. The tournament was the most eloquent rebuttal imaginable to the PGL. You could see how much the victory meant to Scott, and how bummed the other would-be challengers were to not get it done. An iconic venue dripping with history is what makes a tournament meaningful. You can’t buy that no matter how many Saudi princes are your backers.

Who was it that said, The irony, she burns"?  Oh right, it was me...

Cat Fight -  This is juicy, and could easily eclipse the Bernie-Bloomie cage match:

In a town hall interview this week on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, Koepka said that Patrick Reed knew what he was doing when he was “building sand castles” in the bunker 

at the Hero World Challenge. 

When asked by host Sway Calloway if Reed was cheating when he improved his lie, Koepka said: “Yeah. I don’t know what he was doing, building sand castles in the sand. But you know where your club is. I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touch sand. If you look at the video, obviously he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.”

 It's time to check the adequacy of my strategic popcorn reserve...  

Of course I love the cat fight aspect to this, and eagerly away Patrick's thoughtful response.  And there's no shortage of Astros references:

Koepka compared the Reed situation to the Astros sign-stealing scandal and said that there’s “no room” in the game for intentional rule breaking. He said that most rules infractions are difficult to prove, unless the players are caught on camera.

This Golf.com item includes a great quote from Astros owner Jim Crane:

I guess the Astros are going through that right now. Jim Crane said it, when he got asked, ‘Is it cheating?’ And he said, ‘No, we just broke the rules.’ … If you play the game you understand the rules. You understand the integrity that goes on. I mean, there’s no room for it…”

Which is almost to the word how Patrick answered, though I'm thinking Patrick has more of a case than Crane.  Let's see, we intentionally and repeatedly broke a rule to give batters a significant advantage, but why would you equate that with cheating?  And how can you mean girls think we were still cheating in 2018 and 2019, when we gave you our word?  

But as much as I encourage the squabbling, I'm thinking that this might be the more significant comment:

In fact, during a U.S. Open (he didn’t specify which year), Koepka said that he watched one of his fellow playing competitors blow a drive right, into 6-inch rough. He saw that player take out a 3-wood and pat down the thick rough behind the ball, only to then grab a wedge and hack the ball out 60 yards down the fairway. Koepka looked at the other player in his group and said, “This ain’t right.” 

“It goes on a little bit more than people think,” he said, before adding: "I’ve been guilty of it. I haven’t opened my mouth. But now if I saw it, just because of where I’m at in the game, the stature that I have, I would definitely say something.”

What do you mean by "a little"?

I assume that his confession is to not speaking up, not that he's copping to have improved his own lie.  And that reminds me that it can be all about the relative standing of the players.  For instance, anybody but me remember Tiger's 2013 sequence of rules infractions?  The worst of the bunch was actually a drop he took at TPC Sawgrass No. 14, after pulling his tee ball into the water.  

To me the most interesting aspect of it was that awkward moment on the tee when Tiger had to consider where to drop.  His playing partner that day was Casey Wittenberg, and that pairing accounts for a combined 82 PGA Tour wins and 15 majors....  Am I making my point clearly?  Tiger asks or asserts that his ball crossed land so as to give him the more favorable drop, and what kind of reaction do we expect from poor Casey?  He's gonna tell God that he can't drop where he wants to?  I just don't think so...

Coming Attractions - It's all good.  I love Brooksie spanking Patrick, and Peter trashing everyone.  But is it possible the best is yet to come?  I don't want to get your hopes up, but buried deep in Geoff's post (not so much deep as easy to read past) is this little nugget:

I finally had to pause though I hear the rest on Patrick Reed is also going to be blog worthy tomorrow

There was this as well:

Other Patrick incidents?  Do tell....Can it possibly live up to my rich imagination?  

I'll certainly be here tomorrow for that, and hope you will as well.  

Tuesday Trifles

So, they awoke yesterday to 12" of fresh powder in Park City...Am I bitter?  Hell, yeah!

R.I.P., Mickey Wright - Sad news of the loss of a legend.  From the AP obituary, a brief precis of the lady's career:

• 82 LPGA titles, second only to Kathy Whitworth (88).

• 13 major championship titles, second only to Patty Berg (15). Four of those were U.S. Women’s Open titles, equaling Betsy Rawls for most ever.

• 13 victories in a single LPGA season (1963). It remains the tour record. She won 11 times in 1964, which equals Annika Sorenstam for second most LPGA victories in a season.

• Four consecutive major championship victories, a mark no other woman has ever achieved. She won the last two majors in 1961 and the first two in ’62.

• Five consecutive Vare Trophy titles for low scoring average (1960-64), the most won in a row in tour history.

• Four consecutive LPGA money titles (1961-64).

• 14 consecutive years with an LPGA victory (1956-69).

And from Beth Ann Nichols:

Kathy Whitworth, the winningest player in LPGA history, said she was always sorry that 

Wright quit the tour as early as she did. But she understood if Wright felt worn down by her responsibilities. 

“She was our Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods, Nancy Lopez all rolled into one,” said Whitworth. “She was it.” 

Born on Valentine’s Day in San Diego in 1935, Wright won the 1952 U.S. Girls’ Junior. She went to Stanford briefly before turning professional in 1954. By the age of 27, she had won all four majors. By age 28 she had won all four majors twice. She became the only player to hold all four majors at the same time, winning the last two in 1961 and the first two in 1962.

Snark seems inappropriate at such a time, but the concept of Mickey as the LPGA's Nancy Lopez has me awfully confused...  She was big,  

But it was much about the swing... Excuse me,. THE SWING.  Take a look (h/t Shack):

And when it wasn't about THE SWING, it was about what others thought of THE SWING:

The story of Mickey Wright’s life begins with her golf swing. 

Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson called Wright’s swing the greatest they’d ever seen – man or woman. Wright won 82 tournaments on the LPGA, including 13 majors, and rare footage of her swing serves as the epicenter of the USGA Museum’s Mickey Wright Room, home to more than 200 artifacts that Wright helped to box up from her Florida villa and ship to Far Hills, New Jersey.

Very specific others... When the LPGA did their "Swing Like a Girl" commercial a few years back, I thought they could have worked in video of The Mick.  Of course, none of the kids would have a clue who she was, but that's half the fun...

I recommend this Guy Yocum My Shot feature with Mickey, thoughtfully reposted by Golf Digest.  I'll just grab a couple of excerpts in the "My, How Things Have Changed" category:

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF LUCY LI, the girl who at age 11 played so well at the 2014 U.S. Women's Open. We struck up a friendship via email, which is pretty neat considering I could be her great-great-grandmother. 

It goes to show, the language of golf never changes. Lucy is 14 now and still a tiny thing, not much over 100 pounds. Obviously she wants to hit the ball farther. I've told Lucy to hang in there, that she hasn't stopped growing and that more distance will come with time. I've suggested she turn her shoulders as far as they'll go and to turn her hips, too, and for heaven's sake, let that left heel come off the ground. But the main thing I've told her is to avoid lifting weights and to simply hit a lot of balls. There is no substitute for being "golf strong," developing the muscles you actually use in the swing. And she'll develop muscle memory, which is vital to a young player.

 I guess we better keep Lucy away from Bryson....

I'VE BEEN TRYING the new swing ideas I keep hearing about, things I see players doing on TV. They leave me cold, to be honest. I watch the way players keep their feet planted, their backs perfectly straight and rigid with their lower bodies hardly moving at all, and just know they're going to get hurt. They look overly "leveraged," not the perfect word perhaps, but one all those angles bring to mind. It's just the opposite of how I learned, which is the swing happening from the ground up. I guess I just don't understand the modern way. One thing's for sure, I see an awful lot of players wearing medical tape. Hands, arms, legs, back, everywhere. That can't be a good sign.

 And they certainly seem to be hurt more than the old guys were.  

R.I.P.

Eye on CBS - This story has some legs, so buckle in.  Many points of entry, but let's start with Ryan Balangee's attempt to detail the train wreck that is CBS:

The final round of The Genesis Invitational was borderline unwatchable on Sunday. 

CBS put together a disjointed broadcast that struggled in telling the story of Adam Scott's path to victory at Riviera. They didn't show a guy who was tied for second place for much of the late afternoon until his 13th hole of the day. They outright failed to air some shots -- or when they did, it was far too late. They showed far too many shots from golfers who didn't have a chance to win. They didn't explain whatsoever what it takes to win at Riviera. 

It was a signal that, for all the new and interesting voices on CBS, the production doesn't seem to have improved.

Too many shots from golfers without a chance to win?  Hmmm...there was that guy in a red shirt on the wrong nine....

But, of greater importance, what are these "new and interesting voices" of which he speaks?  Certainly not that guy with the three sticks in his name.

Ryan mentions the dreaded CEO interview, and I really wish he hadn't.  Sunday's was unintentionally hilarious, which we'll get to in a sec, but this part of the package and a requirement of the Tour/Sponsors.  It sucks, and it would be nice if the assorted parties could understand how painful it is, but I'd prefer a laser-like focus on CBS' failures.

Then there's Varnergate:

Credit to Trevor Immelman and Frank Nobilo for explaining the situation to the viewer, but it's not like CBS didn't have a camera on the 10th tee. I can understand the desire to not show an embarrassing shot, particularly during an early-round telecast. The Tour has sometimes pulled down digital highlights of players hitting poor shots, and they've been summarily roasted for it. However, this was the leader of the tournament in the final round, as he was looking for his first win. There's every expectation that shot makes air immediately.

Ya think?  But the reason that Trevor and Frank had to explain, is because CBS picked up Varner in a spot not previously inhabited by a PGA Tour player.  

But I want to revisit this sentence from the excerpt above:

CBS put together a disjointed broadcast that struggled in telling the story of Adam Scott's path to victory at Riviera.

That, to me, is the crux of the problem.  It's a problem shared by NBC and Fox, but CBS is far and away the worst of the bunch... I want them to show me the golf tournament, but they want to tell me  a story.  Jim Nancy-Boy wants to be my friend, and I just want to see golf...  Pretty simple, no?

Ryan has other thoughts, of varying interest, such as this:

Meanwhile, Max Homa had played his way into contention. He was T-2 for several holes before CBS finally decided to show a shot of his: from the woods on No. 13. CBS has a penchant for avoiding players they don't think are going to win for extended periods of time. It often feels like they finally check in with the nail-in-the-coffin shot that derails their chances. Homa didn't win, yes, but that doesn't justify cherry-picking when he should make air. If a player is in the top two with nine to play, they should be showed extensively. 

Instead, Tiger Woods, who was 11 over this weekend, and Brooks Koepka, who was never a factor this week, got some extra air time for meaningless shots.

This is both true and a logic box canyon.  It's a live golf tournament and they're making snap decisions of where to cut, so they'll never make us all happy and there's no real way to hold them accountable.  But again, if you're in the business of showing the tourney, you really can't avoid the guy in second place.  If you're telling stories and sculpting narratives, the facts on the ground will make you look silly.

And then you find out that these people aren't very good at the basics of their job:

During a break to go through the action on the other tours playing this week, CBS showed a patently wrong leaderboard for the final results of the LPGA's ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open. The tournament had been done for some 10-12 hours at that point, and CBS showed a graphic with the leaderboard through three rounds.

So Mr. Nobilo, that's one where you had the luxury of a print-type deadline....  

I have a bad feeling about this category:

What went right

Deep breath:

CBS occasionally uses the blimp to great effect, like when they aired Adam Scott's tee shot on No. 15 as it rolled into the group in front of him. That kind of thing is unpredictable, particularly on the PGA Tour, and CBS fortunately had an angle that could put the shot and the intruded group's reaction in context.

That's your lead in this category?  Yeah, I liked it a lot as well, it's just not at all meaningful.  It's the 21st century, so we expect that they can grab some interesting video out in nature.  What else you got?

Dottie Pepper and Trevor Immelman are solid inside the ropes. They call it for what it is, and they don't sugar coat it.

They're both fine at their jobs, though I'm having trouble understanding which Immelman to expect.

Frank Nobilo is one of my favorite voices in golf. His addition makes CBS a better team.

One of your favorite voices or accents?  Frank has always been an inoffensive voice in the game, though calling the live action is a new gig.  I'd like to shove Sunday's tweet back down his throat, because he doesn't have to sit through their dreadful product.  The commentators had CBS dead to rights on the Varner shot, to the extent that CBS capitulated.  You can engage the criticism directly, you can keep your pie hole shut and take it like a big boy, but you don't get to hide behind the skirt of print deadlines...

Amanda Balionis does a really good job when she's actually allocated more than a minute to do anything, whether that's looking at stats or interviewing players. If you're going to have someone like Balionis in the role she has, embrace it.

Here's where we're forced to part ways, Ryan.  I think she's really quite dreadful, and the next thing she tells me that I didn't already know will be the first.  I totally get that she's a good dancer and makes all her own clothes, though most of us can guess how she got the gig.  That's why I prefer to note that every second she's on camera is another in which CBS is not showing actual golf.

Ready for the rousing coda?

What needs to happen 

Aside from the obvious -- less commercials, more cohesion, less unnecessary diversions -- there are some things CBS can do to dramatically improve the telecast and make the golf fan smarter.

OK, I'm listening: 

No network really does a good job of explaining how golf is played at this level. Not just CBS. NBC and Fox struggle with it, too. But the PGA Tour has ShotLink data that can help a golfer understand strategy and compare players.

And whose job is this?  That would be Sir Nick Faldo, and he's too busy mumbling about Fanny and God knows what else. 

When showing a hole, showcase the five or 10 drives of the day that have gained the most strokes off-the-tee. Explain why those gained so many strokes, and put it into perspective for the particular golfer they're showing.

That's an interesting suggestion, and one's mind immediately races to that tenth hole at Riviera....  But really, this amounts to deck chairs on the Titanic.... 

On approach shots on the weekends, show the hole locations for the prior days and a heat map of strokes gained on the approach to each hole location. Show the strokes gained for a hole location that day and compare it to a particular player's usual SG:OTT or what they're doing this week.

That's even better, given that proximity might be the most important stat of all.  Still, it's a nip-and-a-tuck when we require full-body liposuction. 

Embrace data! The PGA Tour has tried to do that with PGA Tour Live, and it's helpful. There still seems a lack of context that would make fans smarter, but that kind of education can be subtle and done over time.

OK, but in limited doses...  Ryan, did you consider simply suggesting that they show more actual golf shots.

But this?

Of course, the telecasts should embrace betting. While a minority of Americans can place a legal wager on golf right now, it's coming. Betting odds also help explain expected outcomes and probabilities. They show which guys are outperforming public expectations. Show how a player's odds have evolved from pre-tournament through to the current shot.

Again, with the story-telling....  Really, Ryan, you're not helping with this patient.  We need these folks to show us actual golf and give us basic data like yardages and clubs....  When they can that competently, maybe then we'll be interested in that which they have to say.

Oh, and with all the focus on story-telling, nobody in control seems to care if the plot resolves itself off-air:

Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar and a few others were trading punches early during the final round of the Genesis Invitational on Sunday… and then the broadcast went off air. 

That’s when the leaderboard flipped. 

Per usual, Golf Channel had the early afternoon broadcast rights, which ended at 2:45 p.m. ET. CBS took over at 3 p.m., although it was more like 3:05 p.m. since the college basketball game ran a couple of minutes late. And that “coverage gap,” as it’s often called, came at a crucial time of the round. 

When the broadcast returned to the air, we saw co-leaders McIlroy and Scott cleaning up disastrous holes on the 5th green. McIlroy made triple bogey and Scott made a double bogey, which plummeted both down the leaderboard at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

They don't like to show us the bad shots anyway, so worked out well.

Your only job was to show us the golf tournament.... Why can't they go immediately to CBS?  Something about changing graphics, which we all care so much about.  Gee, Jay, might you do something about this in those new contracts?  Fat chance....

And don't get me started on those NCAA games bleeding into the golf coverage.  Every friggin' week!  

Lastly, the bride and I were all over this...  To be fair, it was easily the most compelling CEO interview evah:

You let the CEO show off his chest hair?  Can't anybody here play this game?

Geoff's take is worth your time as well.  He asks a very good question, though I can only assume he means it to be rhetorical:

Presumably in the coming weeks we’ll finally learn the outcome of the PGA Tour’s

negotiations with CBS, NBC, Golf Channel and ESPN+.

Maybe at the Players Championship we’ll learn—just throwing out a number here—that they’re going to get paid $8 billion over ten years. Players will swoon, north Florida BMW dealers will take extra special orders and second homes will be purchased by bonus-receiving executives. 

But a very simple question will need to be addressed by Commissioner Jay Monahan: how will taking more money from networks make golf on television better? What guarantees will there be to improve the “product”? Or, to put it B-speak parlance, how will this deal “grow the game” with better productions?

Seriously?  I don't think that's in Jay Monahan's top ten objectives.   

This Golf Digest account covers mostly the same ground, though with perhaps a tease of optimism:

CBS Sports recently overhauled its golf lineup, both in front of and behind the camera. The network did not renew the contracts of Gary McCord and Peter Kostis, added Davis Love III and Trevor Immelman and elevated Dottie Pepper and Frank Nobilo to new roles. Meanwhile, longtime producer Lance Barrow will step down following the 2020 season.

At this point, one can only conclude that Barrow is part of the problem.  Apparently, he can hear Mumbles Faldo and  Nancy-Boy in his headset and not understand that he's driving the audience away.  Also, Lance, the next interesting thing to exit the mouth of Davis Love will also be the first, but I'm not holding my breath.

Another Innocent Strawman Sacrificed - John Feinstein writes a wonderful profile of the wonderful Harold Varner, which is ruined by this off-putting header:

Despite a bad miss, Harold Varner III is still good at golf—and good for golf

 Exactly who would argue that one bad swing would tell us anything about the man that made it?

But this remains a long-festering frustration, mostly with the suits in Ponte Vedra Beach.  I always laid that on Nurse Ratched, who was not an actual golfer.  That might not have been fair but, it's Nurse Ratched, so why start now?

I actually feel this a reasonably important point about our game, which offers a ratio of about 90% failure to 10% success (at least for us).  Golfers willing subject themselves to this ritual humiliation, and we feel kinship with others that do the same.  As for the elite players, I would argue strongly that their infrequent eff-ups actually make them all the more amazing to us....

Go read John's profile about Varner, I'll just give you this tease:

I first met him in Houston in April 2016, his rookie year on the tour. I wanted to write a story on him for Golf Digest, at least in part because he was, at that moment, the only African-American on the PGA Tour. Woods was out injured. I was going back and forth that week between college basketball’s Final Four and the Shell Houston Open. I’d arranged to talk to Varner on Friday after he played in the morning during the second round. 

This can be risky for a reporter because if a player misses the cut early on Friday, he will be in no mood to talk and will often catch the first flight out. The tour has a travel agent in the locker room to help players in those situations. On Thursday, after a day at the basketball arena, I returned to my hotel room and checked the scores: Varner had shot a four-over 76 and was well on his way to a fourth straight missed cut. 

Uh-oh. 

I sent him a text, asking if he missed the cut if he would still feel up to talking to me after his round. The answer came back right away: “John,” it said. “I play golf for a living. My life is great. I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

That’s Varner. Two years ago, he was in the first group off the first tee at Shinnecock Hills on Day 1 of the U.S. Open. He shot a nine-over 79 and was the first player who came to meet with the media. 

Someone asked him if it had been a tough day. Varner laughed. “Tough day?” he said. “I was getting paid to play golf on one of the greatest golf courses in the world. You want to talk to someone who had a tough day, go talk to the volunteers out there who had to try to find my golf balls.”

Good for golf?  Duh!  But also very good at life, no?

Over To You, Geoff -  The man has been en fuego, and it's worth hanging with him for a bit.  First up, his thoughts on Sunday night about Riviera and related subjects:

—Green reading books are less of a thing. Adam Scott said he’s trying desperately not to look at the pages of arrows, and when he does it’s to recall contours as he approaches from the fairway. Rory McIlroy still regularly consulted his and Dustin Johnson appears more devoted than ever to his. Tiger Woods did not consult his at all (then again, after finishing last, maybe he should have). Either way, compared to a few years ago, the cheat sheets appear to be on the decline. Whether that’s because of changes in the rules, or grown men realizing that a page full of minuscule arrows is no way to read a putt, I do not know.

If only. 

Tiger spent the whole week showing that he didn't care, so I wouldn't draw any significant conclusions from that.  

—Rough is only necessary to defend a dreary design. With only light afternoon breezes all week, sunny skies and very light rough, Riviera was able to give an incredible 

field a stern test. Maybe the final round hole locations were a tad relentless in difficulty, but green speed and firmness were more likely responsible for only one player finishing double-digits under par. Sunday’s 72.000 scoring average included 23 doubles and 9 others. Saturday’s third round yielded a 70.397 scoring average with 211 bogies and just nine doubles. All of it without the artificial intrusion of rough. 

—Rough is not the answer to distance. With the recent distance study still fresh on minds, the most common golf pro answer involved advocacy for harvesting taller grass along sides of fairways. Riviera demonstrated again that architecture coupled with firmness is the answer. Of course, this was still after years of lengthening and other elements to keep the place relevant.

Errr....not so simple.  I agree that firmandfast is the preference, but when was the last time we saw this venue firmandfast?  I don't like long rough any more than Geoff, but we simply can't dial up such conditions routinely.  Heck, to be honest, our last few trips to the UK have featured soft conditions as well.

—A wedge approach to 18 just doesn’t seem right. Watching Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott hit wedges into the iconic 18th hole Saturday and Sunday—even after the hole had been lengthened years ago to 491 yards—reminds us they are essentially superhuman talents. Particularly given the 50-foot rise over the hill. But we’d still feel that way about them hitting 7 or 8-irons as approach clubs following a long drive.

It doesn't seem right mostly because it isn't... But I've been reliably informed that chicks dig the long ball....

But finally he gets to the important conclusions:

—Never let your caddie place a Trackman on the roof of a car. Those soft cases just don’t stick like you’d hope.

 Anyone know the story here?  

And this:

—Tradition still matters. Even with another new name and no open status, the L.A. Open and Genesis Invitational of the present succeeded this week on the back of ideal weather, an incredible field, a beautifully prepared golf course, and a tournament exuding a sense of permanence. A whopping 94 years of history and a design players love always helps. The week showed how dependent professional golf is on venues whether to lure a top field or put on a good show. The sport at its best returns to the places that matter. And it’s a shrinking list with every jump in distance gains.

Very troubling, Geoff.  The way you bitterly cling to golf courses built by dead white men....Now, can you try to save The Western Open?  How about the Tom Morris Golf Shop (just to be clear, Geoff was all over that last item during the 2015 Open).

More recently, he's back with another take on the week:

How You Know The Ball Goes Too Far After Another Week At Riviera

You know how I know the ball goes too far and just makes a total mess of things? 

—This driving range fence was just a normal chainlink fence in the mid-80s. Now they bring in a special extension tournament week and Bryson DeChambeau was still able to clear it last week…

So the "getting huge" thing is already paying dividends for Bryson?  Good to know.

—Monday’s Celebrity Cup participants could drive the 10th green. They had to wait for the surface to clear to tee off. Oliver Hudson drove over the 10th green…

Anyone know who Oliver Hudson might be?

—They put a concession stand where players used to hit bad drives off the 434-yard third hole. Now they miss 40 yards farther down the hole. And in Phil Mickelson’s case (this is the long ball search for him), 40 yards right of the fairway edge…

And lastly:

The 10th at Riviera is not a drivable par-4, it’s a 3-woodable long par-3 where the layup is at a disadvantage based on the birdies made. The 2020 ShotLink scatter chart:

I assume that lonely black dot is Harold....  How sad.

OK, I'll see you nice folks tomorrow.