Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Weekend Wrap - 24 Hour Lag Edition

Apologies for the unexplained absence yesterday.  A husbandly obligation arose after posting on Friday, but all is good.  

I actually expected to write an abbreviated post, but Tate seems to feel that the perfect venue for his post-breaky nap is in your humble blogger's lap, and I certainly don't want to be dissuading him on that score.  Although I did just that a moment ago, so he's taken it in stride.

The Jordan Rules - I watched very little of it, but that which I saw seemed quite....well, messy.  Though I did catch this scene, and had much the same reaction:

When Jordan Spieth finished his final round at the RBC Heritage by holing a 10-foot birdie putt to reach 13 under and take the clubhouse lead with a closing 66, he made his way to the scoring shack
and was greeted by a group of about 40 delirious children. As he signed his scorecard, the chants came from outside: "Spieth! Spieth! Spieth" and then "We want Jor-dan!" He wasn't quite ready to sign their hats and flags, but he walked over to the rabid young mob and explained the situation with that measured, sincere tone that has become so familiar—he was sorry, but there was a playoff coming maybe, or maybe he'd lose outright. One way or another, however, he'd be back when it was over.

Witnessing that moment, two questions came to mind: Who else would do that? And who else in golf, give or take a Tiger Woods, would inspire that kind of reaction in the first place?

A moment later, the epiphany: He inspires that kind of reaction because he's the kind of person who would take the time to explain to a group of kids why he couldn't stay.

Well, as the famed African explorer noted, "hello, I must be going..."   

"I never missed a cut at the Masters before," Spieth said, "and very rarely had not had a chance to
win on the weekend. So I hated it. It was the worst feeling. It was the worst feeling as a golfer that I can remember."

And so, he redoubled his efforts, put in hours of practice, and managed—just barely—to cross the line again, the 13th victory on tour for the 28-year-old. Was he lucky to win, or unlucky? On the unlucky side, there was the debacle on nine and the horror story from the 18th hole on Saturday, when for the second time in three weeks, Spieth somehow blew a tap-in in a scene that remains painful to watch.

"I won the tournament without a putter," he said after his round, and later, he reflected on the embarrassing moment.

While you might think that hyperbolic, it's drama queen Jordan, after all, but these numbers are not at all what you might expect:

Jordan Spieth, Elite Ball-striker might take some getting used to...

This as well:

The Tour Confidential gang has thoughts as well:

1. Jordan Spieth is back. Again. Spieth made two eagles, shot a five-under 66 and parred the first hole of a playoff with Patrick Cantlay on Sunday to win the RBC Heritage, his first victory since last Easter, and his 13th PGA Tour win overall. Notably, it also helped him overcome a disastrous 18-inch missed putt a day earlier. Everything taken into account, what’s your assessment of the Spieth win?

Josh Sens: He’s been striking it well for a while now (to the amazement of some of us who can’t figure out how he’s making that awkward-looking pre-shot routine work so well) but was having an off-brand stretch with his putter. His putter came back this week. I think it’s also notable that this win came on the heels of his first missed cut at the Masters. GOLF.com’s own gambling prognosticator, Erick Lindgren, picked Spieth to win this week, saying he expected a prideful bounce back. I don’t discount that as a factor.

For some, Jordan's mouth makes him unwatchable, and for the rest of us it just might be that awkward practice swing that just seems all wrong.  I won't belabor it, but Luke Kerr-Dineen does. 

Dylan Dethier: This certainly wasn’t one of Spieth’s most dominant victories, but the roller coaster nature of the entire experience served to remind us that he’s the game’s most intriguing figure because he can hit shocking golf shots of every variety. The fact that he overcame such a subpar putting performance is a testament to his ball striking and hopefully a sign of more brilliance to come.

Michael Bamberger: He backed into this win. He won with a par. But he won. He’s won more recently than Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau — even Scottie Scheffler. He won! He’ll be on the Presidents Cup team. He’ll contend more before the year’s out. He won on a good course with a good field on CBS. It counts.

Josh Berhow: Backed in? Come on, Michael! I’ll give him credit for two front-nine eagles and a birdie on the 18th that was good for a 66 and, turns out, just enough for a playoff. This is the Jordan Spieth I think we’ll see from now on (and I’m pretty sure I said this after his last win) — a guy who is always grinding, always tinkering, always luring us in, always giving us reasons to believe. Then, just a week later, leaving us scratching our heads. It’s a roller coaster. It’s not for everyone. But when he finds it, it’s a blast to watch. 

Bamberger: Well, good point, Josh — backed in is too strong, but pars don’t win many Tour playoffs.

Well, it's no fun at all if we can't be just a little harsh, so I'm Ok saying he backed in.  He did just enough to overcome that 18-inch miss that was on an endless loop on Golf Channel.

The week might be best remembered for two bizarre rules violations.  We'll let the TC guys deal with the more significant of the two:

4. In one of the more bizarre rules scenarios you’ll see, Harold Varner hit a tee shot near an out-of-bounds area at the RBC Heritage, then asked a fan to check whether a ball was his. Varner confirmed it was — and then things got really interesting. A rules official was called over. Varner said the man moved the ball from inbounds to out of bounds while checking. But the man said he didn’t, Varner said, and the rules official sided with the man. Whew! What’s your read on how the situation was adjudicated?


Sens: If things went down as Varner says they did, that’s a very strange way to go about things. The foundations of the rules are underpinned by the idea that you trust the player. It flies in the face of that principle if Varner’s word was discounted.

Dethier: Yep, Sens is spot on here. It was tough for us to see the entire exchange, but it certainly didn’t feel like a satisfying conclusion to the ruling. Varner wound up missing the playoff by a single shot on Sunday, and I think he has a legitimate gripe, if it went down as he described.

Bamberger: Agree with all Josh Sens says, but here’s something even more basic: DO IT YOURSELF. A central tenet of golf is self-reliance. Fans do look for balls often, but you never hear of a player or a caddie ASKING fans to look for balls. If a fan does find a ball, the player typically steps right in and takes over — it’s the player’s job to identify the ball and proceed from there. In other words, how did it ever get to the situation where it was the “fan’s word” over the “player’s word”? If the fan moved it, was there a way to determine if it went from inbounds to out of bounds? Lacking confirmation, you had to presume the ball was out of bounds. That is the rules official protecting all the other players. Even saying “it’s mine” based on the fan’s description is odd to me. It sounds like yours, but until you put your own eyes on it, in the spot where it lays, you cannot know. The golfer is collecting evidence: Is it my ball, and where is it? It’s not a crime scene, but the player is in charge of it, and the player’s job is to make sure it doesn’t turn into one.

Berhow: Yes, weird that they took the fan’s word over the player’s. But, as Michael said, that’s not an issue if Harold or his caddie goes over there themselves. Sure, there was a lot going on and some odd circumstances, but this one’s also a bit of bad luck.

I feel bad for Varner, but what the hell were he and his caddie thinking?  Trusting a rando without even an admonition to not touch the ball?  This is pretty basic stuff, though the slippers were quite the nice touch.

The killer, of course, is that he finished a shot out of the playoff.  But, really Harold, you have only yourself to blame.

The second involved the winner's former Longhorn teammate:

Step with me into the Obscure Rules Section of the PGA Tour Library and observe the final-round action of one Dylan Frittelli, who hit a tee shot offline and got punished in a wholly unexpected way.

Frittelli began Sunday at the RBC Heritage in a share of 38th place, four under par and seven shots off the lead. As a result, the TV cameras only caught up to him on the sixth hole, after his tee shot had come to rest in a particularly unfortunate spot: In a tree some seven feet off the ground.

That’s right: Frittelli’s wayward drive at the 6th got caught up in some Spanish moss. That’s where it stuck, suspended, as he approached.

Frittelli seemed to enjoy the challenge. He surveyed the lie from all angles, assessed his landing area and pulled out driver. He gripped the driver halfway down the shaft, swung it forward like an axe into a tree and watched, satisfied, as the ball popped out and rolled into the fairway.

Next he did something distinctly professional: From 144 yards in the fairway he stuck a short iron to 10 feet and rolled in the putt.

Nice par, right?!

Not so fast.

Do I even need to post the denouement?

c. Making Stroke While Standing Across or on Line of Play

The player must not make a stroke from a stance with a foot deliberately placed on each side of, or with either foot deliberately touching, the line of play or an extension of that line behind the ball.

For this Rule only, the line of play does not include a reasonable distance on either side.

Exception – There Is No Penalty If Stance Is Taken Accidentally or to Avoid Another Player’s Line of Play.

Frittelli was deemed to have straddled his line and was therefore docked two strokes. What began as an epic par save turned into a brutal double bogey. He went from one over par for the day to three over. He bogeyed the next hole, too, and stalled out the rest of the day, making bogey at No. 13 and par everywhere else to finish T66.

OK, the rules of golf can be an ass, though this is why they always call in rules officials, or at least should, pace of play be damned.  There is good news, in that it was chump change involved:

Did the penalty matter? Not much, if you consider just the two shots. Frittelli’s T56 became T66 and cost him only $1,520.

But here's the maddening and troubling bit:

Frittelli has taken this in good humor, but how do we reconcile this:

“I think the rule was applied correctly, I just think it’s kind of ridiculous that it’s so hard and fast and concrete,” he said. “There was a seasoned rules official standing 15 feet away and it didn’t occur to him, either. The fact that there’s no leeway for an official to apply the rule when there’s no benefit to me playing it that way, when it wasn’t written for this situation, that’s what I don’t love.”

The rules official has one job, and that's to head off penalties.... It just rankles to have the player payer pay the price under such circumstances.

Given that we've just wrapped Jordan's win, let's grab a few Jordan-related bits from the hot-off-the-press Ask Alan:

Is Jordan Spieth the most entertaining golfer of all time or the most maddening? @Kevinp613

I think is why the good lord gave us the ampersand. 

Yes. And that is what makes him so riveting. He is both a golfing genius and a tortured soul. He can make the hard stuff look easy and the easy stuff look impossible. Spieth has both superpowers and intense frailties. Watching him scuffle to fulfill his vast potential is the best show in the game. What a competitor.

He is both those things, for sure.  Oh, not the most entertaining in a forever sense, Seve or Chi Chi would lap him there.  But he does certainly have a flare for the dramatic, and can make you cringe as well.

This is not a bad question:

From this day forward, who has the better career: Jordan or Justin Thomas? @AndrewJFleming

Oooh, tough one. Thomas has more firepower and never loses the plot the way Spieth does. But JT doesn’t have Jordan’s grit—in fairness, nobody this side of Tiger does—and he does not play with the same kind of joy. Perhaps because it has been nearly five years since he won his only major championship, Thomas seems increasingly frustrated/oppressed on the golf course. He appears more fixated on the results than the process. Meanwhile, Spieth manifests joy in the struggles. For that reason, I think Jordan will have a longer, more fruitful career.

I've been down on JT for some time, and I wonder how long Bones will stick around to collect T30 checks.  But, while I'd guess Jordan would finish with better numbers, from now forward I think I'd opt for the guy with that firepower.  Of course, what I'd really like to do is duck the question until after Southern Hills, which might just be one of Jordan's better chances to complete the Career Salami.

And one more:

If Spieth never wins another event, is he still a Hall of Famer? Three majors and a FedEx Cup winner and other wins. I say yes. @Skroutyboy

No question. I mean, have you seen some of the other folks in the Hall? If they put Billy Payne in there but deny Jordan, we will burn that place to the ground and I’m bringing the gasoline and the matches.

Alan's answer is correct, but Billy Payne?  Obviously Payne got elected as a contributor, so the reference point is more than a little odd (and if we're going to oust from that pool, don't we start with Nurse Ratched?).  But the bar was lowered with Woosie, Monty and Fred, so Jordan's been in for some time now.

Tiger Scat - Our two call-and-response sources both have some random musings about the Big Cat, starting with the Golf.com gang:

2. Tiger Woods, whose return at the Masters marked his first play in over 13 months, will play in another event, though it may not be what you had expected. The JP McManus Pro-Am Twitter account tweeted on Thursday that Woods will be playing in the 2022 event, which is scheduled for July 4-5 at Adare Manor Hotel Golf Club, in Limerick, Ireland. It’s also just one week before the Open Championship returns to St. Andrews, Scotland, a short flight away from Limerick. Considering this news, and how Woods looked at Augusta, how do you see Woods’ schedule shaping up this year?

Sens: The majors and one or two more, including the Memorial. I would place the over-under line at five appearances for the rest of the season

Dethier: The PGA Championship (a good fit!), the U.S. Open (not so much), Memorial (he’ll hope they cut the rough), JP McManus’ shindig, the Open Championship, the Hero World Challenge and perhaps 1-2 others, like playoff events or the Zozo, depending on a whole bunch of things.

Bamberger: I don’t know. The McManus event and the Open — and maybe the Presidents Cup, where you don’t have to play very much at all, and your presence means a great deal. That’s about it. (Note: Everything I predict about TIger Woods is wrong. You can count on it, almost.)

Berhow: PGA, U.S. Open, JP McManus Pro-Am, Open Championship, Presidents Cup, Hero. I want to say the Memorial, but gnarly rough and a renovation since Tiger has last played it might make him think twice, not to mention it would make three events in a five-week span if he plays the PGA two weeks before it and the U.S Open two weeks after it. I think he’d be a great addition to the Presidents Cup team; he might not play in many more and he doesn’t have to play a ton of sessions. Here’s hoping he’s healthy enough to put together a handful of starts this year.

OK, a lot to unpack here, but let me first dispense with the obvious.  Playoff events?  Dylan, you ignorant slut!

I don't know how anyone can answer this, given Tiger's rather bizarre view of the world.  Committing to two events in July, including a corporate outing, while taking the fifth on the PGA Championship?  

I am actually mellowing slightly on the McManus thing, because it occurred to me that he'll be in a buggy, so I expect he'll tell us he's doing it for the reps and feelz.  The Prez Cup is something I hadn't considered, though I really don't know why he'd bother, there being so much more downside than the other kind.

Alan Shipnuck had some Tiger stuff as well:

With his headline dominance, Tiger may be stifling the stardom of golf’s current and future talent. Do you agree? #AskAlan @GoranBarnes

Scottie Scheffler hardest hit?   

I don’t know, maybe he’s giving them more room to develop. With Tiger around there’s certainly less of a white-hot spotlight on the game’s best young players. What boggles the mind is that circa 2015-16 it seemed like the Tiger-Phil epoch had finally ended. Woods was plagued by the chip yips and debilitating back problems, and an aging Mickelson hadn’t won in ages. Yet all these years later they still tower over the sport. I thought we would all have to wean ourselves from their cults of personality, but apparently they are still going to be making headlines when Spieth, et al reach the Senior Tour.

I really don't even understand the premise of the question.  What talent has he stifled? 

Despite three-putts galore and shoddy chipping, Tiger still has speed and precision. That said, he was in noticeable pain as the Masters wore on, and it took a Herculean effort just to finish 72 holes. How much lower is his score if he used a cart? #AskAlan @opinionsvary328

That’s like asking what I will serve at the Champions Dinner after I win the Masters — that ain’t happening, and neither is Tiger riding in a cart.

There are more interesting questions buried therein, such as how much harder this specific venue was to walk, and what we should expect when we see him next.

Feel Like Some Saudi Doings? - I saw Harold Varner interviewed after his Saturday 63 that gave him the lead.  He was asked about confidence from success, and he refereed to winning in Saudi Arabia with words to the effect of, "I take great confidence form my win in that place that can't be mentioned".  I at least was amused, because at that time I wished that it had happened anywhere else.

So, there's a place that we can't mention and form that we'll segue to the man we can't mention:

3. Woods, various outlets reported, also has submitted his entry for the 2022 U.S. Open — as has Phil Mickelson. When do you foresee Mickelson making his next start, and how much are we likely to see him in competition this year?

Sens: The question is where: on the PGA Tour or in one of Norman’s LIV Golf events. So much conjecture at this point. Has he been suspended? Not sure how any of us can know Phil’s sked when he himself might not know it. If I had to guess, I’d say a couple of times.

Dethier: He’ll play the PGA Championship, right?! It’s tough to imagine that Mickelson wouldn’t show up to Southern Hills to celebrate the crowning achievement of this stage of his career. With that said, there are extenuating circumstances here, so it’s tough to know anything for sure.

Bamberger: My guess is he’ll play the Open at the Old Course — because how can you not? Other than that, I’m with Josh — he likely doesn’t know himself.

Berhow: It’s hard to imagine him not defending a PGA Championship title. The first one back will obviously be the toughest for him, but after that, I think he can eventually get back to a pretty normal Mickelson-like schedule, if he wants one (and is allowed one). But I’m not ready to bet any real money on where exactly we’ll see him next because there are just so many layers here it’s impossible to predict.

I do think Mikey Bams just laid some inadvertent BS on us, much as I admire the man.  It seems silly to talk about him being in St. Andrews without discussing what happens before then.

I do think you have to start by asking the question, "What does Phil want?"  Does he want to be in St. Andrews?  Does he want to be welcomed back into polite society, or is he still craving leverage?  Over, yanno, legacy.... If he wants this to be behind him, I can's see him passing on the victory lap at Southern Hills... Of course, there's all those zeros on the checks being offered....

I think we see Phil either in May or June.  Of course, the Shipnuck book drops on May 17th and the first round of the PGA is on May 19th, so that could be deliciously awkward.  The other key date is early June, and so it begins:

A career journeyman has become the first PGA Tour member to apply for permission to compete
in a controversial tournament funded by the Saudi Arabian regime in England this summer.

Multiple sources told Golfweek that Robert Garrigus has requested a release from the PGA Tour to play in the LIV Golf Invitational, scheduled for June 9-11 at the Centurion Club in London. PGA Tour members are required to obtain a waiver to compete in events held on other circuits. Such applications must be submitted at least 45 days before the first round of the tournament, which means the deadline for players to request a green light to play for Saudi cash in London is Monday, April 25.

Sources say Garrigus is the only Tour player who has filed for a waiver so far, though others are expected to do so. The Tour must decide on applications 30 days before the event begins, or by Tuesday, May 10.

The plot will thicken very quickly, sop what say you, Jay?  This event will be on opposite the Canadian Open, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a sponsor in deeper than RBC (excepting FedEx).  Obviously Jay would prefer to head off waiver requests, as opposed to denying them, but he can't threaten them all.

Alan Leftovers - We'll close with those bits from Alan's mailbag that haven't been used above:

Has Ted Scott wrapped up Caddie of the Year honors? @CCGabriel1

Don’t sleep on Michael Greller! Caddying for Spieth must be like riding a bucking bronco. If Jordan completes the career Grand Slam next month at Southern Hills, Greller may brood his way to the mythical COY honors.

The two longest suffering caddies on Tour, though Greller gets my nod if only because Scheffler seems an easier gig than Bubba.

Do you think Scottie wins more or less than three majors? @modernml

Here is an incomplete list of players who have won fewer than three majors: Greg Norman, Johnny Miller, Dustin Johnson, Bernhard Langer, Curtis Strange, Ben Crenshaw, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tony Jacklin, Zach Johnson, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Kite, Sergio Garcia, Jason Day and Justin Thomas. Clearly, winning three is a monumental achievement. I certainly think Scheffler has the game and the head for it, but life can get in the way. Ask all the dudes in this paragraph.

My basic approach is to see him win his second before we contemplate the third...  

But, please:

Is this the largest crop of contenders for Best Player Never to Have Won a Major? Hovland. Cantlay. Cam Smith. Xander. Sungjae. It was Scottie before this week, unless you count career longevity. Now who is it? @evandawson

You’re missing out on an important part of being BPNTHWAM, which is suffering. You have to lose a major or two even to be considered, and there needs to be a sense of struggle. You can make the case that Tony Finau is a better choice than any of the players you cited. Xander Schauffele has been there a couple of times, but the wins for him are so sporadic the dread title is not his, at least not yet. (And Olympic gold is a quasi-major.) Cam Smith certainly warrants strong consideration. If he spends another year knocking on the door but doesn’t get it done, I’ll be ready to anoint him.

Really, whatever happened to Rickie?  To the best of my knowledge, Hovland doesn't even have a top ten in a major, and apparently Scottie was both the BPNTHWAM and the BPNTHWARTE (regular tour event) simultaneously, so Inm calling BS on the whole bloody thing.

Employee No. 2 asked me this very question recently:

Anthony Kim would be an instant draw for one of the new tours. Realistically, what do you imagine they would have to offer him to come out and play? @HighFades

The cult of AK is remarkably durable. I’m hearing a big-ticket documentary about him is in the works, and not long ago I was interviewed for a multi-part podcast covering his flummoxing career. I agree that if he signed up with the Saudis or PGL it would stimulate a massive amount of interest, at least in the short-term. But AK is now middle-aged at almost 37 and has been out of the game for a decade, having been chased away by injuries and the driver yips. What if he comes back and can’t break 80? All the intrigue would evaporate, and I think AK knows that and it’s part of what has kept him in self-imposed exile. For him to put himself out there would require a check with a lot of commas and zeros.

It also quite clearly fails the laugh test.  It's a pretty strong admission that you can't draw the kind of field you promised, so color me skeptical.  That said, it's Greg Norman, so the usual rules regarding shame obviously don't apply...

The bigger enigma: Rickie Fowler’s downfall from the player who won the Players (2015) and finished top five in every major in 2014, or Matthew Wolff’s struggles—the can’t-miss bomber who was once the top collegiate prospect, even above the likes of Hovland and Morikawa? #AskAlan @opinionsvary328

You could call them enigmas, or maybe both players are proof that succeeding in professional golf is about a lot more than the golf swing. Butch Harmon fired Fowler basically because he felt Rickie didn’t have a burning desire to be a great player. But he’s always had a great life, and now married with a child, maybe that’s enough for Fowler. Wolff has been admirably open about his mental health struggles, and that appears to be an ongoing battle. Going forward he may define victory in very different ways than most players. From the outside looking in it can be vexing that neither player has won at the clip we expected, but I believe both are seeking peace more than trophies.

Or perhaps it's the game of golf that's the bigger enigma...

Seems insignificant, but has Bryson wrecked his career permanently in his seemingly maniacal pursuit of hitting a golf ball farther than any other human being? Can he dial his body back to normalcy and prevent injury and actually work on other parts of his game? @rchinnis

It’s not insignificant, it’s a huge story. This guy destroyed Winged Foot by creating a template for how the game could be played. Now that pursuit has seemingly broken him. This is the stuff of Shakespeare, not the sports page. I don’t think DeChambeau knows how to dial anything back, and doing so would be a kind of concession he is loathe to make. I think he’ll keep going 100 mph and let the chips fall where they may.

Isn't the bigger question why, with so many guys that have bulked up experiencing injuries, do guys continue to add the muscle mass?

 Lastly, I continue to wonder whether his pack with the devil lapsed on the 12th tee as well:

What has happened to Fr. Molinari? @BigAlFishes

Walking off the 11th green on Masters Sunday in 2019, on the precipice of snagging a green jacket, Francesco was the best player in the world, having dominated a Ryder Cup and tamed Carnoustie with Tiger Woods breathing down his neck. Then he was swept away in a tsunami of Tigermania. Three years later, Molinari is still lost at sea. He moved his family to Los Angeles during Covid, and that’s a huge lifestyle change. There have been nagging injuries. But it is stunning how far he has fallen. Frankie turns 40 in November; he still has time to be the player he was. Here’s hoping.

As noted two questions above, we've had no shortage of stunning falls from grace in our game.  The rarity is that it was all tied to one swing.  

OK, I Lied -  One last bit that hits close to home for your humble blogger:

I've struggled with chipping and pitching, having found the hosel on far too many occasions.  While I think I've diagnosed and solved the problem, I remain at all times one bad takeaway from disaster.... 

I believe the Wednesday game will be pushed late enough in the day to allow for Midweek Musings, though those plans have not yet been finalized.  However it resolves, we'll catch up as the schedule allows.

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Friday, April 15, 2022

Your Friday Frisson

Only 52 weeks until the Masters...

So, how will we amuse ourselves?

Bryson's Boo-Boo - Playing ping-pong, of all things:

Bryson DeChambeau’s return from injury was brief. The 2020 U.S. Open champion will undergo surgery on his hamate bone in his left hand, according to his agent, Brett Falkoff.

“We look forward to a smooth recovery and rehab process,” a statement read. “Bryson looks forward to returning as soon as he is cleared to do so.”

The surgery, which is scheduled for Thursday, was first reported by Sports Illustrated.

DeChambeau missed about two months earlier this year battling two different injuries: the hand injury and a torn left hip labrum. He also missed a title defense at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Answering your next question:

The surgery means DeChambeau will likely miss the PGA Championship in May. The next major is the U.S. Open June 16-19, which would be a more realistic return target.

Mighta been interesting seeing a healthy Bryson's lines at twisty Southern Hills.but he hasn't been the same guy for a while now.  The optimistic scenario is that he just needs to get himself healthy.  The darker one envisions him as the Pete Reiser of golf.

The Issue of the Current Moment - Butch Harmon takes on the existential issue of the day::

Is Scottie Scheffler a truly great player or just on a serious heater?

Butch is in semi-retirement these days, but he's seen an elite player or two: 

“I wouldn’t say he’s the type of player to say that he’s the best driver in the world, he’s the best iron player. What he is, is he’s really good at everything. He doesn’t really have a weakness,” Butch said. “He’s on a run right now that’s unbelievable. It feels like only guys like Tiger Woods get on runs like this. Whether he can continue that, I don’t see any reason why he can’t.

There's actually several thousand of them, each as good as the other.

“He has a wonderful demeanor, he has a wonderful work ethic, he’s got a great coach in Randy Smith,” Butch continued. “Right now. he’s got everything going for him. Everything’s going his way.”

I don't disagree with Butch, but history says they do it until they don't, and it's mostly of shorter duration than it seemed in the moment.

But, serious heater.

 Grizzled veteran Mike Bamberger has this take on the Masters champion:

The real genius of Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is between his ears

 Given my own bias, it's an unpromising lede:

There’s an odd and interesting page in Michael Murphy’s Golf in the Kingdom where Shivas
Irons, the book’s protagonist, makes an unlikely list he calls “men who knew.” (It was a more sexist time.) Among the names on his roll, he includes Calamus the Gymnosophist, Sherlock Holmes, Picasso — and Ben Hogan, the great Texas golfer who won the Masters twice and started the Tuesday-night Champions Dinner.

Well, the time has come to add another golfer from Texas to this list: Scottie Scheffler, winner of the 86th Masters on Sunday, by a field goal over Rory McIlroy. Scheffler knows.

GITK is pretentious, impenetrable claptrap, but whatev:

Scheffler, at 25, knows things about golf that the great Hogan, who won his first major at 34, never figured out. Hogan’s genius was for puzzling through the game’s deep complexities. Scheffler’s genius is to keep it simple.

See ball, hit ball. See hole, putt to its high side. Wear clothing with one logo on it. Nike will pay you enough. Don’t go chasing waterfalls or paydays or turbo-charged souped-up drivers. Scheffler knows: what got him here is more than good enough.

He hasn't been around long enough to be corrupted, Mike.  Next thing you know he'll be signing with LIV Golf...

This guy should be good for years to come. He’s big, strong, limber, sound of mind and body, married, religious, close to his family, simple in the best way. Looking at Scheffler, he brings to mind a 1950s Big 10 linebacker who, done with school and the gridiron, takes his talents first to the driving range and then to professional golf, telling his fraternity brothers, “Beats selling insurance!” Scheffler brings to mind Mike Souchak and Jim Thorpe and Hale Irwin, to cite a threesome of college football players who took their strength and athleticism to the PGA Tour.

He does seem to have a demeanor perfect for our maddening game.  But that footwork is a wee bit funky to invite Hogan comparisons from me, and his putting prowess is a somewhat recent addition to the arsenal.  This game is hard, and guys can only make it look easy for so long.

So, with fond memories of the late Dan Jenkins, I'm willing to stipulate that a bad marriage seems unlikely.  There's still injury though...

The Non-Denial Denial - In a matter that has featured a masterpiece of the genre Non-apology Apology, I guess I should have seen this coming.  First, a brief reminder:

Earlier this week, the Telegraph reported that the Saudi Golf League was on the verge of launching a $225 million tour. The timeline for the announcement was kept vague—"the coming weeks"—but the four names listed in the article as signees or near-signees were Bubba Watson, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Kevin Na.

That last name surprised your humble blogger, but he's now assured us it isn't so:

"I haven't signed anything," he said. "I haven't signed anything. It's amazing how rumors ... you know, people come up with rumors and they write things."

 I haven't signed anything either, but folks aren't leaking my name to the Telegraph.

As to whether he had considered the offer—for weeks, Na has been wearing the Saudi Golf flower log on the collar of his shirt—he didn't deny it.

"As an athlete," he said. "You always look at your options, that's all."

I saw a bit of him at the Match Play, But I didn't notice that he was wearing Saudi swag, as that oversized WAAC logo kind of blinds the viewer...  I stand corrected.

Now, you say you didn't sign anything?

Norman said there will be a full field of 48 players when the series launches June 9-11 at the Centurion Club outside of London. The organization has put off its plans to have players join as a competing league to the PGA Tour and DP World Tour for now.

Because there's nothing to sign for now.... But does he intend to be in London in early Jne?  Magic eight-ball says  "Yes, unless instructed to pledge fealty elsewhere."

Though this bit seems a bit surprising:

Greg Norman on Thursday was set to invite a number of top-ranked amateurs to participate in the LIV Golf Invitational Series tournaments that begin in June, with the idea of providing a path to the pro game for young players.

More ams presumably meaning that the full $25 million large will be split among a smaller group of professionals.  It just keeps growing the game, no?

WTF, Tiger - He must be feeling rejuvenated, because he's announced a playing commitment:

Tiger Woods has added another start to his itinerary.

The 15-time major champion, who tied for 47th in last week’s Masters in his first official start in more than 500 days, will play in the JP McManus Pro-Am, a two-day event in Ireland beginning 10 days before The Open Championship.

Following the final round at Augusta National Golf Club, Woods told Sky Sports he would play in the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews, the Home of Golf. However, Woods did not commit to playing the PGA Championship in May at Southern Hills Country Club in Oklahoma; Woods won the 2007 PGA there. Woods said he’d try to play.

Tiger, you told us you'd be on the Hogan schedule, but I'm pretty sure Ben didn't play corporate outings.  Sheesh! Is it me or is that just appalling?

In other Big Cat sightings, there was this procedural note:

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson submit entries to 2022 U.S. Open field

Means didleysquat.

Masters Leftovers -  Good, but not great, Masters ratings that Geoff dissects here.  I'll not tarry, just serve up this one nugget:

Sunday’s final-round coverage on CBS is the most-watched golf telecast on any network since the final round of the 2019 Masters, when Tiger Woods captured his fifth green jacket, averaging10.173 million viewers and up +7% versus last year.

That comparison to '19 is notwithstanding the fact that the 2019 round was played and broadcast in the morning.


Respectable, given the absence of the bold-faced names on the leaderboard (I know, true even though the No. 1 ranked player ended up winning), low drama, bad weather and high scoring.  

Geoff has a Masters wish list in a Quad post of the freebie kind, and it starts with a curious jeremiad:

Augusta National could easily develop and sell a small radio device for those who would like to
listen along as Mike Tirico, Curtis Strange and the rest of PGA Tour Radio’s team calling the final round action in crystal clear FM. Perhaps the over-ear device available at tennis tournaments and some golf events would do, though something more Masters and usable year-round would be dreamy. Such a device would not distract from the tournament or reduce the coveted patron interactions. We know this from American Express distributing such a device at the U.S. Open.

I still remember bringing my Sony Watchman TV to the ‘86 Masters and informing those around us in the 13th hole grandstand of Nick Price’s Saturday charge. No one had their Masters viewing experience tainted by such information. The roars were put into context and the experience was better

And this affects me how?   I'm sure it's a great idea, but they'll have to check with Clifford Roberts and get back to you.

Staying on the important stuff:

A Crow’s Nest Beer-On-Tap Offering Nationwide, While Supplies Last. The club is building awareness of its $5 craft beer as if, dare I say it, they have grander aspirations. The best item in
Masters merch this year might have been the $18 Crow’s Nest bottle opener. Out on the course, hoarders were prioritizing the green Crow’s Nest cup in their peculiar quest to accumulate. While it’s hard to imagine the club selling the beer, imagine if the ultra-cool Crow’s Nest tap handle (trust me, it’s sweet) was at 19th hole’s across the world? It could be a clever springtime limited edition beer to raise tournament awareness. Too commercial and tacky for Augusta National, you say? Well if trick shot specialists can roll around on the greens and chuck frisbees around Amen Corner to attract new audiences, why not pander to the sophisticated beer drinking audience with a hoppy, Belgian-inspired brew featuring hints of Meyer lemon? And if you can sell Taste of the Masters for two pandemic-altered tournaments, this is hardly too commercial.

Geoff, did you watch much golf while on property?

He does get to some more interesting stuff:

Drop the fairway mow toward the tees and keep cutting back the second cut. It’s what Bobby Jones would have wanted. I have supporting quotes galore from…Chairman Ridley’s press conference last week!

They can't hear you....

Thoughts on a typically overlooked hole:

3rd Hole. The pivotal hole of 2022 saw something unusual happen in the run-up to this year’s tournament. At some point between the creation of the 2022 official yardage book and
tournament, the fairway cut left of the bunkers was returned to second cut.

I could still see the lefthand fairway outline last week but how, for whatever reason, the club decided to tighten things up for Masters week. It may have been done for patron access and had nothing to do with architecture. Still, the intent was another sound step in the direction to create multiple ways of playing the 3rd hole.

My wish list would start with getting the width back, lop off the first three bunkers that are Jack Nicklaus creations, and keep expanding the fairway just past the bunkers. This would heighten all of the different ways to play the third. There really is a difference between laying up in the fairway center and up the left side.

A few years ago Tom Weiskopf insisted that the Nicklaus trio took away a lay-up he loved to the back right pin by playing just short of the top bunker and getting a good enough view that was not available in the fairway center or when hitting over the bunker. More options would not make the hole easier. The third would become more complex and maybe even introduce debate over how best to play it.

Old-timey photos included.

Some of this was on the broadcast, but you'll want to make the trip upstairs:


 Awkward - Davis has been doing Prez Cup stuff, some of which you may well have heard:

Davis Love III has two helping hands.


Love named Fred Couples and Zach Johnson as two of his vice captains Wednesday for the upcoming Presidents Cup. The matches pitting the U.S. against The Internationals will be played Sept. 20-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Love, who was a captain for the U.S. in the Ryder Cup in 2012 and 2016, can name two more vice captains to the squad.

All according to the master plan...

Err, not so much:

Davis Love III said Wednesday that the succession plan for U.S. team captains is in flux after Phil Mickelson’s controversial remarks cast doubt on his future viability.

“Fred’s good in the locker room, in a practice round, as a captain – I thought he would have been a great Ryder Cup captain,” Love said. “He could still be Ryder Cup captain.

“We may have to fill a gap somewhere now. Our order is kind of messed up right now. So maybe Fred would be a great home game [captain] in New York.”

They could do a lot worse than Boom-Boom.  I'd actually rather Couples than Tiger....

In other Prez Cup news there's this curious announcement:

The PGA Tour announced Wednesday evening a long-term commitment to hosting the Presidents
Cup in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

The biennial event has marked the 2028 and 2040 matches to visit the Sandbelt region. The area has already hosted the cup three times in the event’s history in 1998, 2011 and 2019, with the 1998 edition the lone International victory since the matches began in 1994. The Internationals led going into the final day in 2019, only to watch the Americans complete a Sunday comeback to retain the cup.

Did you see what they did there?   We're going back to where we've been three times previously, sorta, kinda:

All of the previous three Australian matches were held at Royal Melbourne, universally recognized as one of the premier clubs in the world. While the venerable site is considered a favorite to host again, the tour said an official announcement on a host would be announced at a later date.

A favorite?  What the hell does that mean?  The vaunted PGA Tour is now awarding events without knowing on what friggin' golf course it's to be played.  Mind you, there's no shortage of great places and I've no objection if they go to Kingston Heath, but it seems a tad loosey-goosey.  Maybe the members of Royal Melbourne are concerned that by the time 2040 rolls around the Prez Cup might be owned by, well, let's just say the Asian Tour.  2028, as well, come to think of it

Tweet of the Day - Tongue firmly in cheek: 

I have no quibble with Tiger playing a corporate outing instead of the FedEx Cup.   No question it's the purer golf event, since they all start with the same score.  I know, a low standard, indeed.

That's a wrap, kids.  Catch you next week.


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Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Midweek Musings - Masters Hangover Edition

With Spring having finally, well, sprung, your humble blogger's existential dilemma returns.  I've settled into a comfortable Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine, but the Wednesday Game resumes this week.  A long-term solution remains pending, but for this week I'll begin blogging late Tuesday morning and finish the post whenever.... 

Update: Two stories updated Wednesday morning with late-breaking news.

The Reviews Are In - OK, even I'll concede that this isn't the most important insight from the week, but Golf Twitter seems to have come to an inescapable conclusion, to wit, that Nick Faldo sucks.  The next keen insight you hear from the artist known as Sir Mumbles will double as the first, and I just happen to have an example from Sunday.  I mean, what were the odds?

Anyway, a carefully-curated sample of Twitter's reaction to cotton-mouth:

I can't remember anything quite like it, but I still don't know about that "all-time" bit, only because it was irrelevant to the outcome.  

Oh, you thought the moment was about Rory's shot.  You must feel silly...

Actually, I'd  prefer he be fired for being a dreadful analyst....  I simply have no recall of him ever telling me anything I didn't already know, or ever actually setting up a shot.

The current instant provides a perfect example.  Rory's bunker-to-bunker shot flew deeper into that front-right bunker than the prior shot we had seen, and deeper than Morikawa's as well (not they had any reason to show Collin's shot).  My reaction, and perhaps your own, was to immediately understand that he would have to play his bunker shot along the ridgeline and feed it down the slope at the perfect spot.  That would have been adding to our understanding of what was coming, as opposed to ensuring that we saw the shot with all the drama that a replay of it ten years from now will convey.

No worries, he's got a strategic reserve of further ways to spoil big moments.

Literally.

Not sure about this one, though:

I find the assumption that he could solve the daily Wordle unsupported by the facts.

Update: Faldo responds on Dan Patrick's radio show:

“That was a rookie mistake,” Faldo, the lead golf analyst for CBS since 2006, admitted. He then went on to explain how between the gallery roars and the Jim Nantz nagging and the sweet, syrupy visions of Rory donning the green jacket, that he just couldn’t keep it bottled up. He had to share it with the world, and share it he did, like a Mentos in a Coke bottle.

So, Phil couldn't get through the second sentence of his fauxpology without blaming Alan Shipnuck, you can't help by sell out Jim Nantz?

Second reaction:  The explanation seems to be that it was exciting.  So you're not required to do your friggin' job if the play is exiting?  Noted.

Does he not know that the Internet is forever?

“I’ve been up there for 18-odd years,” he concluded. “That was my first c***-up.”

We’re not sure we’d go so far as to call it Faldo’s first “c***-up” (his term, not ours'), but at this point you gotta feel for the guy ... right? Hello? Anyone?

So, a single mistake, Nick?  Ironically, that might be as bad a spoiler alert as Nick's....  OK, admittedly on a smaller scale, but you'll smile when you get to it below.

This golf.com piece tries to let him off the hook with this:

While Faldo admits he’s in the wrong, he does raise an interesting point. If CBS had stuck with Rory’s shot live on 18 (where Faldo and Nantz were both seated in the broadcast tower), he wouldn’t have been compelled to spoil the scene. Of course, it’s his responsibility to know better, but perhaps those factors are worth considering for the CBS production team when it comes to handling future outcomes in front of the 18th tower.

It's true enough, but given that Rory was then four behind and had seemingly taken birdie off the table, it's fatuous to criticize Sellers Shy for carrying the play of the last group instead.  I've lost interest in such criticisms, valid as they may be, because it's so hard to recreate the factors that go into the split-second decision.  

He has one job, and he's really quite bad at it.  I challenge the reader to listen carefully to Faldo's commentary in the future, and especially to wait for him to add something, anything, to your understanding of the visual.  You might be there for a while, so pack a lunch. 

Not Sure You're Helping Him, Gary - The Black Knight went out of his way to show support for the disenfranchised and downtrodden of golf....er, something.  First, an amusing lead-in from Nick Piastowski's notebook dump:

I asked Player, Nicklaus and Watson what advice they would give Phil Mickelson should he reach out for some. Watson made a “zipper his lips” gesture. Nicklaus said he couldn’t hear the question. Player did.

Yeah, who coulda seen that one coming....

“I have a special thought on Phil Mickelson. I think we live in a time now when we are such a judgmental society, a litigious society, a critical society, where people get crucified. The greatest
PR man on the golf Tour in the last five or X amount of years has been Phil Mickelson. He has been the ideal man for a sponsor, for professional golf, for the public, the way he’s handled the public, with dignity and with love. And he makes a mistake, which every one of you in this room have made a damn mistake. We all have. And he said he’s sorry. But even the Lord God will forgive you of your inequities if you ask for forgiveness. And he made a mistake, and for everybody to be — I’ve heard him. I said, hold your head up high. You’ve made a mistake. Everybody makes a mistake.”

OK, so I have thoughts....Even ignoring that's there's little advice to be found, what jumped out at me was "a mistake", as in singular...Let me recount a weekend conversation with one of my golf buddies when Phil's name came up:

 Anonymous Golf Buddy:  Well, you know when I wrote Phil off?

Me: When he stuck a shiv in Tom Watson's back after the 2014 Ryder Cup?

AGB: No.

Me:  When he placed bets with the Detroit mob?

AGB: No.

Me: When he trashed Hal Sutton at the 2004 Ryder Cup after showing up with equipment he'd never played in competition because Callaway paid off his gambling debts?

AGB: No...

Me: When it took an insider stock tip from Billy Walters to induce him to pay his gambling debt?

AGB: No....

Me: We could be here for a while, so why don't you just tell me.

AGB: When he swiped the moving ball ay Shinnecock.

Me: Yeah, that's a good one as well, including that bit when he stuck Amy in front of the microphones to take the heat.

So, Gary, "a mistake"?  Singular? Admittedly, the conversation has been amended slightly to make me sound smarter for dramatic effect, but still... 

Now Gary finally gets around to offering some actual advice:

“And he should go on with his life. I think it’s pitiful — I actually made a statement on television. I said, if there’s nobody that hasn’t made a mistake, I’d like to invite anybody in the world to have lunch with me at Augusta, and if you haven’t made a mistake, I’ll have lunch with you, but I’ll have lunch on my own. It’s amazing. From the epitome of perfection, he’s down there being crucified. It’s not right. That’s my opinion. He said terrible things, but we all make mistakes.”

Ummm, Gary, it wasn't just what he said....  But brave of Gary to take on those that have bene arguing against Phil getting on with his life.

So, Gary, why the profound concern and sob story about Phil?  I mean "epitome of perfection"?  Even you must see that as a bit over the top.  The very same Nick Piastowski has a fuller treatment here, from which that photo above comes.  One can certainly understand choosing a photo of the two of them, which also has the added bonus of the Men in Black thing, but any thoughts on why Gary feels so strongly about defending Phil?  Nick did mention this in his piece, but wouldn't this have been the more appropriate photo to use:

Nothing to see here....  Just golf's global ambassador shilling for the bonecutters...

And as long as we're on this topic.... the article referenced is behind a paywall, leaving us to traffic in innuendo and hearsay:

Hmmmm, looks like we're down two captains for that 2025 Ryder Cup.

Update: Just before presstime, this from the NY Post (Gee, hope their Twitter account survives):

According to a report in The Telegraph, two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson, along with European Ryder Cup stars Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter as well as five-time tour winner Kevin Na are among those expected to join the $225 million rival. The final details are still being confirmed, according to LIV Golf, per the report, but the plan is to announce some of the players who are planning to join in the weeks ahead.

Interesting names, especially Na's which came from left field.  But $225 million for these guys? 

Rory In Full -  in the non-paywalled tease to his latest Quad, Geoff has this in his "Winners" category:

Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa. Such an impressive Sunday performance to move both into the top 5 and for McIlroy, a best Masters finish ever with a record 64 to close the week out. The highlight reel shots sent some roars through the property and the back-to-back bunker dunks will be shown for years.

I'm fine with that as long as they include the Faldo spoiler.... because future generation should know how we suffered.  But, Geoff, isn't the reality just a wee bit more, well, Freudian? 

Shane Ryan certainly seems to agree:

The impossible question: How should we feel about Rory McIlroy's 64?

Amusingly and presciently, Shane wrote this on Saturday afternoon:

Story 1: In a Slack with some friends, at 5:43 p.m. ET on Saturday evening after Rory's 73-73-71 put him safely out of contention at this year's Masters, I wrote, "Does Rory shoot 63 or 64 tomorrow?"

As a public service, don't be ashamed if you didn't know what that term meant, because your humble blogger most certainly did not:

Slack is a messaging app for business that connects people to the information they need. By bringing people together to work as one unified team, Slack transforms the way organizations communicate.

Shane's Story 2 is this tweet during Rory's front nine:

Isn't the real question how you can still be a Rory fan?  Just to be clear, Rors is a delightful young man, it's just the golf isn't what it could be.

So what is a Rory fan to think? Was this inspiring? Was it a sign of things to come, the very beginning of Rory's resurgence, culminating with a 2014-like triumph at Southern Hills/St. Andrews/Brookline?

Doesn't that kind of miss the point, Shane.  Those three are not like the other, at least to Rory.

And then reality strikes:

Or—and I hate to be this way, I promise—is it exactly what you'd expect from post-2014 Rory? Does it follow the script so closely that even a dummy like me could predict it a day earlier? Does it speak to someone who can be utterly spectacular in a major tournament, right at the exact moment when he can't really win anymore?


It has the benefit of being exactly what I expected, although an exaggerated version of his patented back-door top ten.  So, yanno, progress!

There's plenty more existential angst to be found at the link, even though largely limited to Augusta.  can you imagine his reaction if I snuck up behind him and whispered "Portrush" in his ear?

Udder Stuff - In which I'll sample from the commentariat without benefit of a plotline or adult supervision.

Geoff surprisingly (at least to your humble blogger) has this in his winners:

16th Hole - The green modifications made the two upper level pins work. Typically a boring pair
where little of interest happens, putts did not seem impossible and well-struck shots stayed on the upper shelf. This was a long overdue and successful modification to a famous green that seemed down a parig of interesting days during tournament week. The 16 also staged a nice agronomic comeback after struggling during the last two Masters.

Really?  I've been ragging on this green since forever.  It's allegedly one of the great one-shotters in the game, though it has exactly one pin position that works, and even that comes with a huge asterisk.

So, Geoff, if the green is better, why did they need to use the Sunday hole location on Friday as well?

They used the back pin on Thursday, and my sense was that it only worked because they had those unusually soft conditions.  When the green is characteristically firm, you simply can't go anywhere near that pin or else the ball hops off the back, and you'll have to hit a golf shot just to make bogey.  Typically everyone comes up short and the ball feeds down to that Sunday pin location and we watch the entire field hit the same 40-foot uphill putt.  A tradition unlike and other for sure.

from Geoff as well:

Fred Ridley. In arguably the week’s most under-reported story, the Chairman artfully acknowledged regret about the club’s early 2000’s stance against integrating women into the membership. “Our culture is better,” he said. “We are a better club, we are a better organization and we’re very proud to have women among our membership.” Ridley would go on to say he wished the club had moved sooner on initiatives like the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and vowed to invite more women to join. No one doubts his sincerity.

Why, Fred, you wanted to put the Dinah Shore out of business earlier?   

I thought Ridley's comments on the changes to the course and, most importantly, his thoughts on lengthening No. 13 were themselves under-reported and under-analyzed, but much better to focus on the virtue signaling.

Meltdown in 3,2,1....Oh, almost forgot this one.... did you hear Tyrell Hatton's take on the ballpark?

"You can hit good shots here and not get any reward for it. It's unfair at times. I don't agree with that."

"If you hit a good shot, you should end up near the hole. Not then short-sided into a bunker because of the slopes that they've created and stuff. I don't think it's a fair test at times, and when you hit good shots and you're not rewarded for it, it shows."

"You don't really have to miss a shot, and your next one you'll have -- you're really struggling to make par. With how it runs off the greens here and the slopes that you are then chipping into and how obviously it's cut, it just makes it really hard to even get chip shots close. I think everything is exaggerated here."

"I haven't enjoyed it. . . .

"I feel like I've hit good shots out there, I've not been rewarded for them, so it's a case of just lose a bit of interest. … I'm just trying to ideally get off the golf course as fast as possible."

"I'm glad it's over. I think that's a pretty good way to sum it up,”Hatton added. “I feel like if I come back in the future, it's just a case of trying to get through the best that I can."

If you come back?  

This is an Alistair Tait piece, and even he notes that Hatton's game is such that an invitation is far from a certainty.  And this is obviously a fair criticism:

TV commentators David Feherty and Gary McCord were for all intents and purposes banned from covering the Masters for having the temerity to talk about the course in remotely pejorative terms. After four days of listening to TV coverage this year, it’s hard to recall even one minor criticism of the golf course. In fact, given the ebullient manner in which announcers gush about all things Masters and Augusta National, you’d think a mandatory dose of Prozac is prescribed for every commentator before they go on air.

The ANGC folks are more than a bit over-bearing, and I certainly wish the broadcast could be a little less soporific.  But was Feherty banned?  I don't actually remember that, and Google seems not to as well.  And McCord seemed to want to be banned, using obviously pre-scripted lines with terms like body bags and bikini wax that he had to know would cause a reaction.   

But Tait leaves us hanging, as this is his rousing coda:

Is Hatton committing blasphemy or should we praise him for having the courage to venture where so few have dared go and be brutally honest?

Alistair, I'm pretty sure that it's in your job description to tell us what you think....

And, if you're leave us hanging with an unanswered question, could you at least make it the right question?  Forget whether it's blasphemy, is the criticism justified, or is the whining of a guy that played poorly?  I'm going to go with all of the above.  It's an incredibly unfair course but, and Mr. Hatton might want to take notes, so are all of the links of GB&I.  Whether or not a given hole or shot is fair or un- is an opinion, which there is no problem with him expressing.

But Tait does perform a great service in reminding us that our opinions might change:

Mind you, Hatton may change his mind as Lee Westwood did after saying the Old Course…

“…wouldn’t be in my top 200 – in Fife!”

Bobby Jones came to love the Old Course after hating it on his first visit, while no end of players have lambasted the sacred links of St Andrews.

Jones did more than just hate it, he walked off the course (it's said that he ripped up his scorecard, though Jones denied that bit).

While we're with Alistair, we might as well deal with this misfire:

It might have been, just not for the reason Tate seems to think....

Woods had taken a drop on the par-5 15th hole the previous day after his ball struck the flack stick and bounced back into the pond that fronts the green.

The then 14-time major winner took a drop on the fairway and played his fourth shot. When asked about the situation afterwards, Woods said:

"I went back to where I played it from, but I went two yards further back and I took, tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit," Woods said. "And that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back,” to which Woods added that the move “worked out perfectly.”

 Tait hints at what happened, but really glosses over the import:

It turned out later that Masters officials had been alerted to the rules infraction while Woods was still on the golf course the previous day yet, for reasons which still seem unfathomable, chose not to question him about the matter.

The guy running the tournament committee at that time was none other than Fred Ridley.  And what Tait further elides is that the call that alerted them to the bad drop came not from an anonymous source, but from David Eger:

Eger is currently a Champions Tour golfer, and as CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel points out, he was the "USGA's senior director of rules and competition from 1992-95."

And Fred Ridley did not like David Eger, considering him a bit of a yenta.  So, the tip is relayed to Ridley, who watches one replay of the drop and dismisses it out of hand.  End of story, except that then Ridley hears those words from Tiger, and no doubt goes, "Oops, I f-ed up."

In case you don't understand why the drop was illegal, the key bit is that the ball hit the pin and caromed back into the water, meaning that the point of entry into the hazard (Eff you, I will never say penalty area) was from the green side of the water.  Tiger took his relief from line of his original shot, but that was not the actual point of entry.

Tait's use of "unfathomable" is because the first rule of officiating is to speak to the player and let him tell you the process he went through.  In this case, Tiger did that, just into a microphone.  So, Ridley screwed up because of how he felt about a guy not even in Augusta, and it should have been headed off before Tiger signed his card.

Lastly, the reason Eger dropped that dime?

Also, this is important to note for anyone still thinking Eger was being petty, he was not calling in to punish Tiger, but to save him, and ultimately he did.

Eger did not want Tiger to sign an incorrect card, and he wanted this information to be known before that happened.

It obviously did not affect Fred Ridley's career path, but should it have?

Back to Nick's notebook, including scenes from the merchandise tent:

12. The gift shop, which is maybe a long par-5 away from the first tee, is both out of control and organized. The line to get in is well structured. And then it’s a free for all. The lines for the shirts are the longest. The gnomes are the most popular, I’m told, and they were gone when I went on Saturday.

13. A worker told me that the most someone spent as of Saturday afternoon was $8,000. A man next to me overheard the figure and said, “I’m just imagining them having an army of gnomes.” I laughed.

The gnomes are epic, but good luck getting your hands on one...

And covering the truly critical issues:

28. OK, let’s talk about what you came here for. Sandwich ratings! I tried ’em all. No. 1 is the barbecue. The sauce puts it at the top. But it’s small.

29. No. 2 is chicken salad.

30. No. 3 is the sausage biscuit. It could move up if it were a touch less greasy.

31. No. 4 is … the pimento cheese. It’s the first sandwich I tried this week. Had to. It’s the king. But it’s a little mayonnaise-y.

32. No. 5 is the chicken biscuit.

33. No. 6 is the chicken sandwich. This is a lot of folks’ favorite, but the chicken was too chewy for me.

34. No. 7 is the club.

35. No. 8 is the ham on rye.

36. No. 9 is the hot dog. Yeah, yeah, it’s not a sandwich.

37. No. 10 is the egg salad. It just kinda tasted like nothing.

38. The chocolate chip cookie is actually the best.

I'm pretty sure that Nos. 30, 31 and 33 are far worse than anything Gary McCord said.  Hope you enjoyed your only Masters, nick.

And if that doesn't get you banned, then this one certainly will:

81. To cover up mud spots and provide traction, Augusta National groundskeepers applied a green dirt substance to the course. By Sunday, it kind of smelled.

I had always heard that they spray-painted the divots...

 Funny thing about this one:

88. I felt cringy watching Scheffler four-putt 18 on Sunday. But how many putts would you take in that moment?

I called the missed par putt, under the theory that the adrenalin had gone out of him and he'd be at sea.... the missed bogey putt shocked me as well as everyone watching, including Scheffler.

 I'm thinking this is exactly the problem:

92. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rory more excited than when he holed the bunker shot on 18. He wants this tournament maybe more than any other player wants any other tournament.

Though, did someone mention Portrush?

Forbes has breaking news form, checks notes, 1934:

 Yeah, we know.... It's been ever thus:

Augusta has just six sponsors—AT&T, Delta, IBM, Mercedes Benz, Rolex and UPS—which split a minimalistic four minutes of commercial time per hour of event coverage. Most of the sponsorship money goes directly to Augusta’s media partners, CBS and ESPN, to cover the cost of production, with the rest going to pay to host hospitality events for VIP patrons. Given that the U.S. Open generates at least $15 million per year in sponsorship revenue, it is safe to assume that the Masters could pull in at least $20 million, thanks to its much higher TV viewership. The Masters generates no domestic TV revenue because its agreements with CBS and ESPN allow Augusta complete control of the broadcast in exchange for no compensation.

Slightly more complicated than that, but the limited commercials in the broadcast might have been your first clue.

The second clue would have been when you went to the website to order Masters swag.  Yeah, Augusta National doesn't do e-commerce.  Think that limits their cash flow?

I've long recommended this David Owen history of the club and event, and the relationship between the club (OK, more accurately Clifford Roberts) and CBS  could make a fine book on its own.

Have we done enough damage to Gary Players reputation?  I knew you'd agree...  Eamon Lynch has some fun with the lout, including a story I'm guessing you've never heard (I'm guessing that because I hadn't).  But first, some cheap shots:

That Player is well-traveled is hardly in dispute, and he is admirably quick with compliments for the nations he has visited. Today, it was the turn of India. “I love India, the intelligence, the technology, the manners, the so humble—the women dress so nicely. I’m so used to seeing women with damn dresses up their bum, and you don’t see anything like that in India,” he said, admitting an aversion to immodest dress among the fairer sex that may help explain the Golf Saudi logo adorning his collar.

OK, I get the Saudi bit, but my reaction was to wonder why he would call out Paulina.... Yeah, that dress at Oakmont stays with a fellow.

 But here's that priceless bit:

Also on hand was Gary Player, a three-time winner here and an honorary starter since 2012. Player is a man of boundless optimism and considerable achievement. In addition to his three Masters victories, he has a pair of PGA Championships, a U.S. Open and three British Opens. The most enduring of those wins was 1959 at Muirfield, but for reasons that did not become clear until the 1960 Open at St. Andrews.

Back then, the Champion Golfer of the Year was responsible for having his name added to the Claret Jug. The R&A assumed that responsibility when Roberto De Vicenzo returned the trophy in ’68 without having had his name engraved, but Player brought it back in ’60 with his name chiseled in lettering considerably larger than any winner before (or since).

Here's what it looks like: 

I had never heard that, but it's certainly on brand.

Daniel Rappaport has some parting thoughts, including this on the changes at those two holes:

—A note on the two biggest changes to the golf course from last year. The 11th hole has been improved considerably; the forest down the right side of the fairway was a vestige of a Tiger-proofing era when courses worldwide responded to distance with a whole bunch of trees. There never needed to be so many—three well-placed trees serve the same purpose as 30—and there’s something fun about potentially having a window to play a miracle shot if you miss right. The increased mounding right of the green also punished that common bailout more sternly. If you played it well right of the water, you were faced with a touchy chip onto a green that’s hip high and slopes away from you, with water long. Good luck.

Yeah, completely agree about the trees.  Love leaving the possibility for the miracle recovery shot, which is very much in keeping with the original design philosophy.  Whether they needed to both add yardage and raise the green to make recoveries harder is my open question.

The 15th hole, however—dare I say it was made a bit more boring? Having two par 5s that are both reachable for the entire field and guarded by water has consistently provided high drama. The old 15th put players in an uncomfortable spot, especially if they drove it down the left side and would’ve had to hook one around the trees to get home. According to Rory McIlroy, our source for the true Augusta National changes—there’s always more than the ones the club officially announces—it’s not just that the hole has been lengthened, but the fairway now slopes more severely from right to left, so more balls ended up behind those trees. It all resulted in far more layups than we’d seen in prior years. Here’s what Cameron Smith said on Saturday evening:

“I think with that green firming up, it's hard—you almost have to hit a perfect shot to hold that green. And the chip shot from over the back, as I'm sure you guys saw today, is pretty brutal.

“Yeah, I don't think I'll be going for it.”

I understand what they were trying to do—turn it into a proper decision hole and keep up with ever-increasing distance—but the two gettable par 5s on the back nine have been woven into the fabric of the Masters. That wasn’t the case so much this year, especially considering there wasn't a single eagle on the new par 5 all week.

I had this very discussion with our head professional at Fairview, and it needs to be said that we had an unusually cold and windy week, and lots more went for the gren on Sunday when it warmed up and the wind died down.

Secondly, one player (sorry, just don't remember who) noted that the issue was largely the direction of the wind, crossing I think from left-to-right.  His suggestion was that they add fifteen yards to the front of the tee box, to provide the Committee flexibility to move the tees up when the wind comes from that direction.  Don't know if it's common knowledge, but among the many peculiarities of this club is that they will only allow two tee boxes per hole, which is quite the limiting factor when one is the Masters Tees.  

Here's one take on Wednesday:

—The Par-3 Contest has turned into a three-hour montage of family fun. It’s delightful. What other opportunities in life do you get to sit back and watch fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, celebrate being around one another? The golf is secondary, just as it is when you play with your dad or your kid. It’s an excuse to spend a few hours outside together, with no screens in sight, and revel in the warmth of familial connection. A celebration of life and the role golf plays in it.

Yeah, but other adjectives that pop into mind are treacly and unwatchable....  Eye of the beholder stuff.

Gonna wrap here.  We'll catch up later in the week.

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