Your Friday Frisson - Chevron Edition

Given my late start, thought I'd try something a little different today.  I mentioned yesterday that I have a Shipnuck mailbag in the queue, so I'll dive into that and interweave other pieces on similar themes.

For instance, your humble blogger had thought the Euro arbitration decision had resolved the bulk of our outstanding Ryder Cup issues, but folks have pored over the fine print and it seems there's a technical opening.  But first, Alan is asked a question that harkens back to that certain prediction.  No worries, Alan, you'll always have Paris:

So with Fitzpatrick rising to give Europe a Big 4 and Zalatoris now out with injury, what’s the super early assessment of the Ryder Cup? #AskAlan@brianros1

Fitzpatrick has clearly gone to a different level, but he still has a lot to prove in the Ryder Cup: Dude is 0-5-0 in two previous appearances. I agree that him, McIlroy, Rahm and Shane Lowry gives

Europe four horses. Viktor Hovland is a stud too. But after that it gets pretty thin. Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Noren provide Europe some battle-tested veterans, though since January 2021 they have combined to win only one tournament around the world. The final four spots are very much up for grabs—if I’m Luke Donald I would be leaning toward Padraig Harrington, even though he’ll be 52!

The top nine for the U.S. is blue-chip: Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, Cam Young, Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele. The big question is what to do with the LIV guys. Despite various misconceptions, they are eligible to play in the Ryder Cup. Dustin Johnson is a no-brainer, and so is Brooks Koepka. It helps that both live in Jupiter, Fla., and mix often with other top Americans during their off weeks. I think DJ and BK will be on Team USA, which brings a lot of firepower and presence. For the final spot, Captain Zach Johnson can choose among Tony Finau, Sahith Theegala, Kurt Kitayama and sundry others. Top to bottom, the American squad is much stronger and I expect them to win in Rome, validating a great golf mind who long ago predicted long-term U.S. dominance.

I'm sorry, what planet has Alan been living on the last 18 months or so?  DJ is a no-brainer, eh?  Shall we but a few shekels on that, Alan, even money being pretty good odds for a no-brainer.

What's Alan smoking?  This just happens to pop up at Golf.com:

Yes, LIV players are eligible for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. But will any get picked?

Here's that technicality:

One of those factors is whether LIV players, who have been suspended by the PGA Tour, will even be eligible for captain’s picks. (LIV players’ only means of collecting Ryder Cup

qualification points is at the four majors, which will make it exceedingly difficult for any of them to land a spot on the team via that avenue; Koepka and Mickelson’s runner-up Masters finishes moved them into a still-distant 17th and 22nd, respectively, on the points list.)

Regarding eligibility, Johnson said: “Not to get overly in the weeds of all this, but in order to garner Ryder Cup points or be eligible for PGA of America Ryder Cup points and PGA Championship points, you have to be a member of PGA of America. Those individuals that have left the PGA Tour, to my knowledge, are still members of PGA of America. There’s a grace period involved there. I don’t know the specifics.”

Alas, those grace-period specifics seem important! When asked for further explanation on Thursday, a PGA of America spokesperson replied to GOLF.com with this statement:

“PGA of America membership is a requirement to be eligible to participate on the U.S. Ryder Cup Team. Under the PGA of America membership rules there are classifications that currently allow LIV Tour members to retain their PGA of America membership status. PGA TOUR members are considered A3 classification. Because the LIV players paid their membership dues before June 30, 2022, they will retain their membership through the end of June 2023 and then through a grace period that runs through the end of June 2024. After that, under our current rules, they may apply for PGA’s Reserve Member classification. A3 members who resigned or are no longer PGA TOUR Members (suspended) are still PGA of America members.”

OK, that's a curious hatch not bolted down, but still....  Alan Bastable actually frames his piece on the unsupported premise that Captain Zach Johnson will be watching the LIV event in Australia because, and do take a moment to appreciate the naivete, he thinks its Zach's job to watch and to select the twelve best players regardless of the tour on which they play.  Heh!  That's quite the good one...

If Johnson’s “no decisions have been made” response sounds like something you might hear from a hedging politician, that’s because he is indeed in a political quagmire. Johnson can’t come out with a full-throated endorsement of LIV players’ impressive form, lest he irritate his Ponte Vedra pals, but he also can’t dismiss LIV’s biggest talents, because, well, they’re talented, and Johnson’s duty is to construct the best, most cohesive team possible.

Really?  Serious question, Alan, has anyone told you about Santa Claus?  You might want to sit down for that one....

And he just goes blissfully on and on beclowning himself:

Further adding to his conundrum is that, if the kumbaya vibe of Masters Week was any indication, there doesn’t appear to be any deep-seeded (or at least insurmountable) animosity between the leading PGA Tour loyalists and their LIV counterparts, and any lingering bitterness that does exist might well further dissipate over time. This could mean that by the time we get to late summer, if, say, Justin Thomas or Jordan Spieth think it’s a good idea to bolster the U.S. squad with the likes of Brooks or DJ, their captain likely will be inclined to take that endorsement on board.

On Wednesday, Johnson (Zach, not Dustin) said as much in terms of how he’ll approach the selection process.

“I’m going to rely heavily on the guys that actually make the team because it’s their team,” he said. “So I don’t know who those six are going to be, obviously, but their ownership and their opinions will weigh heavily into what I, what we, decide to do.”

It is true that the quality of the U.S. players drops precipitously after that ninth (really tenth because the injured Will Zalatoris is somehow in the top ten), which will feed the rumor mill.  But am I the only guy that understand that Jay Monahan will simply not allow any LIV players at the Ryder Cup?That would be like bugging out of Afghanistan and leaving behind billions of dollars i military hardware, and surely no one does that.

Next up, with LIV:

Has Greg [Norman] done such a good job forcing the Tour’s hand (with huge purses and incentives) that he’s essentially doomed his league from further growth since there’s a smaller incentive for any stars to leave??? @fakePOULTER

The final round at Harbour Town was the most-watched non-major golf telecast in five years. The top Tour players are raking in barrels of cash and have never been more aligned. As you say, there is almost no incentive to leave, unless LIV pushes its tournament purses to $40 million or $50 million and offers more nine-figure signing bonuses, which the bean-counters at the Public Investment Fund are suddenly loathe to do. The unknown is how long the PGA Tour can sustain this outlay of cash—it’s operating at maximum capacity right now. It can weather the departure of Dell and Honda, but how many more sponsors will be priced out? That’s a huge question that will get answered this fall with the release of 2024 schedule. But as Jay Monahan told me at Kapalua, it’s now product against product in this war of attrition. Even if LIV goes on a big spending spree this offseason, how much can change? Tiger moves the needle, as do Rory and Spieth. They’re not going anywhere. Rahm makes the needle twitch, maybe JT does a tiny bit. They’re entrenched with the Tour too, and no one else really matters. Even if LIV signed Morikawa and Cantlay and Schauffele and Burns—and there’s no indication any of them want to to jump or that LIV is willing to spend the $750 million it would take to sign all of them—would that encourage any PGA Tour honks to tune in? I doubt it. The battle lines have been drawn: Tour fans watch the Tour, LIV loyalists follow LIV (and do a lot of trolling on Twitter). I think your thesis is correct, but don’t give Norman the credit. Give it to Monahan and Woods and McIlroy, who reshaped the Tour on the fly.

Credit or blame, given how I detest that "reshaping".  Alan has made this point previously and I think it's mostly right, that we've achieved an uncomfortable stasis, but one where the Tour's product remains viable but those so-called LIV loyalists still number in the high single digits.

On a related note, The LIVsters are in Oz and the shirtless one is sounding some conciliatory notes:

Norman doubled down on previous comments and claims that the rebranded LIV Golf League will be around for the long haul and that, despite ongoing legal struggles with both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, that the entity financially backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund wants to “coexist within the golf ecosystem.”

“I do hope there gets to a position where there is resolution to this, because the game of golf doesn’t need to suffer,” said Norman on Thursday at the Grange Golf Club, the site of his first professional win. “These guys don’t need to suffer.”

Please don't fret, you've done more than enough already...

“PGA Tour has got a great tour. We’re happy for them. I’m happy for them. I grew up on the PGA Tour. So did Cam. We grew up playing on the European Tour,” said Norman. “I hope they exist and keep existing, but it’s their choice of what they want to do, and if they want to keep putting up road blocks, we’re not going to go anywhere. We’ve got a great product. We’ve got investment dollars there today, investment dollars into the future that will continue to be there because of guys like this.”

 And I'm sure that they're happy that you're happy for them....

“Because I’m the chairman and CEO of LIV Golf Investments, and that’s where I focus. I focus on golf. I stay focused on golf. My job is to build out LIV and the product we have on a global front,” said a perturbed Norman. “I’ve been involved with golf, like I said, as a player, as well as golf course design.

“I’ve built some golf courses in third-world countries. I’ve built golf courses in Communist countries. Golf is a force for good,” he continued. “It goes everywhere with the right platform because it delivers the right message, from education to hospitality to employment to tourism. Everywhere you go, golf is a force for good.”

Golf may or may not be a force for good, but could we say the same about Saudi Arabia?   Sure, unless you wanted your head to remain on your neck... These rantings remind me of a literary precedent:

Norman boasted that a number of players are still waiting to join LIV, but as for those who didn’t make the 2023 cut over the likes of Pieters, Pereira, Sebastian Munoz and Brendan Steele, those players may add depth to LIV’s 48-player fields, but wouldn’t move the needle.

“There is an incredible amount of interest. We’re full,” said Norman. “Our goal is to build those franchise values out.”

Norman and those at LIV truly believe in its franchise model and that its 12 teams can be profitable, so long as the league is given time to grow and establish its place in golf.

 Specifically, this one:

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

― George Orwell, 1984

Although here I think he is spot-on:

“My legacy of what I’m doing with LIV will be my legacy,” added Norman, “because it’s the right thing to do.”

No quibble there, as you own the Wahabi apologist space.

Good news, kids, the Cantlay pile-on continues unabated.  First Alan:

PGA Tour golf is now incredibly boring from a personality perspective now that all the heels went to LIV. Who are the new and emerging heels in the current Tour? #AskAlan@the_agrippa

The problem is none of them want the job! Cantlay has serious potential, but he’s too uptight corporate. Billy Horschel has the look and some heel-like tendencies, but deep down he aches to be loved. There’s not even another decent candidate. Sad.

Wait, I'm supposed to be sad that PReed and Bryson are in a cone of silence?  

But, since we brought up that terrific penis, a couple of items related thereto:

Is Patrick Cantlay actually a slow player? Here’s what he thinks

I'm not usually very interested in such things, but there's some actual candor and i does help frame the issue.  But we start with Fitzy's comments:

On Tuesday, the winner of the RBC, Matt Fitzpatrick, weighed in. Though he didn’t cite Cantlay by name, Fitzpatrick lambasted the “truly appalling” pace of play on Tour. In an interview with Jamie Weir of Sky Sports, Fitzpatrick asserted, “If you’re in a three-ball, in my opinion you should be round in four hours, four-and-a-half absolute maximum — it’s a disgrace to get anywhere near that.”

The Englishman could teach a master class on being ready when it's your turn, but it's these comments that caught my eye:

“Like I said, being on the PAC [Player Advisory Committee] has been interesting because the

times that it’s taken to play rounds has been pretty much the same for the last 10 or even longer years. So trying to speed it up, I’d be curious to know how they’d want to do that.

“I played the last two tournaments, and my group hasn’t been warned at all. So we’ve been in position the entire time. I don’t know how you would want even the groups that I’ve been in to play faster when our groups are in position and can’t go faster because the group in front of us is right in front of us.”

If that sounded like more buck-passing deflection, you’d be entitled to interpret Cantlay’s comments that way. But then Cantlay was asked a question that provided him less cover: Do you feel like you are a slow player, though?

“Yeah, I’m definitely slower than average, have been my whole career,” he said. “I definitely take my time. And when I hit my ball on a bulkhead, I’m definitely going to take my time to make sure I make the right decision and try to get the ball back into the right spot.”

You see the issue, no?  There's no will to tackle this issue and the players will take full advantage, because that's what they do.....  Hard to blame them.

 Of course, golf fans will draw their own conclusions:

This is getting out of control @patrick_cantlay ⏰ pic.twitter.com/xUrRehTRGd

— Beer At The Turn 🏌🏼‍♂️⛳️ (@tap_it_in_golf) April 17, 2023

While we're young, Patrick!

 And before we move on from Fitzy:

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately: Is Matt Fitzpatrick much, much better than even the hardcore golf fans realize? @SamHick60072515

Before Fitzpatrick won—checks notes—the U.S. Open, the answer was a resounding yes. I think the golf world has caught on to what a tenacious competitor he is and how the toughest setups favor his precise, calculating brand of golf. Even so, I understand what you’re getting at. Golf, life pretty much every sport, favors the big and strong. That the wee lad Fitzy is summiting the World Ranking is a testament to his big heart and tremendous skill set.

I think we're all wondering how good he is.  Though he seems to be one of the few that has actually tried to get longer and has done so without devastating effects on the remainder of his game.  

I didn't quibble with Alan when he noted the Harbor Town ratings above, though elsewhere he mentioned Dell and Honda, but didn't feel the need to connect those dots.  On that loosely-defined thread:

Is it bad that I kinda miss the non-designated Harbour Town tournament that was super chill and a nice hangover remedy from the Masters? @MidwesternGator

No, I felt that too! The elevated events impose a certain uniformity upon the tournaments, with basically the same fields and the same Tour-generated hype. I guess it’s a small price to pay for a world-class slate of players, but for sure the individual events are losing a little bit of their identity along the way.

I'm glad they got boffo ratings, but the week after the Masters seems an awkward spot for a big-time tour event.  Wouldn't you say that Rory would agree with that?

The reactions to these designated events as been curious, with many noting that the Tour always had a two-class system.  But it was one in which the sponsors competed with each other and events like Harbor Town found a way to make that post Masters date work for them and the community.  It's the top-down approach that seems off-base, not least what they did to sponsor that had supported them for 42 years.  You speak of the importance of partnerships, Jay, and then you publicly screw you longest tenured partner....

And Zurich did the same, but let's not go overboard:

Will the Zurich ever be ‘elevated’? @justapedn_cob

I hope so! It would be so fun to get more heavyweight teams. The key part of your question is “the Zurich”—that banking conglomerate has been a stalwart for the Tour and the elevated events are going to have to be spread around to keep the sponsors happy. So the answer is yes, it’s just a matter of when.

I'm not sure as a team event that it can be, but I'm pretty sure after this it never should be:

What do you make of the Daly-Duval team? Any chance to be entertaining?@gsmitter

Entertaining? Hell, yeah! Competitive? Eh, seems unlikely. If they don’t mic up that group it will be a monumental missed opportunity, with Duval’s learned thoughts mixed with Long John’s down-home musings.

John Daly is a public disgrace, but i seem to be the only one that remembers the content of his Tour disciplinary file.   

I mentioned Rory above, and we have  atwofer:

Should we all not just give Rory a break after all he has done for the Tour the last year plus? Compare his absence to a corporate job: You don’t have the right to know when someone takes personal leave. @OTownPauly

It’s true, McIlroy could have had a sick kid or a minor injury or any number of valid reasons not to show up. The problem was the lack of information and context from both McIlroy and the Tour. Where your analogy breaks down is that no one buys a ticket or a corporate suite to watch an accountant tally numbers, but McIlroy’s supposedly guaranteed presence surely created a lot of excitement around Hilton Head in the run-up to the tournament. Jon Rahm’s admirable my-word-is-my-bond stance didn’t help Rory’s cause either. No doubt McIlroy has taken on a heavy burden over the last year as the spokesman for the Tour, and the strain is showing. I don’t have strong feelings about McIlroy’s WD, but it wasn’t a good look for one of the architects of the new schedule to suddenly go missing.

I don't have anything more to add, other than they're all a bunch of mental midgets.  But the funniest part is still to come, expecting all of these guys to drag their butts from LACC to Hartford the week after the U.S. Open.  Who thought that a good idea?

But your humble blogger was ahead of the curve on this one:

True or false: What Rory needs most right now is to say a polite “thanks but we’re all done here” to Harry Diamond and ask nicely to indefinitely borrow Joe LaCava from TW? I feel like a senior presence on the bag would have to free him up a little, yeah? #AskAlan@luke_peacock

Rory has never wanted that—his previous caddie, J.P. Fitzgerald, was not exactly an activist. Would it really change anything? Bones Mackay had all the numbers and all the angles and the confidence to speak up in any situation, but Phil Mickelson pretty much ignored everything he said and did it his way. Rory is just as headstrong, and I think he would play exactly the same way whoever is on the bag—a meddling, overbearing caddie would just be an annoyance. All that said, if McIlroy goes oh-fer the coming major championships and heads into next year a decade removed from his last Grand Slam win, maybe he will be desperate enough to shake things up, just for the sake of change. LaCava is a good call; a soothing veteran presence who would at least be a different voice in McIlroy’s head.

Yes, Rory has never wanted that, which of course is silent on the question of whether Rory needs that.... Perhaps it all comes down to deciding how badly he wants that Masters....

My own personal belief has always been that there isn't a player more in need of an assertive caddie than Rory, yet his default to comfort tells us so much about him.  We've seen Scottie grab Ted Scott and Cameron Young get hooked up with Paul Tesori, but Rors continues to hang wit his childhood bestie.... It should probably tell us all we need to know.

Admittedly, Alan is uniquely positioned to field this one:

Has there ever been a player of Spieth’s caliber who’s hit so many loose shots? And despite winning the Open in 2017, are the ghosts of Augusta still haunting him from his 2016 collapse? Harbour Town was his for the taking and he let it slip way.@opinionsvary328

Ummmmmmm, Phil? There is no question Spieth has a lot of scar tissue and the ’16 Masters is his Winged Foot. Mickelson needed four years to get over that debacle, while Spieth’s bounce-back came much quicker. But clearly Jordan is always going to be a cat on a hot tin roof. All the tournaments he boots away will just make it more joyous when he closes one out.

The questioner is obviously on to something, as Jordan sees quite a bit of the world.  Though, to be fair, Jordan's ball-striking numbers have improved substantially in recent years, so perhaps we should keep an open mind here.

I agree this was a great story, and I've been remiss in not reading that profile of Levin:

Alan, don’t forget to talk a bit about Spencer Levin coming through Monday qualifying to fire a final-round 63 to win the Veritex Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour. A touch of the iconoclastic in the face of a slate of carbon copy bro dudes sure feels good. @caknox1

A touch?! Levin is an all-time character. The outpouring that followed his win was touching and inspiring. What a journey that guy has been on—too good to quit but never quite able to make it in the big leagues. Maybe middle age and fatherhood will mellow out Levin just enough to let his manifold talent flourish.

I'll admit that our (my?) LIV obsession does sometimes preclude other more interesting stories....  But do you, like me, have a rather obvious question about Levin?  For my non-Jewish readers the go to source for such issues is jewornotjew.com:

Dear Jewish golf fans,

Let it go. The odds of a Jewish golf champ are pretty darn low. Levin (sorry to get your hopes up) is not a Jew. The last name comes from a line of goyishe Swedes.

So what are you to do, Jewish golf fans?

Root for Daniel Berger and Max Homa?

But why do they think there are no Jewish golf fans?  Do they know we have our own golf clubs and everything, or do they still think we're only allowed to be menylenders?

See you all on Monday.

 

 

Thursday Themes - Big Cat Down Edition

A bit late to the keyboard due to a needy feline, but where to begin?  Oh yeah, kind of gave it away in the header....

El Gato Esta Muerto - The header is a tad curious, though:

Tiger Woods undergoes another surgery, casting doubt over his 2023 status

Anyone that watched the Masters would have been long on doubts already, but whatevs.

The chances of Tiger Woods making an appearance at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill next month, or any other event this year for that matter, just took a major hit.

Woods’ team announced on Twitter Wednesday that he underwent a “subtalar fusion procedure to his post-traumatic arthritis from his previous talus fracture.”

“It was performed by Dr. Martin O’Malley at HSS Sports Medicine Institute in New York City,” the statement reads. “He has determined the surgery to be successful. Tiger is currently recovering and looks forward to beginning his rehabilitation.”

According to the website FootcareMD.org, a subtalar fusion procedure takes the two bones forming the subtalar joint, the talus bone and calcaneus (heel) bone, and fuses them together. The joint allows for side-to-side movement of the foot and ankle, so fusing it means a recovering patient would require getting accustomed to walking on uneven surfaces.

After surgery, the patient’s foot must be non-weight-bearing for six weeks and in a boot or cast for 8-12 weeks.

HSS, eh?  Know it well, as I bought Employee No. 2 two new hips there....

After that Masters, exactly no one thought we'd see him in Rochester, but now The Riv '24 would seem the most likely bet for his next tee time.  Yanno, if there is a next time...

Via Alan Shipnuck, those desirous of a deep dive into a subtalar fusion can geek out in this Twitter thread. 

Dinah Esta Murto - Are they ever barking up the wrong tree:

With the Chevron Championship at its new venue, how will Dinah Shore's legacy continue in Texas?

That's easy, it won't.  The so-called Dinah legacy was very location specific, as I'm sure you can understand that the world's largest Lesbian rave is an awkward fit in Houston.

But what Beth Ann Nichols is implying is that the LPGA is trying to hold onto the history that it just abandoned, but life unfortunately does not work that way.  next thing you know they'll be telling us that there are more than two genders.....What?  With a straight face?  Hmmm...and they think we're the science deniers?

Unlike the big-boy tour, I have sympathy in that the LPGA didn't defenestrate Dinah because they no longer embraced their history.  No, the cause of this is to be found in Augusta GA, so we're trying to be supportive and all, but Dinah is Dead.

Every time Pat Bradley walked by the statue of Dinah Shore next to the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club, she’d climb up on the little base and put her hand on Dinah’s arm and have a chat. Longtime Desert Sun golf writer Larry Bohannan recalled the scene as he considered the question: How should Shore’s legacy continue in Texas?

Bradley, like so many LPGA greats, was friends with Shore. The Hollywood superstar made such a tremendous impact on the tour in the 1970s and ’80s that they put her in the LPGA Hall of Fame as the only non-playing member.

But as the 52nd Chevron Championship, still known by many as “The Dinah,” leaves the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and heads to The Woodlands near Houston this week, it’s natural to wonder how Shore will fit in.

“You can’t create that,” said Bohannan of Bradley’s ritual, “that has to be something that’s organic.”

Here's a handy guide for you.  When it was the Kraft, we called it the Dinah.  When it was the Colgate, we called it the Dinah.  When it was the ANA......well, you know.  That's because it was still in it's home...  The Chevron?  Yeah, it's the Chevron.

And this bit on which I'm neutral:

Another burning question before this year’s Chevron: Will the champion’s leap, the most significant tradition (one might argue the LPGA’s only noteworthy tradition), carry on?

Tournament organizers told Golfweek there’s no expectation that a player will jump into the lake on the 18th next month at the Nicklaus Course at The Club at Carlton Woods, but should the mood strike, the championship team is making sure it will be safe.

An area of the lake at the 18th green is being dredged and netted to make sure it’s deep enough for a player and her caddie and family to take the plunge. The traditional robe and slippers will also be on standby, if needed.

Netted?  Those are alligator nets, so carpe diem. 

Though one former champ has strong feelings:

“Whoever wins this year needs to jump in and keep it going,” said Brittany Lincicome, a two-time champion at Mission Hills.

Methinks that since they've had to move on, that perhaps they should, yanno, move on....

Masters Detritus -  I know, short attention spans and all, but a couple of interesting bits have crossed my path.  The first is from grizzled vet Mike Bamberger who rarely fails to make us think, though I might have to pick a nit on his lede:

This year’s Masters lingers vividly in my northern reaches. Maybe you’re feeling the same thing. Such a residency is not a given. We are promised a Masters each April, not a memorable one. But this year’s tournament had all manner of plots and subplots through the week and by nightfall on Sunday the tournament had the winner it deserved, Jon Rahm.

Was this a memorable Masters?  I wouldn't think so, unless it's the dodged bullet angle, which I think will fade over time.

Mike has interesting comments about the lineage of Spanish golf that's worth your time, but for me the most interesting comments are about that guy:

Mickelson (as you probably know) is a three-time winner at Augusta. A winner at Augusta is an honorary member of the club. But Mickelson, because of his LIV ties, was dissuaded from playing in or even attending last year’s Masters. All that made his second-place finish this year, with a closing 65 and a birdie-birdie finish, even more remarkable. He wore his LIV Golf team hat into his post-round press conference on Sunday. Mickelson (you may not know) is the captain of the HyFlyers Golf Club. I’ve never seen a player wear a hat inside the press building at Augusta National. It does violate club tradition. But, you know: Phil.

I picked up on that as well.  There's always a green-jacketed attendant at such pressers and I wondered if he was asked and refused to remove his hat.  But, as Mike says, it's not done....

But Mike was just getting warmed up there:

Let’s consider Mickelson first. He won the PGA Championship at 50 in 2021, making him the oldest player to win a major. Now he’s 52. To shoot 8 under at 52 at Augusta is astounding.

Mickelson has been one of the best players in the game for more than 30 years. The longevity alone is mind-bending. For excellence over the years, the only golfers in his class are Snead, Nicklaus and Watson. Mickelson is in the pantheon. There has never been a golfer like him. He has a strong sense of impish fun. In recent years, in his public life, he has had a sort of makeover, from goofy Phil to bad-ass Phil. He was never simple Phil. He’s hard to get a handle on. Nobody can say, Oh, I know someone just like Phil. No such person exists.

But the way he turned his back on the PGA Tour, in the pursuit of a giant and guaranteed payday, it leaves you cold. Maybe I should say, it leaves me cold.

Mickelson owns his talent, his drive, his work ethic. Of course he does. But like all elite golfers, he needed stages to show off all that talent and ability. Enter the Southern California Golf Association, the USGA, the NCAA, the PGA of America, the R&A. Augusta National. The PGA Tour. There’s no way to measure what those institutions did for him. They made his golfing life possible.

I can understand that Mickelson felt frustrated by the piece of the pie he was getting from the PGA Tour’s purses. (You might reasonably ask, “But wasn’t he getting enough?” You have your answer and Phil has his.) I can understand he was frustrated that he felt ignored by various PGA Tour commissioners. But when he signed up for and recruited (per various credible reports) players for a professional golf tour that was a direct threat to the PGA Tour, the tour to which Rahm pledged his “fealty,” he showed, to me, an astonishing lack of gratitude and historical awareness and even I’m-in-the-pantheon responsibility.

People will disagree on that act of signing up for LIV, but there can't be much argument about the recruiting of others.  Not only did he publicly trash the place where he made his fortune (and where his alleged friends make their livings), but actively worked to destroy that entity.  

And Mike isn't moving on from this either:

So that gets us to the events on 15 with the Brooks Koepka-Gary Woodland-Danny Willett threesome during the first round of the 87th Masters. That event, and any others like it, represents a serious threat to the game, both in terms of what happened, and what it implies. I’m surprised the outrage has been so muted.

It seems obvious to me (and to everybody I have asked) that Koepka violated a fundamental rule on the par-5 hole after playing his second shot with a 5-iron.

His caddie, Ricky Elliott, clearly mouthed the word five twice to Gary Woodland’s caddie, Brennan Little, as they crossed paths in the fairway. You could see it on the broadcast. Elliott has almost an aggressive expression on his face as he says it the second time.

It’s disturbing because sharing what club a player hit is the quintessential example of giving advice. And on that shot? With a pond short of the green, a pond over the green and nothing but trouble left of the green? It’s one of the most challenging shots in tournament golf. The more information you have, the better. This is not idle chatter. This is inside information. It tilts the whole beautiful concept of the level playing field.

Whenever there’s a rules debacle in professional golf, look for motivation as you seek to understand it. Look for motivation, and look for opportunity. In this instance, if you give information, you are making a deposit, to get information later. Quid pro quo, tour-style. That is not elite professional golf. It’s revolting.

It doesn’t matter that it was Koepka’s caddie who mouthed five and not Koepka. (As for the five-finger wave from Koepka, to me he looked like he was taking off his glove and nothing more.) Per the rules, the caddie is an extension of the player. It doesn’t matter whether Woodland used the information. Had Little asked for information, that adds to the mess. A player gets two shots for asking and two shots for giving, solicited or unsolicited.

This was a really bad moment for all involved.  And Mike isn't remotely finished taking these guys to the woodshed:

And that is what is so troubling here. The tournament’s rules officials did not impose a two-shot penalty on Koepka. The available evidence shows he should have been penalized. Had there been some credible extenuating circumstance for why Elliott twice mouthed the word five, Augusta National’s rules and media officials would have relayed that information to the millions of fans around the world watching the tournament. They didn’t.

Anybody can make a logical and educated guess as to what happened, and that’s what this is. Despite the video evidence, Elliott and Koepka, when meeting with rules officials after the round, denied giving information. (That is, advice.) The officials, taking their cues from the club’s president in perpetuity, Bobby Jones, accepted their word.

“Following the completion of Brooks Koepka’s round, the committee questioned his caddie and others in the group about a possible incident on number fifteen,” Jim Hyler, the chair of the competition committees, said in a statement after the round. “All involved were adamant that no advice was given or requested. Consequently, the committee determined that there was no breach of the rules.”

But we all saw it!

That’s the challenge modern golf faces, as it starts (unfortunately) to resemble modern life. Traditional golf, Masters golf, was built on a foundation of do-the-right-thing. And, by the way, if you don’t, somebody—the guy you’re playing with, a spectator, a TV viewer–will call you out on it. Or your guilt will eat away at you and you’ll never make another cut, so that fear alone will get you to do the right thing. Players have cited that as a motivator over the years.

But over the past decade, we’ve seen the rise of this message, from player to official, and please pardon the vulgarity: You don’t have the balls to give me two shots, to call me a liar.

Was there an act of cheating?

You saw the clip.

Was there post-round lying? 

You read the statement.

It makes no sense because it makes no sense. 

Koepka also lied about it on camera.  The only actual excuse is that they do it all the time, but does that actually make you feel better?

remember how your humble blogger has ranted about the Tour's failure to disclose disciplinary actions?  Turns out they had good reason to do so....

But the miscreant is apparently still unclear as to what went down:

Brooks Koepka Is Still Pondering What Went Wrong Sunday at the Masters

 I think I could help him here.

"You kind of take some time to digest it all," Koepka said at the Grand, the site of the tournament that begins Friday. "Did a good of that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and just kind of relaxed and tried to think about why it happened, why I played bad on Sunday, or Saturday-Sunday.

"I’m always pretty honest with myself, and normally it goes on what I was thinking what I was doing. It was nice to get to the bottom of it.

"Look, you tell anybody you’re going to finish second in a major, especially where I was six months ago, a year ago, I’m not sure there, so I would have taken that, so it’s tough to really argue with it.

"Then reality, expectations and all that stuff gets thrown in there. But it was a good, solid week and I can’t really complain. Gave myself a chance to win, and that’s all you can ask for every time you tee it up."

Gee, if only there were a golf tour where you could get used to having to play that fourth round...

Though maybe the better question is whether he's figured ut what went wrong at Kiawah.

Webs, Tangled -  Did someone mention miscreants?  Remember PReed's burner Twitter account, the infamous UseGolfFacts account that popped up in Paris 2018 and at other times when you-know-who was under assault?

No sport on earth does worst-kept secrets quite like golf. The NBA gives it a run for its money and God only knows what happens in professional curling, but nothing breeds whispers, rumor and hearsay quite like a sport where you literally have to whisper. Of all of golf’s unspoken certainties, however, none has been more obvious (or hilarious) in recent years than the identity of the infamous @useGolfFACTS Twitter admin.

Our big brothers at Golf Digest have dug deep into the suspiciously pro-Patrick Reed Twitter account in the past, and while no official conclusions were reached (Pat doesn’t need another lawsuit on his hands, let’s be honest), the overwhelming consensus is that the mastermind behind @useGolfFACTS is none other than Reed's wife Justine.

This has been neither confirmed nor denied by the Reeds, but in the wee hours of Monday morning we got the closest thing to an admission yet when a joke about Justine’s, um, specific taste in sporting-event seating prompted this instantly iconic reply: 

These look like nice seats to me! pic.twitter.com/l0hO5GDbrH

— GolfFACTS (@useGolfFACTS) April 17, 2023

While I'm not exactly sure why this is incriminating, I also don't think control of the account was ever in doubt.  But here's the background:

The tweet by No Laying Up’s Tron Carter specifically references Justine Reed’s outburst following a 2018 Boston Red Sox game, in which she characterized their premium baseline seats as the “line-drive section” and slammed the PGA Tour for providing the tickets (for the record, all 30 MLB teams instituted netting in 2018). With Patrick Reed seen taking in an Australian rules football game ahead of LIV Golf’s Adelaide stop this week, the waters were ripe for fishing and @useGolfFACTS—either unthinkingly or simply because they do not care anymore—gobbled up the bait.

Is Justine controlling that Twitter account?  Probably.  Are these two entitled jerks that we're well rid of?  Certainly!

I've got more of everything but time, including a Shipnuck mailbag of juicy takes.  I'll try to force myself to the keyboard tomorrow.

Tuesday Typos

Just a few bits, mostly to close out those pesky browser tabs....

Slow Play, A Deep Dive -  Two of the major golf websites have thumbsuckers on this ever popular subject, with Golf.com asking us for our thoughts.  Though it doesn't take them long to get to the funky:

From the practical to the funky, 20 ways to fix slow play — according to you

Though it quickly devolves into stuff that's off the table:

Only the player should read the putt

Wrote one reader: “Stop letting the caddie read every putt! Should be up to the player, with minimal input from the caddie. Reading the putt should be the responsibility of the player.”

Limit caddie conversations

Jordan Spieth may struggle with this one. Wrote one reader: “Limit caddie visits per shot to one, and for 15 seconds.”

Use carts

They’re allowed on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, so … Wrote one reader: “If people wanna see the game move faster — let the players use carts. A lot of time is lost by players conserving energy by walking at a stroll pace.”

Shockingly, that last suggestion came from E. Woods of Jupiter Island, FL.  

And this one comes from R. McIlroy, also of Jupiter Island, FL:

Limit the field sizes

LIV Golf, with 48 players, is on board already. Wrote one reader: “Smaller field. More time between tee times.”

Do I have good news for you!  That is, if you show up again....

Golf Digest convenes a roundtable discussion of their golf writers, beginning with this existential query:

Slow play has been an issue forever. So are recent bouts just a coincidence or sign of a bigger problem?

The problem is metastasizing. Look at the number of early season PGA Tour events in which Thursday and Friday rounds could not be completed even though there were no weather delays. That never happened 10-15 years ago. Everyone has become a tortoise. —Dave Shedloski

It's very hard to know how "bad" the issue has gotten lately. If you believe Patrick Cantlay, the data shows the total time for an average round is staying about the same. Then again, somewhat anecdotally, you see all these stats about how the tour can't get through two rounds of play in two days. In fact, it feels like a lot of this debate is lacking hard numbers, and we're relying mostly on fan experience, like the misery of watching someone stand over a four-foot putt for a full minute, or the sense of slowness on Sunday at Augusta. I do wonder if there's an element of fan culture that demands a more brisk pace, due to shorter attention spans or whatever, and you can see this reflected in things like baseball's new pitch clock or the serve clock in tennis. —Shane Ryan

Remember the 2019 Northern Trust and the slow-play complaints about Bryson DeChambeau, which ultimately led to the Brooks-Bryson feud? Ah, simpler times. The problem—and make no mistake, it is a problem—may not be any worse now than it was then, but it’s certainly not gotten any better. However, I do think other sports embracing ways to speed up their games while golf has stayed pat has amplified the optics of slow play, which is why the complaints may be sounding louder in volume than in the past. —Joel Beall

Like you, I'm just happy those two kids seem to have patched things up.... But, as you read yesterday, my enduring image of slow play is JB Holmes in the 18th fairway at Torrey Pines, allowing the green to clear before his lay-up into the rough.  Because, I think we can all agree, you can't be too safe out there.

Unlike their competitor, Golf Digest gest personal, and we wouldn't have it any other way:

Patrick Cantlay is bearing the brunt of the slow-play criticism. Is it warranted?

Yes, it's warranted. And yes, the reaction is also a little over-the-top. Though in some ways that goes with the territory. Cantlay is far from the only slower-than-average player on tour, but he's also one of golf's very best players. Top players get more air time and thus more scrutiny. Top players get into contention more, which tends to make them go slower. It's all combined to make him a kind of symbol for a very real issue in golf, which isn't fair to Cantlay. He's an example of a product of the system, not the cause of it. —Luke Kerr-Dineen

At least he didn't label him a victim.... 

On one hand, Cantlay probably doesn't deserve the current level of opprobrium. And the fact that he does heavily reflects the fact that he's so good—if he wasn't in position at Augusta and Hilton Head to be on TV so often on the weekend, nobody would realize how slow he was playing. On the other hand, he is extremely slow, it's no fun to watch, and I think it's more frustration than cruelty driving the criticism. Also, I don't buy the "it's not his fault, it's the system's fault" argument. Sure, he's doing what is allowed under the rules, but just like a Big Ten college basketball coach encouraging his team to play an ugly, physical game that results in final scores in the 40s and 50s, being "within the rules" doesn't excuse someone from contributing to the aesthetic diminishment of his sport. And part of encouraging change, for better or worse, means calling out individual performances. Cantlay has to wear this one. —SR 

Someone has to be the poster child. Cantlay is as good a candidate as anyone. Sunday's final group brought into sharp relief how slow Cantlay can play paired with Jordan Spieth, who isn't fast but is faster than Cantlay, and Matt Fitzpatrick whose process should be part of an instructional video for junior golfers. Fitz, the U.S. Open champion, knows how to pull the trigger with little or no delay when it's his turn, and his victory at Harbour Town proves that a deliberate method isn't needed to win. —DS

Cantlay is as painfully slow as a kidney stone, and that he’s not apologetic about his pace doesn’t help. But this is also selective outrage; Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods were slow, and Jordan Spieth is no road runner. If fans like the player in question, there’s a bit of latitude allowed, and unfortunately for Cantlay, he’s not in that echelon of popularity to receive such leniency. —JB

I nominate "Not in that level of popularity" as our Euphemism of the Day, though I still default back to terrific penis.

Both items touched on this as a possibility:

Major League Baseball introduced a shot clock this season to speed up play. Should the PGA Tour consider a similar implementation?

The DP World Tour tried this at a tournament in 2018 and it was considered a unqualified success. Why was it just a one-off experiment? By the way, technically, a shot clock already exists. It's just not something the public sees, and but there is little penalty for violating it. The real question is, should a shot clock with hard and fast policing and penalties be instituted? Easy answer is yes. But, of course, this is a complicated issue. —DS

I'm skeptical of the shot clock in golf because I can't wrap my head around when the clock would literally start. Every pre-shot routine is slightly different, and there's a teeing-order in golf that isn't there in baseball. Plus there's the whole walking-between-shots issue, and the fact that some players have bad holes, which will naturally slow things up. The pitch clock works in baseball, but golf will need to find its own unique solution. —LKD

Pitchers are adjusting to the pitch clock, and baseball is more fun to watch. Tennis players adjusted to the serve clock, and now if a match takes five hours, it's because it's an epic fight, not because Djokovic is taking a minute between serves. In short, yes, assessing serious penalties and implementing a shot clock so it's not some vague subjective judgment is the way to fix this. That said, at a time when the tour is catering to its stars because they fear LIV defections, good luck getting them to implement something that potentially annoys those stars! —SR

As Dave notes, a shot clock is currently the law of the land, with each players timed on each shot.  Of course, no players has been assessed penalty shots so apparently the issue of slow play has been solved and we have peace in our time.

Absence And It's Effects On Hearts -  I'd been reliably informed that fondness would be on offer, yet that certain Ulsterman is still taking incoming.  In his Monday Finish column, Dylan Dethier has this short take on the matter:

Rory McIlroy skipped the RBC after a surprising missed cut at the Masters, possibly forgoing $3 million and inviting plenty of scrutiny in the process. I’m not particularly interested in passing judgment on McIlroy’s decision until we hear from him, but his absence was strange in the context of the last year. He’s the one who popularized the Tom Brady metaphor, where he knew if he turned on the Tampa Bay Bucs game, Brady would be playing. And McIlroy is media-savvy enough to know that he’d get crushed from some corners for no-showing Hilton Head. The fact that he did so anyway suggests he really didn’t feel like he could play.

Wow, might have been a little early with that euphemism award....

What does "Really didn't feel like he could play" even mean?  Jon Rahm played 30 holes on Sunday, was required by tradition to stay at Augusta for dinner and yet still hauled his sorry butt to Hilton head....

I don't actually think these guys should be required to show anywhere, but Rory was of course at the table when this was put in place, so he's kind of forced to own it.  But what is it Dylan needs to hear from Rory?  I'm kind of thinking we know what Rory is curled up on the floor in the fetal position...

Apparently Dylan isn't the only one that needs to hear from Rors, as it seems Eamon Lynch does as well:

Lynch: The tedious carping about Rory McIlroy lacks one crucial perspective — his

So, for those keeping a scorecard at home, I guess Rory is in that level of popularity, that Eamon feels compelled to place a protective shield around him and deride those of us that point out the blindingly obvious to the oblivious.

But what a profoundly bizarre column, which starts with.....and I'm still struggling to see the linkage, that terrific penis:

Time is a pressing subject in professional golf this week, whether it’s a player who takes too

much of it, another who bemoans an excess of it on his hands, or one who uses it to prioritize life outside the game.

Patrick Cantlay has faced sustained criticism for his pace of play in the final round of the Masters, which was charitably described as “brutally slow” by the luckless competitor behind him, Brooks Koepka. It was news but not new. Slow play is a chronic disease on the PGA Tour and Cantlay is a Typhoid Mary whose presence blights the innocent.

Cantlay did mount a reasonable defense: Augusta National’s combination of fast greens and pins cut on slopes make players more ponderous. The prosecution would counter that Cantlay is laggardly regardless of where he’s playing. Others may be graced with a pass in testing conditions, but he has long since exhausted any goodwill.

Because they both affect the time-space continuum?  Sorry, you lost me, Eamon..... and he's got another weird digression for us, a worthy story that I hadn't yet blogged, but also of dubious relevance:

One golfer who might welcome the privilege of dawdling behind Cantlay late in a tournament is Jediah Morgan. He won the Australasian Tour’s order of merit in 2022 and now plays the LIV Golf League. Just not frequently enough, apparently. “There’s obviously quite a bit of time off with the LIV stuff at the moment, which is a little bit frustrating,” he said on the eve of the Saudi-financed circuit’s stop in Australia. “I think a lot of the guys would like to see it grow to 18 events.”

One can’t fault Morgan for wanting to maximize grifting opportunities before the Crown Prince draws his purse strings closed, but the 23-year-old’s eagerness to expand the schedule is at odds with his semi-retired or almost-knackered colleagues who said that LIV’s appeal was being able to spend more time with their families. At least Morgan will have less idle time in the coming weeks with a roster of events that will take him from Adelaide to Singapore to Tulsa.

Again, the relevance eludes me.... But there are goalposts to move, and Eamon has reported for duty:

McIlroy’s WD was announced soon after a disappointing missed cut at the Masters, which fueled criticism that was both speculative and specious, primarily that he’s pouting about his poor performance in Augusta and that he considers himself above honoring the changes to the Tour schedule he helped create. One click-hungry chucklehead even suggested he was embarrassing himself and starting to “reek of hypocrisy.”

Because he took a week off work.

Alert the media, someone said something mean on social media....  But hold the presses, Eamon's espied another shiny object:

Heading the parade of those eager to offer their tuppence was Chubby Chandler, who McIlroy fired as his manager a dozen years ago. He told a British tabloid that his former client is a mere mouthpiece for the PGA Tour, that he screwed up by doing a walk-and-talk interview during the Masters broadcast because Jack and Tiger would never have done it, and that he’s surrounded himself with pliable people on payroll.

Thus died irony. Being lectured by Chandler on wrongdoing, mismanagement and running one’s mouth is akin to being called out for poor dining etiquette by Hannibal Lecter.

Another bit I didn't blog, this one because the Chubster hasn't been relevant since Rory dumped him and he's obviously conflicted as relates to LIV

Eamon has been a welcome voice calling out the hypocrisy of the LIVsters, but he does seem in this column to be protecting Rory from a rather obvious misstep:

So much of the brickbats aimed at McIlroy are a rush to judgment. He will have known that withdrawing from the RBC Heritage would hand a cudgel not only to the LIV bros and bots, but to anyone skeptical of the Tour’s changes. He will have grasped that his decision could mean a significant financial penalty – a slew of breathlessly repetitive articles had his outstanding PIP bonus at $3 million, which is admittedly pocket change for him. Lastly, he will have understood that he’d disappoint a sponsor deeply invested in the Tour, one that underwrites the Canadian Open he has won in its last two stagings.

Knowing all of that, McIlroy chose to remain at home. To a reasonable observer, that doesn’t suggest he’s sulking about the Masters or exhibiting a lack of commitment to the new schedule. It means that there’s simply something more important in his life right now, and that something wasn’t going to be addressed by competing in Hilton Head.

Of course some of the commentary is needlessly personal and over-the-top, but I don't particularly care why he took a powder this week.  It wasn't a show of strength, but it effectively points out the insanity of the Tour's 2023 schedule, but the best reason for holding our fire is that the 2024 schedule at least scales back the number of designated events to a far more manageable eight.

Obviously Rory's game has left him for the moment, and he showed shockingly little fight at Augusta.  As a thought experiment, compare Tiger's fight to make the cut with Rory's capitulation (didn't Shipnuck use that word?), also factoring in that Rory was on the good side of the draw.  

If we're going to be angry with Rory, though, we've a far better target at hand.  Perhaps his doldrums explain why he refuses to play the big-money events against more than 69 of his peer group?

The Euro Beat - Lost in the shuffle of the Masters was that arbitration decision upholding the Euro Tour's rights to enforce its own rules.  John Huggan takes a couple of dives into the implications thereof:

It’s been a good week for golf’s establishment bodies. Following Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley’s all-but-explicit support for the USGA and R&A’s distance proposals, the DP World Tour has emerged victorious from its legal battle with LIV Golf.

In a decision officially revealed on Thursday that “delighted” chief executive Keith Pelley, Sports Resolution UK upheld the old world circuit’s conflicting tournament release regulation and its ability to sanction members who breached it. Furthermore, appeals brought by those members who played in LIV’s inaugural event last June without a proper release—12, including Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood—in the wake of their suspension (and £100,000 fines) from last year’s Scottish Open have been dismissed.

Perhaps most fundamentally, the panel found that membership of a tour or tours comes with obligations.

“Individual players have to accept some limitation on their freedoms inherent in tour membership, should they choose [if qualified] to join one or more,” the report stated. “Indeed, none of the Appellants suggested that he had given up his independence by signing up to onerous [albeit remunerative] obligations to LIV, to play in a full season of LIV events, and it is clear that membership of the PGA Tour carries serious limitations on the freedom of a player. The freedom claimed was in effect one of choosing with which set of restraints to comply.”

Whatever rights you might think the players should have, it would be impossible to maintain a tour without such protections.  As Rory so eloquently told us, sponsors need to know who is going to show up.

LIV's court game is in about as good a lace as Rory's golf game, as they've taken it on the chin in all cases.  here's their rebuttal:

"We disagree with the procedural opinion from the Dp World Tour’s arbitral body, which failed to address in reasonable substance what competitive forces must be upheld," said Matthew Schwartz, an attorney with Gibson Dunn, counsel representing LIV Golf. "By punishing players for playing golf, the DPWT is seeking to unreasonably control players and it is the sort and fans that suffer. There are no winners. This is a sacred week in the global sports calendar and the on-course competition is what matters. LIV remains focused on its decades-long vision to enhance the game and is looking forward to its upcoming tournament in Australia in front of 70,000 fans."

When you have the facts on your side, pound the facts.  When you have the law on your side, pound the law.  When you have neither, pound the table....

 Of course, this was John's header:

What's next after the DP World Tour wins arbitration case over LIV Golf? The future is still unclear

Call me old school, but I'm thinking if you're asking that question in the header, that you might have a thought or two on the subject.  But it's all apparently TBD.

John's second dive is equally curious:

LIV Golf's U.K. arbitration loss leaves questions for Europe's Ryder Cup team prospects

Seems to me just the opposite, that the questions have now been answered and we can get on with things.

By extension, wondered many, what does confirmation of the DP World Tour’s right to make its own rules mean for the 44th playing of the Ryder Cup in Italy later this year? Will the tour’s soon-to-be decided punishment plan make it all but impossible for European LIV players such as Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Sam Horsfield, Richard Bland, Laurie Canter, Thomas Pieters, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Henrik Stenson and Bernd Wiesberger to qualify? Will their only route into the 12-man side be via the six captain’s invitations available to European skipper Luke Donald?

Yes and no.  yes, that's their only chance but no, it ain't gonna happen.... As they would have well known, unless of course they believed a certain shirtless Australian...

But, to this observer, the funniest bit is that list of names.  because, with the possible exception of Paul Casey (the key word being "possible"), is there anyone on that list that can actually help you win a Ryder Cup?

But the delusions seems deeply ingrained:

“It will be more difficult for them [LIV players] depending on what other sanctions that we impose on them to qualify for the Ryder Cup,” says DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley, noting that his team will be spending the next few weeks accessing exactly what those are. “More importantly, the commitments they have to play in events that are against DP World Tour qualifying events will also make it more difficult for them to qualify.”

Indeed, that is the reality, even as Pelley was noticeably careful to avoid absolutes in his response. Besides, with the certain exception of Pieters—definitely one of Europe’s 12 best golfers—and the possible exception of Wiesberger (a member of the 2021 European team at Whistling Straits) none of the other 10 LIV mercenaries were likely to feature even in more normal times.

“To be honest, the Ryder Cup won’t really be part of the DP World Tour’s dealings with the LIV players,” said Irishman Paul McGinley, three times a Ryder Cup player and a winning captain at Gleneagles in 2014. “Not this year. It’s really too late. Relationships between those who went to LIV and tour loyalists are not going to mend in three or four months. Which is not to say that, technically at least, Luke won’t be allowed to make any decision he wants. He won’t be forced to pick someone or not pick someone. But I also know that, if he did blend LIV players into the team or as part of his back-room squad, a new dynamic would be created, one that would be very difficult to manage. Luke has enough on his hands with the strength of the American team and the changing of our old guard to one largely new, without trying to manage relationships within the camp.”

I guess Pelley hasn't actually removed them as members of his tour, though you'd think that might be the next step.  But this is pretty, what's that word, delusional:

“Nothing will be ruled out, of course,” continued the four-time DP World Tour winner. “If, say, Martin Kaymer was to win two major championships this year, he would have to be considered. Unlike, say, Ian Poulter or Lee Westwood, he hasn’t created a lot of anti-tour noise. He’s a nice guy. If anyone could be blended in, assuming he was also playing unbelievably well, it is him. So, of course, Luke will keep his options open.”

So Keith is keeping a Santa list, and Martin is on  the nice list but Sergio is on the naughty one?  Yeah, I don't think Jay is going to play under this scenario....

Because they gave Luke six picks, the qualification lists are mostly a done deal, it's Jon, Rory, Viktor, Shane, yada, yada, yada:

The action will be limited to those captain's picks, and the chances of him picking a LIVster, even a nice one, approximate the chances of Zach Johnson picking your humble blogger.

The Week Ahead - Dylan Dethier highlights two events of interest in the comin week, first the fallout from Augusta National destroying the Dinah:

1. Major Szn

After a half-century in the Coachella Valley, this week’s Chevron (formerly the Dinah Shore and the ANA) begins a new era in Houston at Carlton Woods. The good news? According to the tournament director it’ll still be safe for the winner to make the jump into the pond adjacent No. 18.

Remind me, what happens when a tree falls in the forest?  I'm guessing that, having been forced by ANGC to sever their ties to actual history, that this will lay quite the huge egg.  

3. LIV Down Undah

LIV Golf’s trek to Australia promises a proper party. This is expected to be a big week for LIV’s in-person experience, having sold plenty of tickets to a golf-starved region that seems ready to get rowdy. How will that translate to TV viewers and international buzz? We’ll see how it goes down this weekend.

They've promised to bring the heat, now they have to actually deliver.... perhaps they'll get TV viewers, but it's hard to conceive that they'll get many here in the U.S.

The Wednesday Game™ takes precedence tomorrow, but I'll see you later in the week.

Weekend Wrap -Low Country Edition

These browser tabs are breeding like rabbits....Shall we put a few out of their misery?

Fitz, Ascendant -  The Netflix stars were all out and on display, well with that one minor exception.  But first, the golf:

Jordan Spieth had his typical flair for the dramatic late Sunday at the RBC Heritage, but ultimately it was Matt Fitzpatrick who prevailed on the third playoff hole after hitting a 9-iron approach inside a foot for a kick-in birdie on the par-4 18th hole at Harbour Town Golf Links.

Fitzpatrick, 28, shot a final-round 68 to end for a 17-under 267 total, then dodged Spieth twice on the first two playoff holes before knocking out the tournament's defending champion. It was Fitzpatrick’s second PGA Tour victory, following his win at the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., last June. He earned $3.6 million for the victory in the tour's latest "designated" event.

For Fitzpatrick, the victory was extra special as he and his family, who often traveled to Hilton Head Island from England when he was a child. He remembers visiting the area as early as age 6, and thought it would be a treat to play where the PGA Tour annually gathers.

“It’s hard to describe,” Fitzpatrick said. “It doesn’t get better than this. Walking down here, looking around, it’s a course I dreamed of playing when I was young. This one means more than anything.”

The fact that Clan Fitzpatrick vacationed in Hilton Head when Matt was six is a nice little story, but they pretty much burned through the human interest factor by, say, Thursday at 4:30 p.m.  It's the same six people watching on Sunday, so enough with it already...

This guy seemed to have it locked down late:

Fitzpatrick trailed Spieth, the 2022 RBC Heritage winner via a playoff over Patrick Cantlay, by

two shots with five holes remaining, but the reigning U.S. Open champ made pars on the par-3 14th when Spieth made bogey, then rattled off birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 to pull even. Fitzpatrick had a chance to take a lead into the final hole but missed a seven-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th.

Spieth, 29, had more than enough chances himself to defend his title. He held the aforementioned two-shot lead but could not closes things out over the final three holes. In fact, he had to make a six-foot par putt on the 18th hole in regulation to move into a playoff. He shot 66-66 on the weekend.

On the first playoff hole, Spieth faced a 12-footer for birdie to win the tournament, the ball hitting the right edge of the cup and did not drop. “I think if I hit the same putt 10 times, it goes in eight times,” Spieth said later.

The winner was no less emotive than Jordan, and a supercut of their melodramatic reactions to the many near-misses could be good fun.  Geoff has a "With the win" update:

• The win is Fitzpatrick’s second on the PGA Tour to go with seven DP World Tour titles.
• He’s also the third Englishman to win a Tour event this year, the most in a single season dating to records beginning in 1983 (Justin Rose and Matt Wallace being the other two).
• Fitzpatrick finished T10 in last week’s Masters.
• The 28-year-old went 63-68 on the weekend.
• The RBC Heritage victory moves Fitzpatrick to the highest ranking of his career from No. 16 to No. 8 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
• He is set to play this week’s two-man team event with his brother Alex.

That last bullet being a bit of a buzz-kill, no?  The Zurich certainly seemed like a welcome break from the week-to-week soul-destroying 72-hole stroke play events, but Heinlein's crazy years are upon us, as Team Fitzpatrick seems the odds-on faves compared to this team:

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans promises to be an entertaining event if only for the fact it’s the PGA Tour’s lone tournament where players join forces, competing in two-man teams alternating in four-ball and foursomes play over four rounds. And some of those 80 teams are, well, rather interesting pairings.

Case in point: Listed in the field this coming week at TPC Louisiana are the duo of David Duval and John Daly. And, no, it’s not a typo.

I've been perplexed as to why the Tour hasn't been calling LIV events exhibitions, but I didn't realize the issue was jealousy.... Hard to deride the other guys when fat old men are in your fields.  What's wrong with these people?

As for the Tor Confidential panel, they remain solidly focused on their limited fixations.  For instance, some of us might want their thoughts on the winner and his future career arc, but they go a different direction:

1. Matt Fitzpatrick denied Jordan Spieth a repeat victory at the RBC Heritage on Sunday, as Fitzpatrick took down Spieth on the third playoff hole after Spieth caught a piece of the cup on both birdie tries earlier in the playoff but couldn’t get either to fall. What’s your takeaway from Sunday at Harbour Town and, despite the loss, what is it about this classic Pete Dye layout that suits Spieth’s eye so well?

What, no Tiger question? Geez, that's highly irregular... 

Josh Sens: We’ve seen Spieth win on all kinds of courses, but Harbour Town is not a place you overpower. There are tons of tight shots, small greens, overhanging trees and crafty little chipping requirements — I’d say that’s a good fit for Spieth’s inventive game.

Dylan Dethier: Matthew Fitzpatrick played incredible golf down the stretch. He birdied 15 and 16 in regulation and stuffed a gutsy iron shot at 17 (even though he missed the putt) — and then hit a series of impressive shots before delivering the knockout blow on the third playoff hole. Spieth played well enough to win the event. But Fitzpatrick actually did it. Massive moment for him, and it was fun to see the thoroughbreds lining up at Harbour Town.

Zephyr Melton: Harbour Town demands you be creative to access some of the tucked pins, and there’s no one with more imagination than Spieth. The more shot-making a course requires, the better-suited Spieth is to perform well.

Guys, a couple of strong finishes doesn't make this Hogan and Riviera....

Other notes include these about last-week's winner:

Jon Rahm had a strange exchange with a reporter asking if he would take the weekend off after making the cut, but gave some thoughtful answers about why he played the Heritage, including this: “I put myself in the shoes of not only the spectators, but the kids as well. If I was one of the kids, I would want to see the recent Masters champion play good or bad, just want to be there.” Rahm joined the CBS broadcast for an hour Sunday and delivered loads of insight into almost every shot shown. Despite running on empty he stayed around longer than most.

 Anyone remember Joltin' Joe?

“The reporter asked, "why did you play so hard."

"Because there might have been somebody in the stands today who'd never seen my play before, and might never see me again"

-Joe DiMaggio”

It's called being a professional.  It's just a little discouraging that it's sop newsworthy....

The TC gang focused elsewhere:

2. One week after his Masters victory, Jon Rahm tied for 15th at the RBC Heritage and then sat for about 20 minutes with Amanda Renner and provided insight and commentary as the action unfolded on the CBS broadcast. What was your favorite learning from Rahm’s sit-down, and is this a repeatable practice for CBS? Or was Rahm’s chat, coming after a major win, a convenient outlier?

Sens: I dug the details he offered right when he came on air and was asked to describe Patrick Cantlay’s chip on 13. The Bob Rosburg caricature of the golf commentator is to make a shot sound impossible (He’s got nothing, Johnny) right before a player knocks it close. But Rahm was quick to share a bunch of observations — tight lie, heel is probably going to be exposed, gonna have to hit it soft — in a clear and concise way that seemed insider-y without being overly technical. He’d be good at the gig if he ever quit his full-time job. And sure, it’s repeatable. These guys aren’t popes or in witness protection. They should make themselves accessible. It improves the product, which is in their interest.

Dethier: Well said, Josh. The walk-and-talks have been fun, but not everybody’s going to be comfortable doing those in crunch time. Rahm putting on the headset immediately delivered as a fun, insightful alternative. He’s an obsessive golfer. Loves it. Plays it better than anybody else at the moment. Thinks about it all the time. And so the best way to get to know him better is to give him a mic a few minutes after he finished up his round and hear him nerd out about golf. He enjoyed it, the CBS team clearly enjoyed it and we enjoyed it as a result. Oh yeah, and he won the Masters last week …

Melton: My colleagues are spot on, here. It’s always great when you can get these guys talking shop, and having Rahm do so in the booth was a big plus. Here’s to hoping more players follow in his footsteps as the season goes on.

Note the level of surprise that he actually had something relevant to say about an upcoming golf shot....  Just nobody tell Faldo.

But what are we to make of this concept of Designated Events when the architect thereof chooses to give it a miss?

5. Following his missed cut at the Masters, Rory McIlroy withdrew from the RBC Heritage and will now lose $3 million in guaranteed bonus cash since it’s the second designated event he’s missed this season. Do you have any issue with McIlroy, a vocal and influential piece of the Tour’s future, skipping this? Or is this the reality golf fans should expect when it comes to the Tour’s evolving designated-events model?

Sens: My general rule in life is that we’re all entitled to a few hypocrisies. And I’m willing to cut McIlroy some slack here. He went through an emotional wringer last week. That said, I do think we’ll see more of this as schedules evolve and it could become a problem if a bunch of players opt to start skipping all at once. It’s hard to come up with effective consequences for guys who can afford to forgo $3 million. That is what is known in everyday parlance as having f-you money, and a lot of the biggest names in the game possess that kind of dough

Melton: I don’t have any issue with him skipping — I know I wouldn’t want to play another event after the mental-drain that is the Masters — but I do find it odd. McIlroy was leading the charge on the new PGA Tour model, and to see him be the first to skip two events is strange. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but the optics aren’t the best.

Dethier: I’m with Zeph — It’s pretty strange. I’m eager to hear McIlroy’s explanation and will reserve judgment until then, but here’s the thing: He knows he’ll get roundly criticized for this. He knows it’s a bad look. He knows what other guys on Tour will say. He knows there could be significant financial consequences. He knows he’s been beating this drum for a year. And he skipped it anyway. That means something. We just won’t know exactly what until we hear from McIlroy himself.

Forget the hypocrisy, it's the stupidity that is always fatal....  

Seriously, a designated event the week after the Masters?  This event has always worked in a limited, low-expectations manner, in which those who deign to play the week after can do so in a low-key manner without much travel or demands.  So, yeah. let's turn this into something demanding and really burn these guys out... Which, connecting dots, is why we get John Daly next week, because so many of the top players have nothing left in the tank.

But this isn't the worst of it, as in June they'll need to fly 3,000 miles after the conclusion of the U.S. Open to get to Hartford for that Designated Event.  We can only hope that Rory will again be able to begin his journey on Friday.

Cantlay, Tumescent - I'll admit that it's a bit unseemly to jump on Patrick Cantlay and blame him for all the ills of the world.  But, on the flip side, it makes for easy blogging and, this seemingly being the most important bit, he's Patrick Cantlay.

For your humble blogger, I keep going back to this Alan Shipnuck bit:

Conventional wisdom says LIV took all of the Tour’s villains, but is Cantlay a candidate for that role? There’s rumors he’s been total pain in these top player meetings, and he seems to want to get paid while having zero interest in being entertaining. What say you? #AskAlan@cpfolds

A Tour player who has dealt with Cantlay on some governance issues recently described him to me as a “terrific penis.” I was slightly baffled until another person in the conversation said, “That means he’s a big dick.” I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. Cantlay can certainly be smug and smarmy, which is a good starting point for villainy. So is a Goldman Sachs hat. But Cantlay is so corporate and controlled that I don’t think he’ll ever lean into the role like an Ian Poulter or a Patrick Reed, which is a shame because, as you point out, there are way too many nice, normal, boring dudes on the PGA Tour.

 Alan, in a new mailbag, takes on man Masters queries, including this one:

#AskAlan Koepka won’t call him out, but did Patrick Cantlay and his atrocious pace of play cause Brooks a shot at the jacket? Not saying Brooks would have won but gotta think the multiple waits didn’t allow a quick player to find his groove. @EddieK619

One of the pleasures of this Masters was that it united all the warring tribes of Golf Twitter into an unusual consensus: everyone hates Patrick Cantlay. At Hilton Head this week, Cantlay offered a defense of his slow play, blaming the course, the greens, the wind, major championship pressure…basically everything but Patrick Cantlay his own self, which is obviously part of the problem here. But Rahm was playing alongside Koepka and he didn’t let the ordeal derail his concentration. Unfortunately, Cantlay is right, in that slow play is now just part of championship golf, so if you want to prevail you have to learn to overcome it.

Yes, but Cantlay also said that they waited on the 2nd tee at Augusta just as the Rahm-Koepka group behind them did, but no one seems able or willing to confirm that.  It seems a pretty simple question, was that Cantlay-Hovland group o the heels of the game ahead of them, or was there a gap?

The TC gang also kind of ducks that issue:

4. The penultimate pairing of Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland was criticized for their pace of play in the final round of the Masters — by both Brooks Koepka and Twitter — and Cantlay defended himself by saying it was slow for everyone. Fast-forward to Sunday at the RBC Heritage, and CBS on-course reporter Dottie Pepper said Spieth and Fitzpatrick were visibly frustrated with how long it took Cantlay to play a tricky shot inside a penalty area on the 14th green. Is it overrated or underrated how much incidents like this actually affect your playing partners?

Sens: I think it’s pretty well established that slow play drives a lot of people crazy. What’s interesting to me is how many people defend slow play on Tour by emphasizing how important every shot is, how much money is at stake and yada-yada. That’s tedious. And dubious. I question the assumption that grinding like that actually improves performance. I suspect almost everyone would play a little better if they played a little faster, even the pros.

Dethier: Let’s break this down: Patrick Cantlay has a deliberate pre-shot routine and stands over the ball for a while before he hits, which annoys TV viewers when they’re shown the whole thing. I totally get that. But why would he change? To appease viewers complaining on Twitter? Cantlay doesn’t use Twitter. To speed up play? There are so many other slow players that he’s hardly a significant cause; look at the Masters, where his group was slow, but the groups in front of him were slow, too! To avoid penalty? Nobody ever gets penalized for slow play. I imagine he’ll work on getting a little faster — the more he’s in contention, the more he’ll get heat for this, and he’s a self-aware guy — but Cantlay’s not particularly focused on winning golf’s popularity contest, so there’s really very little incentive to change.

Also, I’d love to see more data on slow play and per-player numbers and see how everybody stacks up.

Melton: Look, these guys are professionals — it’s their job to block out the noise and perform in any number of circumstances. It might be frustrating, but the great ones persevere through far worse adversity.

Your humble blogger isn't noted for being fair under such circumstances, but I do feel that some sort of exception is appropriate for this:

OK, but many took Patrick to task, including Geoff:

Patrick Cantlay pushed back at Brooks Koepka’s suggestion he was the Masters Sunday slow play culprit. “We waited all day on pretty much every shot. We waited on 15 fairway, we waited on 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.” Cantlay went on to blame the wind, difficult greens and hole locations for players taking so much time. The new anti-rollbacker left out any mention of the walks back to tees or players waiting for par-5 greens to clear. Or that he takes two minutes to hit a simple putt.

Cantlay took two minutes and fifty seconds to play a shot off the 14th hole railroad ties Sunday, hardly helping erase memories of the Masters mess.

Geoff throws this in as well:

Pacing and rubbing his face suggested Spieth was less-than-enthralled by Patrick’s conundrum and the time taken.

OK, but I'm guessing that the terrific penis doesn't have much call to practice that shot, so I have trouble being too critical.  And I give him bonus points for actually trying to win the damn tourney...

Anyone but me remember JB Holmes in the 18th fairway at Torrey?  Needed eagle to get in a playoff and took a lifetime before deciding to lay-up, because winning is over-rated...

Mail, Dissected - Need to make some haste, so a Masters-themed Shipnuck mailbag works for me.

I used to dislike Jon Rahm because he couldn’t control his temper and he’d blow up. That’s changed. Different guy now. What happened? @gwgmtweets

He grew up, and into a golfing gentleman who oozes class and even a certain regal vibe. Rahm is only 28, but he already feels like an elder statesman. He is remarkably eloquent and deep…in his second language. Golf is very lucky to have him as an ambassador.

His arguments against LIV are also quite admirable, especially considering that he can hold such opinions yet remain friends with Phil.  And, not least of all, he taught a whole generation the meaning of "fealty".

Speaking of which....

Should we expect Phil to actually compete in LIV events now or was this just another flash in the pan like the 2021 PGA? @VeryAvgDad

One school of thought on Mickelson’s resurgence at Augusta is that he finally arrived at a tournament that inspires him to care. That ain’t it. I’ve observed Phil at numerous LIV events, and he has never worked harder. Certainly his new level of fitness shows that as well. He has struggled on LIV not because he doesn’t care but for the opposite reason: He’s getting in his own way. I think this Masters performance will free him up and unlock some good golf.

I suspect it's not the caring bit, but since the days of Hogan this course has allowed older golfer to inexplicably post low numbers.  I just don't think it travels....

Does success at the Masters change our tune on guys like Phil and Brooks? For Phil specifically, does this allow us to forgive and forget? They say winning solves most problems, and this sure felt like a win for Phil. @StueyStats

It’s always hard to write about Mickelson without invoking Tiger Woods. Consider what Tiger has put the game (and his family) through over the last 13 years with scandal and self- destructive behavior, but ever since he won the 2019 Masters he has never been more beloved. What has Phil been guilty of? Greed, sure, but that’s most golfers these days. Sneakiness, bad judgment, hubris…yes, but again, none of these things compare to Tiger’s indiscretions. It will always be a thrill to see Phil in full flight, as he was on the back nine at Augusta National. He remains a transcendent talent and consummate performer. Judging by the roars that followed him on Sunday, I think fans are ready to embrace him again.

I just think Alan is barking up the wrong tree here.  Yes, Tiger's indiscretions might have been worse to Elin, but were essentially none of our concern.

Phil took it upon himself to try to destroy the PGA Tour without the consent of his peers.  I would hope that's not easily forgotten....

Fortunately golf remains a walking game:

How good would TW be if he asked for an accommodation and took a cart for majors? #AskAlan @garyrind

This is suddenly golf’s most tantalizing hypothetical. It does seem like Tiger is still effective at delivering the clubface to the back of the ball, despite his many physical restrictions. He has shown flashes of his old brilliance with his short game and putting. He has impressive clubhead speed with the driver. But I’m not sure I buy Woods’s contention that he is the same golfer and the rigors of walking hilly courses is the only thing holding him back. He hit a ton of loose shots at the Masters before withdrawing. In the first round, when the weather was perfect and Woods was at his freshest, he made five bogeys and shot 74 on a soft course in easy conditions. Even before mangling his right leg in the 2021 car crash, Woods had an injury history that included a fused spine, a rebuilt knee, a frayed Achilles, a ruptured ACL and various other dings. Now, how much can he prepare for the rigors of tournament golf, even at home in a cart? If he could ride instead of walk, maybe Woods would play eight to 10 tournaments a year instead of four to five, but would that be enough to get/remain sharp and tangle with young, hungry, confident, fully optimized megatalents? Woods in a cart would surely be a more dangerous player but I think only occasionally.

Yeah, he was damaged goods before the auto accident, so that smells about right.  

I'm sorry, does Alan come from Vienna?  Otherwise I don't recognize his qualifications on this subject:

How do you assess Rory’s game after another missed cut at a major? It seems like mentally he’s still in a good place, even if his game isn’t. @tj_snell

I’m not sure the physical or mental aspect is particularly strong right now, given that McIlroy also missed the cut at the Players. He hit a lot of hooks off the tee at Augusta National, which is always a warning sign. And his utter capitulation was dispiriting in the extreme. Rory will find it again, but this Masters left a bruise.

As evidenced by the fact that, even with a couple of extra days to nurse his bruised ego, he couldn't get his ass to Hilton Head.

This one Alan had out of order, but belongs here:

#AskAlan Is it fair to say that Rory might not win another major? Crazy to think both Tiger and Phil have won one since Rory’s last. @Dannykowalski22

It’s a crazy thought…but fair. He has played at an exceptionally high level over the last nine years but obviously has a mental block in the majors. The tougher, more exacting setups in the majors also expose McIlroy’s weakness: He’s 172nd in strokes gained putting and 185th in proximity on approaches from 125 to 150 yards. You would think a major will just fall into his lap at some point, but it refuses to happen. Only a handful of players in golf history have gone 10 years or more between major championship victories. McIlroy better hustle.

Why is it crazy when he hasn't won one in almost ten years?  I had a more negative reaction to that final round on the Old Course than many, but I've been saying for some time that, the more he wants it, the worse Rory plays, see Royal Portrush as an example.  I just can't see him ever bagging his Masters, not perhaps another major.

Why won’t ANGC enforce pace of play rules unless it’s a 14-year-old Asian kid? @M_Sand09

It goes back to the weird vibe of the Masters, in which the green jackets have absolute power and everyone else is an invited guest. Tournament officials have an almost patronizing attitude toward the players, and penalizing them is considered bad manners. That’s how Tiger escaped a DQ in 2013, Ernie Els got a free drop in the middle of a forest, Rory was allowed to skate on testing the sand and Brooks didn’t get a penalty this year despite very damning video evidence. The green jackets simply don’t want to put a damper on their party. The penalty given to 14-year-old Guan Tianlang in 2013 was handed out by John Paramor, the famously imperious European Tour referee who was out there freelancing, much to the chagrin of Masters officials.

 Nobody enforces pace of play, so why are we always expecting this one club to clean up our messes?

This is pretty rich though:

Is OWGR officially outdated for the majors? @ChuckNorris1369

Well, a four-time major championship winner who had won two of his last six starts came in ranked 118th in the world so, yeah, the exclusion of LIV players is looking increasingly silly. There was already pressure on the OWGR to find a solution to rank every player, which is part of its mission statement. After this Masters, that feels like a mandate.

And who were those starts against?  

What does this Masters do to the civil war in golf? (Feels to me like maybe it mellows the feud out a bit, but what do I know.) @PeteViles

I think you’re right. The good cheer and even camaraderie between most LIV golfers and Tour loyalists was a welcome development after the bitchiness of last year. The strong play of the LIV crew earned them some grudging respect, and from the beginning, Rahm has been a conciliatory voice calling for compromise. His victory gives him an even bigger platform. So all in all, it was a good week for those who hope to see the game get put back together again.

I think that's mostly right, but can someone please tell me what they think this compromise looks like.... 

Cameron Young — future #1? @frazerrice

Well, he should probably win a tournament first: The dude is oh-fer-38! Young has a spectacular long game but ranks 183rd in strokes gained putting, which would explain his inability to win. I think he will have a long, successful career, but the putting will have to improve if Young is ever going to sniff No. 1.

Yeah, he's also seemed to me a bit mistake-prone late in these events, but it also may be that he needs that putter to bail him out of such circumstances.

#AskAlan Is Viktor Hovland the most overrated player in golf? It feels like he receives an outsized amount of attention compared to what he’s accomplished, which is relatively little. @the_agrippa

Well, he’s a delightful human and a great looking guy who wears clothes very well, no matter how gaudy they might be. So he brings a certain star quality beyond the results. At 25, Hovland has three PGA Tour wins at B-list events plus two quality victories in Europe and two dubs at Tiger’s Hero Challenge, which features a strong, albeit small, field. So he’s off to a good start! I wouldn’t call him a star, just a very good player. Hovland has now contended in his last two major championships, which is obviously encouraging. I don’t think he’s overrated but perhaps a tiny bit overhyped. Some strong wins will fix that.

He's also a seemingly engaging personality, but he was certainly over-rated by the OWGR after those weak W's.  But no one wears this shirt well:

A couple of inside baseball bits:

Did the Masters brief the press on being respectful as to asking questions about LIV vs. PGA Tour? @JStewGolf

No, nothing like that. But a rotating cast of Augusta National members serve as moderators for the press conferences, and I believe a couple go out of their way not to call on me no matter how vigorously I wave my hand. That’s a more subtle way of accomplishing what you’re asking about.

#askalan. Someone said on air that after the win Rahm would have dinner with the members. I’ve never heard this. Do they have a meet-and-greet buffet, or what? @SusanSSL

Yes, it’s a quaint tradition for the champ and his family to dine with the membership in a special pavilion next to the clubhouse built just for the occasion. When Zach Johnson won in ’07 I followed him into the dinner and it was quite a sight to see 100 or more green jackets. Unlike the Tuesday night Champions Dinner, the club handles the menu (lobster macaroni and cheese is a perennial favorite) and covers the cost. But after his breakthrough win in 2004, Mickelson pulled aside then chairman Hootie Johnson. “He was so overjoyed to have won he really wanted to celebrate,” says Phil’s wife, Amy, “so he tells Hootie, ‘Go deep in the wine cellar and pull out your best stuff.’” Augusta National’s cellar is legendary and has been widely described as among the best in the world. A particular favorite among the green jackets is Château Lafite Rothschild, a Bordeaux of which some vintages can retail for up to $15,000 a bottle. “Phil got pulled away, and after he was gone I heard Hootie say to another club official, ‘Do be sure that Mr. Mickelson is presented the bill for the wine.’”

 I agree here, but for different reasons:

#AskAlan Mickelson, McIlroy, Speith… Who wins the Grand Slam first? I think Spieth. He’s playing great, and the PGA is the easiest to win. @LaBeets50

I agree with your line of thinking, but Oak Hill is a tight, brawny, penal old-school design that seems ill-suited to Jordan’s erratic play. Meanwhile, LACC is a non-traditional U.S. Open venue that will reward iron play and a creative short game, two of Mickelson’s strengths. So Phil has an advantage in the short-term, but if he doesn’t pull another rabbit out of the hat this year I think Spieth is the answer, because Rory’s Augusta jinx appears to be metastasizing.

I'm gonna go with Jordan as well, but mostly because I've completely written off those other two.

You are Greg Norman for a moment: Are you happy or devastated about what happened at the Masters?#askalan @RealTurtleBR

If I’m Greg Norman for a moment, I’m definitely going grocery shopping in bicycle shorts, which I don’t normally do. Per the Masters, he has to be elated as the strong showing of the LIV players gives the circuit a needed shot of credibility. But Norman also has to be wistful of what could have been because Koepka winning would have been a monumental marketing opportunity for LIV. On the whole, they’ll take it.

The question is profoundly silly, because of course it was a home run.  There's two interesting questions that could have been answered, the least interesting being what would they have preferred, Koepka winning or having the three in the top six?  Obviously the former, but having three guys finish so high might actually be the more substantive feat.

That said, does it change any of the facts on the ground?  I'm still thinking that's a no....

Must run.  I've still got those browser tabs that refuse to close themselves, so we'll meet up down the road....