Old Guys Backstop Too! Will Henrik Do This In A Ryder Cup Match?

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There is a much undermining interest in Shanghai's WGC event. The limited field, slow play, mediocre architecture and even $43,000 in purse pay for guys who get DQ'd. The cherry on the Sunday sundae came with some veteran backstopping, that confirmed this PGA Tour "product" was more exhibition than a serious event.

And while I don't want to pick on Stenson for slow play given the overall pace of the rounds, he did take a robust minute and 48 seconds in the ninth fairway Sunday. This happened after waiting on the group in front of himself, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.  (The fast-playing DJ leaned hard on his club the entire time).

The pacing was interesting given Stenson's views earlier in the week suggesting the Shot Clock Masters won't have much impact due to pro golfers playing ready golf.

But it was Stenson's generous move to leave a wedge shot by the hole as a backstop, even though both Johnson and Koepka faced plugged bunker lies (and boy do they sure play fast when given a backstop!).

Even though the two players were two strokes ahead of Stenson on the leaderboard, Stenson did not feel obliged to protect the field or his own welfare, prompting a fun set of comments from Golf Channel's Phil Blackmar about how the game has changed. The backstopping:

 

 

Thought: there is a better than decent chance Johnson and Koepka could play Stenson and eventual HSBC Champions winner Justin Rose in next year's Ryder Cup. I wonder if Stenson would leave his ball down as a backstop then? If so, then the game really has changed!

What Could Go Wrong Files: HSBC's Latest Photo Stunt Kicks Off WGC In Bizarro Fashion

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Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson and Hao Tong Li spooked Hideki Matsuyama on the eve of the 2017 WGC-HSBC Champions tournament. The bizarro rollout continues a long HSBC tradition of making golfers look sill all in the name of tournament promotion. 

It worked!

GolfChannel.com has a nice slideshow of previous oddball tournament kickoffs, and you'll notice most are for HSBC events.

 

Korean Press Greets Commissioner With Some Tough Questions

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With the inaugural CJ Cup at Nine Bridges over and another nine playings on the docket, Commissioner Jay Monahan and tour EVP of Global Business Affairs Ty Votaw traveled to Korea. They kindly sat down with the assembled media before Sunday's final round and took some interesting questions.

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

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

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

Wait what? Uh, I'm chalking "emergency screening technology" up to a translation gaffe. Go on...

As you look out into the future, the reason that we are putting so much resource into key international markets is so that we are prepared when an opportunity presents itself to expand to be in the right position. But to say something is imminent would be a miscalculation and a mistake at this point.

We'll put them down for no further Asian expansion at this time.

Q: Are you surprised to see only a few foreign press covering the event, given that this event is quite significant? Why do you think that there aren’t many global press covering this event here?
Ty Votaw: There is no question that we are very excited about the opportunity to be here, first time being an official event. The media landscape in all countries is changing and as you know, the golf media in the US is also changing with decreased budgets and decreased stabilities to cover even some domestic events in the US. We now have opportunities with other platforms and other areas.
Opportunities!
I know that our own platforms are here covering extensively for the US and for other countries around the world. I will say that, much like the reactions of our players, when they go home and talk to other players about their experience here, I think you will see over the next 10 years when we are coming to South Korea and to Jeju for this event that a broader swath of media coverage will follow.
Actually, probably not.
Q: The Korean fans are grateful that Sang-moon Bae and Seung-yul Noh were given exemptions, given their situation with the national service, and that PGA has shown a lot of respect for the Korean golf. However, given that is a Tier 1 tournament with a decent sum of prize money, don’t you think that we are missing a lot of the top-class players? For example, Hideki Matsuyama and Ernie Els pulling out and not many players from the top 20?
Ty Votaw:As I mentioned earlier, I think that the experiences of the players who are here this week, when they take those stories and those experiences back with them to the PGA tour it’s going to be very positive story that they are going to be telling. As any PGA tour event on our schedule, our players choose their schedules according to what fits their specific need and their specific goals and desires. Certainly, we have added a third event in Asia this year and there has been a significant support of all three events by the top players but, perhaps not all three events by the top players.
Uh, no way.
I think what you are going to see is, the ability for players to evaluate what their experience was this week and last week in CIMB and in HSBC, and they will set their schedules accordingly. I think we are very pleased with the feel that we have this week, as commissioner mentioned earlier, our ability to have our Fedex Cup champion, our rookie of the year, former number ones Jason Day and Adam Scott plus all the other great players who are on the field this week. It’s a great start to a long term commitment by CJ and I think we will continue to do everything we can to make sure that our players support these important sponsorships.
All fair points, but it's hard to read this and wonder about the impact on up to four sponsor-less U.S. stops and many other domestic events get poor fields because players may now skip those for $9.2 million purses in Asia.
Q: I think there are a few things that can be improved in the future. The tournament is over at 3pm and it seems to feel a bit loose and it’s difficult for the gallery. Would it be possible to increase the field?
Monahan: This is just the first of our ten-plus years here. One of the things we knew going into this week was that we're going to do our very best to execute a world-class THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES, but when we left at Sunday night there’ll be a number of things we could learn from over the course of the week, and our constant pursuit to improve and get better and do the best we can in South Korea.
That’s exactly what will happen. We’ll look at every facet of the tournament. We'll make significant improvements in any facet of this event. We're not done yet. This tournament will be finalized in the next several hours but I would say that at this point on Sunday, what has happened on the grounds here, the response that we received, the things we learned from the fans here, we’re really pleased with where we are.
First on tap, ordering extra satellite time!

JT Wins The First CJ Cup In Playoff Interrupted By Expired Feed

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First, the good news. Justin Thomas won the inaugural CJ Cup in a playoff over Marc Leishman to cap off a breakthrough season (Will Gray's report here). Wait, no, to kick off the new season. Either way, he's very pleased to be shutting down for a while to enjoy a well-earned vacation.

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

The highlights:

 

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

A statement from Golf Channel:

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

Video: Thomas Shows How Today's Pros Can Handle Stymies

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Every time we talk stymies in a pro match play so many of you are concerned about the agronomic impact, but as Justin Thomas demonstrated at the inaugural CJ Cup in Korea, a dreadful skeech mark was no obstacle!

@justinthomas34 can do it all.

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Colonial Likely Searching For A Sponsor Again...

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Mac Engel reports for the Star-Telegram on a likely early departure for Dean & DeLuca after two years sponsoring the historic Colonial. The food company has four years left on its contract.

Engel obtained a letter to members signed by club president Rob Doby.

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

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

A PGA Tour statement said the Dean & DeLuca is still the sponsor as far as they are concerned but that they are in conversations.

Engel shares several other interesting details, including this:

The PGA wants a little more than $11 million per year from a sponsor for this event, which, per multiple sources, effectively eliminates several companies from landing Colonial. The price tag is roughly $3 million too rich for many companies.

Losing a sponsorship here leaves two Texas stops searching for a sponsor as the 2017-18 schedule is already underway. The Houston Open has yet to secure a sponsor after Shell ended their long run.

Change Of Policy? Grayson Murray Tantrum Shared On PGA Tour Social

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Unlike other sports leagues the PGA Tour has resisted sharing absurd athlete behavior for obvious reasons: theirs is a business built on players behaving like gentleman.

So whether this is a change in policy or just a share because it involves the troublesome Grayson Murray or was simply the posting of a bored overnight shift stuck trying to find the CIMB Classic, is yet to be determined.

But the post was a nice tie-in to the baseball playoffs...not so nice for the green where Grayson dug in his shoe soles:

If the @yankees, @astrosbaseball, @cubs or @dodgers need another arm in the bullpen...

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The National Going Ahead In DC, Sponsor Or Not

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Doug Ferguson's extensive AP notes column this week confirms the PGA Tour will return to Washington DC in 2018, but still not at Congressional as planned contractually.

According to PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, the move to exit that deal was designed to help leave negotiating flexibility.

Why opt out with such certainty of playing in 2018? Monahan said there is no guarantee the National will be played in 2019 and beyond. Being tied to a golf course - even one as storied as Congressional - might limit any negotiations.

''Let's say we didn't renew with Quicken and there was another sponsor and they had a different objective. They wanted to be at a different golf course, a different part of town. They wanted to do something different,'' Monahan said. ''You can't be wed to one golf course that might limit your ability to get a deal done.''

The tournament remains in contact with Quicken Loans, and there are conversations with other potential sponsors.

The Woods Foundation is still expected to be involved.

Wraparound Absurdity: Web.com Tour Finals Spill Into Monday, Graduates Expected In Napa Thursday

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Just a reminder: it was retired PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem's vision to save four fall events, turn those into the start of the next season in the "wraparound" season concept. It's looking more ridiculous by the day as Web.com Tour Finals grads who have been grinding the last two months  need to turn around and tee up in Thursday's 2017-18 PGA Tour season starter in Napa Valley.

And now with a rain-delayed Monday finish, they have two days to prepare for the start of their PGA Tour season. Oh and a status reshuffle looms after Sea Island.

Visionary!