Don't Try This At Home Files: Chris Wood Edition
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He got some speed alright! Props to Chris Wood for posting this, not every golf pro would.
When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
"Brooks Koepka's obvious dislike of Bryson DeChambeau is so great for golf"
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That’s the question Andy Nesbit poses at For The Win and while I’m not sure I share his enthusiasm, we know the bro-buddy-backstopping-backslapping ways of pro golf are not as fun as an edgy rivalry.
Regarding the mostly vanquished-from-the-web aborted first take of Koepka showing disdain for DeChambeau, Nesbit writes:
This feud and that hatred is so great for golf.
Koepka and DeChambeau or two of the best golfers in the world and a personal rivalry like this can only make things more interesting when they find themselves battling down the stretch of a tournament, which could happen any week the two are in the field.
The PGA Tour can be a very vanilla place where lots of guys are happy for a top 20 finish and the six- to seven-figure payout that comes with that. There are lots of smiles, waves to the crowd after a nice shot or a big putt, and aw shucks reactions to big moments.
What the Tour lacks is any real disdain felt between some players that leads to some epic Sunday showdowns and cause casual fans to sit down and tune in.
As for outrage over the Live From interview getting taken down by NBC on various platforms, you can’t blame the network. After all, the clip never aired and is a poor reflection on an operation demoralized by labor and budget cuts. So it’s perfectly logical they would want it removed and not ever making the Golf Today rundown.
The channel replied to my request for comment about how the clip got out: a spokesperson said the channel is “investigating” how the tape was leaked.
PIP Move: Bryson Responds (In An Instagram Comment!?)
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I’ll just say it: this PIP race is way more exciting than the FedExCup.
Though I must question Bryson DeChambeau’s use of a comment section at the expense of some key Meltwater mentions. Hogan would never have made such a PIP mistake.
8.9 million views and growing. Major Google search points accumulating for Brooks!
"As you gain experience, you lose innocence"
/Padraig Harrington’s comments yesterday understandably got a lot of attention since we don’t usually hear profound lines from golfers. A couple of Quad subscribers emailed wanting to see the full context after it ran in yesterday’s newsletters, so here is the Ryder Cup captain’s full answer:
Q. You just talked about Kiawah being a good test and you won the World Cup there in '97 with McGinley, but he didn't mention this is your 21st PGA Championship. How much is the accumulation of all this experience you've got and also the experience of playing Kiawah, how comfortable will it make you feel this week?
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Yeah, look, people often ask in a general term about experience. Well, as you gain experience, you lose innocence. I suppose if you drew a graph, there's a crossing point of equilibrium where you have some experience and a certain amount of innocence and enthusiasm. As you get a little bit older and you get all this experience, on paper people might think you get better with experience, but as I said, you've seen a few things that you know in your game that you probably never wanted to see, so you kind of lose that little bit of, I suppose, innocence.It's not everything it's cracked up to be to have experience. I know I've played 21 times in the PGA, and to be honest, when you come to a great golf course like this and you look back, you realize how many different types of tests we've had at the PGA over the years.
I think when I first came out the PGA was considerably played on probably a pretty typical U.S. golf course, U.S.style golf course. But we've played a great variety now over the years, and it's really matured as a major championship from what I would have had an image of it in the '80s. It really is sitting up there now giving us a good variety of tests. You never know what you're going to get from year to year in terms of style of golf course, and it's -- as all the majors, they're putting it up to each, it's upped its game, it's improved its standing, and coming to places like this for a week where this is going to be a great championship, there's going to be plenty of excitement on this golf course, and whoever wins this week will be a worthy winner.
AT&T Byron Nelson: Spieth Speaks Of COVID Bout, Time Off
/Hey we have Jordan Spieth in the interview room today, tell us whatcha been up to…
HALEY PETERSON: We would like to welcome Jordan Spieth to the interview here at the AT&T Byron Nelson. You're making your 16th start here with six top-10s already, including three consecutive, and this is your first tournament back since the Masters. Tell me how your game has been feeling with a little bit of time off from tournament play.
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I'm not exactly sure yet. I took kind of a week off, and then I ended up, actually, getting COVID, so then I was out for a little while. And then so I'm just kind of starting to get it back the last week or so and kind of get back on track. And so I've only played a couple rounds and so I'm looking to kind of maybe knock a little rust off that I didn't think would necessarily be here. But, yeah, I feel good. I feel strong. I feel ready to go for a good stretch of golf coming up.
HALEY PETERSON: First time the tournament's been held here at TPC Craig Ranch. But being a Dallas native how familiar are you with this golf course.
I need to look through some record books, but I believe that could be in the running for all-time great moderator-induced rally killers.
JORDAN SPIETH: Not as familiar as most in the area. I played Q-School here and I think I played one or two junior tournaments and that's about it. I played last Wednesday, just came out and played with my dad and my agent and just to kind of check it out. I mean, I obviously knew all the shapes of the holes and stuff like that, but it had been really nine years since playing in a tournament. So it's in great shape. The greens are beautiful. They're rolling way quicker today than they were last Wednesday, as you would expect it. And then it looks like, as bad as the weather is yesterday and today, we're going to get a really good four days for the tournament, which is not always, it's a little rare in the springtime to get four good ones. So hopefully this course should drain better than just about any in town and that should make it pretty, get pretty kind of -- it will change from Thursday to Sunday quite a bit.
HALEY PETERSON: We'll open it up to questions.
Always a good idea.
Q. Are you a hundred percent?
JORDAN SPIETH: Yeah, I feel good. I've been able to do everything I can normally do the last week or so.
Good to hear he’s well.
For those looking to see how well he knows this week’s venue, the rest of the transcript is here.
World No. 1 Johnson WD's From Byron Nelson Citing Knee Discomfort
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Maybe the most unusual thing about the news of World No. 1 Dustin Johnson WD’ing from this week’s AT&T Byron Nelson: the announcement was made by the PGA Tour.
With PIP dynamics and Johnson as a prime target of Golf Saudi for its Super Golf League, you have to wonder if this was a way to prevent Johnson from accruing points on the back of a WD? PIP watchers must know!
Gosh what a lame program.
Anyway, this was probably just the Tour wanting to help an injured player save time by doing the statement-issuing instead of a traditional social media announcement. Right?
His WD leaves the event with three top 10 players in the field before next week’s PGA Championship.
Bryson's Team Expanding To A Robot
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Swing instructors now have to be around for four days folding their arms, looking like some mix of tense, bored, constipated, annoyed to be repeating the same things and wondering if they’re charging enough to babysit. But it sounds like Bryson DeChambeau might be making the first step toward a little R2D2 in his life (C3PO talks too much).
Q. Rory was telling us earlier that he's trying to commit to playing one shape off the tee. As one who's really into the numbers, do you have one shot you try to play all the time or do you try to work it?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I try to play a draw but it doesn't always work out. Sometimes I get the high right ball and then the snap left. I've got to work on keeping it consistent. We're doing some interesting research at high ball speeds. There's some stuff that's not lining up with what we know currently right now and it takes a robot to be able to see what's going on. So we're going to be doing research over the next few months to figure out how to get it to go straight at high ball speeds. It's just not known right now.
After returning from Dallas for the Wells Fargo Championship weekend after thinking he’d missed the cut, DeChambeau posted a final round 68 to finish T9.
R&A Remembers Seve, New Book Celebrates His Life For A Good Cause
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The R&A celebrated the life of Seve Ballesteros on the 10th anniversary of his passing, announcing a new David Cannon book with some proceeds going to brain cancer research. The occasion also brought word of a new documentary in the works.
This unbylined story at the R&A’s site offered a nice summation of his life and chance for a new generation to see a few key moments in Seve’s career.
Bill Fields filed these memories of his and peers at his newsletter, The Albatross.
Details below:
10 YEARS ON: THE R&A CELEBRATES THE LIFE OF SEVE BALLESTEROS
5 May 2021, St Andrews, Scotland: The R&A will celebrate the life of the great Severiano Ballesteros with a trio of unique tributes to the three-time Champion Golfer on the 10-year anniversary of his passing.
Seve, one of the greatest sportsmen of his generation, passed away on 7 May 2011 aged just 54, following a battle with cancer having been diagnosed with a brain tumour two years earlier.
The tributes include the production of a feature-length documentary film, the publication of a stunning photobook by renowned sports photographer David Cannon and an 18-month exhibition at the British Golf Museum in St Andrews, the Home of Golf.
Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said, “Seve always was the supreme showman and he played a huge part in deepening my love of golf. I hope that fans will truly enjoy these wonderful tributes that tell the story of this charismatic, flamboyant and inspirational golfer who is without doubt one of the greatest of all time.
“As we approach a special milestone in the history of The Open and reflect back over its many unique moments, Seve’s iconic and joyful celebration after holing the putt on the 18th green at St Andrews in 1984 is one memory that always sticks out in my mind. Sadly, he was taken from us too young and we must settle for the memories. But what glorious memories they are.”
The R&A is working with ZigZag Productions, Egoli Media and North Ridge Films to create ‘Seve’, a documentary film which will premiere in autumn of this year.
It will profile Ballesteros’ remarkable life on and off the course, from its humble beginnings in Cantabria, Spain, where, as a young boy, he learned to play golf on its beaches, through to realising his dream and become one of the most decorated and celebrated golfers in the history of the sport.
The landmark documentary will feature contributions from his family, including his children Javier, Miguel and Carmen Ballesteros, and fellow sporting heroes, including close friend José María Olazábal, Sir Nick Faldo, Gary Player and Colin Montgomerie.
Javier Ballesteros, Seve’s son, said, “My dad considered his winning moment at St Andrews the crowning achievement of a very special sporting career filled with tour wins, Major Championship victories and Ryder Cup triumphs, which makes it very fitting that we have been able to work with The R&A on these special tributes.
“For me, Miguel and Carmen, he was an even better father than he was a golfer which tells you everything about him as a man. We would like to thank our dad’s fans for all the passionate and continuous support throughout the years. It means so much to all of us that his legend lives on.”
The R&A and the European Tour have also supported the publication of a stunning new book “Seve: His Life through the Lens” which has been compiled by renowned sports photographer David Cannon of Getty Images and published by Vision Sports Publishing.
As well as photographs from Cannon’s portfolio and the archives of Getty Images, the book features many of the finest action images and portraits captured by other prominent golf photographers. The book is now available to purchase at TheOpen.com/Shop.
An exhibition celebrating the life of Seve will launch when the British Golf Museum in St Andrews is re-opened after refurbishment later this year. It will run for 18 months and visitors to the Home of Golf will enjoy a unique collection dedicated to his greatest achievements in golf, including winning The Open on three occasions in 1979, 1984 and 1988.
A series of content dedicated to celebrating his life will also be published on RandA.org and TheOpen.com and The Open’s and R&A social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
A share of the proceeds from these tributes will be donated to the Seve Ballesteros Foundation to support the important work that it does to introduce young people to golf and encouraging their development and for vital scientific research that is used for the treatment of brain cancer.
The Gooch Precedent: Tour Player Pays Back Bettors Who Lost On His Missed Cut
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Engagement! Impact! Precedent?
It’s quite a wild ride seeing Talor Gooch’s back and forth with a heckler and several bettors after missing the Valspar cut.
Golf.com’s Nick Piastowski compiled the various exchanges and Venmo evidence of Gooch paying bettors off. Gooch even sent money to a fan who wanted help with his Chipotle AND threw in extra money for guac.
Gooch stressed he was not trying to goose his Player Impact Program score, not that we’d know based on the once-secret program’s structure.
I doubt we’ll see this kind of response continue on a regular basis. But with golfers potentially vulnerable to heckling in ways other athletes are not, Gooch has established an intriguing betting precedent.
Just a hunch, but I could see a range or locker room conversation where an Oxford-shirt wearing VP says something to the effect of…
Talor, boy that was nice PIP engagement last week, strong repurposing of an MC to interplay with our fans. There was lots of talk around the croissant maker down at the Global Home about how you’re just the kind of guy we need to make this Tour go. But you know, uh, one thing Jay sent me a note on: maybe we don’t go so far as reimbursing those who claim to have lost a wager. You know, we have some strong messaging out there about budgeting your weekly spends, and while it’s great you took care of your fans, we really need to keep expectations focused in a linear engagement fashion without the use of Venmo. Hey and play well this week buddy!
“I think this is where golf is going to be for the foreseeable future, if you want to play at the highest level.”
/Those strong words uttered by Shane Lowry to RTE Radio’s Greg Allen were a blow to the European Tour’s future prospects.
The Irish Golf Desk’s Brian Keogh with the full remarks from the 2019 Open Champion:
“[My daughter] Iris has just turned four and she starting school soon so we have big decisions to be made in the next six months,” Lowry told RTE Radio’s Greg Allen on Saturday Sport. “I think this is where golf is going to be for the foreseeable future, if you want to play at the highest level.”
Alistair Tait reviewed where this leaves the European Tour’s potential star power “drain” and wonders if the “strategic alliance” with the PGA Tour may not have addressed the issue. I know, shocking.
Tait writes:
Thankfully, the European Tour still has the Rolex Series events to attract the top Europeans back to their home circuit. However, Covid-19 has had an impact on that series. It consists of just four events this year, down from a high of eight despite a hoped for 10 when the series was announced.
Ryder Cup participation is another reason for the top stars to play in Europe, since only European Tour members can play in the biennial match. But membership only requires a handful of regular starts along with the majors and World Golf Championships.
Whatever way you cut it, the European Tour has its work cut out to stop the talent drain to the PGA Tour becoming a flood. Wonder if that subject was discussed when the “strategic alliance" was agreed?
Quadrilateral: Sleeper Theories On Rickie's PGA Championship Exemption
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The Quadrilateral covers the majors and while this is not major majors news, Rickie Fowler getting a PGA Championship spot does not look great.
But the staff worked hard today to round up the deep sleeper theories. For my loyal paying subscribers’ eyes only as there might be some upset executives if this was available to their scions.
Wolff's Struggles Continue
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Pro golf’s desperation to lower its viewing demo means some young talents are going to be pushed to grow up fast and come under excessive scrutiny before they might be ready.
No case should be seen as more acute or troubling as Matthew Wolff’s 2021 struggles so soon after near-wins in 2020 majors.
The people who’ve steered him to live in new places and sign up for the stock Tour life should be questioning their judgement. Particularly given that Wolff is a good-natured chap increasingly showing outward signs of general misery.
This time it was the Zurich Classic alongside partner Collin Morikawa. GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker documents the latest rough week in a season that’s seen the former NCAA champion battle injury, post two WD’s, a missed cut and a Masters DQ for signing an incorrect card.
There’s also the element adjusting to a lonely life in the lonely world of professional golf. In college, there are myriad support systems for a player. On tour, it’s ultimately every man for himself, no matter the friendships. Some struggle with that transition more than others.
“It’s a different world to travel on your own,” Morikawa said. “Yeah, you have an agent, but you’re out there by yourself in a hotel room. You can’t prep for that. There’s a certain age where some people are more mature than others. I wouldn’t blame it on young age—he’s won and proven he can do it—but he just has to find that little thing in his swing and get over that hurdle.”
Tracking Tokyo Olympics Excuses, Adam Scott Edition
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The best men’s 2021 Olympic competition this year may be found in the build-up to the Tokyo Games.
Best excuse by a player definitely eligible? And worst.
Best pretzel logic to justify passing?
Best use of family over country?
Best use of a virus or disease to not go?
You get the idea.
Dustin Johnson is the current clubhouse leader with “It’s a long way to travel” and “important for me to feel like I’m focused playing on the PGA Tour.” No chance those hold up for an award.
Adam Scott entered the equation with his inevitable pass, but in a twist the committees must study, Scott’s agent Johan Elliot did the talking. Rex Hoggard with the Australian’s rationale for passing up on the Olympics:
“With the world being the way it is, Adam is gone 4-5 weeks at a time this year during his playing blocks,” Elliot said in a statement to GolfChannel.com. “With three young children at home, this time in the schedule will be devoted to family. It is pretty much the only time up until October when he has a chance to see them for a stretch of time and not only a few days/a week.”
Short version: he’s wants to be with his kids.
Much more fun would have been: he needs to rest after The Open before he makes a 2021 Playoff and Meltwater Mentions push.
"It makes you wonder whether someone told Johnny Miller what was coming so he could get out of television just in time."
/In a column titled “TV networks’ lovefest with PGA Tour cheats viewers,” MorningRead.com’s Mike Purkey looks at the increasing chumminess of golf broadcasting, where “the airwaves are thick with collegiality” and “PGA Tour players are called by their first names or nicknames, as if it were the third flight of the club championship.”
He goes deeper into why this is happening and what it means for viewing, and also how the PGA Tour’s control is muting a lot of smart voices. A sampling:
David Feherty’s immense talents are being ignored and wasted. His interview show on Golf Channel was canceled, and he appears to be lying low and trying to stay out of trouble until he retires.
It makes you wonder whether someone told Johnny Miller what was coming so he could get out of television just in time.
If you’ve noticed, it should concern you. If you haven’t noticed, you should. No one ever accused television commentators of being journalists. But there was a time when they at least made an effort to appear objective. No players are critically analyzed. Anything negative is on the penalty side of the white stakes.
Spin Is In On Meltwater: $40 Million Is A Bargain! Independent Contractors Are So Yesterday! Tiger Needed Our Thanks!
/The socially distanced chatter around the Global Home’s pizza maker must have been lively today.
Yet despite pretty tepid reactions to having $40 million extra to give to stars based on some kooky algorithm (plus the cost to employ all of the metric services), some fascinating reactions were peddled 24 hours later. And knowing the Tour’s expectations of its media partners or wannabe partners, it sure seemed like folks felt extra compelled to spin and amplify odd details in Eamon Lynch’s reveal of a secret bonus pool for the game’s most engaging players.
(Players who, oddly, generally leave their social media to someone else.)
The most aggressive rebuttal to Lynch’s story was penned by…Eamon Lynch! Some could say it’s odd to write such a strong defense of a secret slush pool less than 24 hours after revealing the scheme with an undercurrent of skepticism. Not all, but some.
Anyway, maybe he revealed the secret fund’s existence because the golf fan will want to root their favorite star home to a secret bonus as determined by a special algorithm of several other algorithms. Lynch defends this as just a fancy way to find out who the cool kids are everyone wants to hang with. His words not mine:
For all its charitable endeavors, the PGA Tour is a business and businesses everywhere incentivize those individuals deemed to deliver value. That value isn’t always easy to define and often harder to quantify. Much of the head-scratching about the Impact Fund centers on the metrics used to determine a player’s impact, a waggish assortment of measurements that achieve what any child in a schoolyard can do with the point of a finger: identify the cool kids people want to hang with.
Given the scale of the Tour’s new TV rights deal, $40 million is a small sum. There is ample left to boost purses in the minor leagues, underwrite the European Tour and otherwise gild the lily.
Wow, that’s a lot of money to tell us the list most of us could guess! And oddly, the Tour had to lay off 50 low-paid employees of a particular vintage just over seven months ago while rolling this out. That was a really small sum if $40 million is couch change to these folks.
Anyway, this from Lynch is fun:
Whatever criticisms are aimed at the Player Impact Program, it incentivizes players to engage more with fans, media and sponsors. That might be an awkward exercise for those ill-equipped for socialization, but it’s a worthy goal.
The 2019 players who would have received bonuses according to Lynch’s original reporting: Tiger Woods, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas.
Let’s just say as a nice way of not suggesting someone else runs their accounts, a lot of people have their passwords. Several of them have publicly made clear they have no use for the same engagement stuff the pool supposedly rewards. We’ve even had high profile resignations from social media in this group when the engagement grew to be too much.
Those are your clubhouse leaders!
At least we have Billy Horschel to tell us all of the above is just nonsense and this was a way to pay Tiger some more money. From Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com:
“If we look at over a few years the guys who really drive the Tour, the guys who bring in the money to the PGA Tour, in my opinion, I think we should thank them,” Horschel said. “I look at as we’re thanking them, we’re thanking one guy [Woods] and now multiple guys because of what they’re going to do in the future. We have an amazing TV contract now that is going to be beneficial for all Tour players. If Tour players actually look at this, they’re going to be rewarded in a lot of different ways.”
We’re thanking and placing future bets? And giving TV deal bonus money? Is he saying they’re a non-profit organization is so flush with cash that they have to lose the money somewhere? Huh!
The whole layoff thing kind of messes up the financial fairy tale.
Kyle Porter at CBSSports.com offered seven thoughts defending this as a common sense investment.
The Tour has been (probably unintentionally) taking advantage of the fact that its "franchises" are just individuals who maybe did not think of themselves as revenue-generating entities. However, the power in golf rests not with the PGA Tour but with the Jordan Spieths and Justin Thomases of the world just as it rests with the Lakers, Knicks and Heat in the NBA. The PGL shined a light on that, and now there's a $40 million purse to prove it.
The PGL concept had people praising the Tour’s independent contractor ideal. Yet this no-longer-secret pool will pay people for being famous, with a few conflicts on the side. But that’s the Tour and players business to deal with. The fan should be more saddened by what both the program and the spin job means: the Tour’s vision for growing their product involves marketing morons manufacturing a mirage of meaningless media under the guise of player accounts.
That’s not a worthy goal.
Meanwhile, a man who insists he’s never going to be pool eligible—dream big Billy Horschel!—the hissy-fit thrower himself posted this today:
The “engagement” after the Tweet is superb.
I wonder if the Meltwater Method knows the Jonah Hill throat slash GIF is a negative reply?
Moving along, it seems the big secret reveal did not stop MVPIndex from some Twitter humblebragging: “Our partners, @PGATOUR, are revolutionizing their sport and player compensation based on fan and sponsor engagement. We're excited to announce that MVP's performance ratings will be the social measurement tool for this new Player Impact Program!”
New AND one they didn’t tell the public about.
The company also Tweeted this, captured since the Tour or Golf Channel should issue a take-down notice for lifting copyright video. Heck, it should be deleted merely for “quantifies intangible metrics.”
Lesser known players who are actually the Tour’s authentic social media stars did their thing in reaction to the news, as Coleman Bentley notes here with Twitter evidence.
Gents, good luck getting your intangible humor noticed by the quantifiers.
Finally, Mark Calcaveccia was the rare player willing to go on the record with his views:
