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
Player moves and Zach gets the Ryder Cup nod lead off this edition.
Plus, distance talk, the fairway landing area on Augusta National's 11th, Oakland Hills update, women's major notes, Rory's Masters approach and Reads. Never have I been more thrilled to deliver some old school notes and observations.
As always, Thursdays are guaranteed free for all Quad subscribers and looky-loos.
Keep scrolling if you've already seen a drone fly 100 mph to catch Rory McIlroy hit a wedge on No. 18 at The Riviera Country Club 🤯
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) February 17, 2022
(h/t @PGATOUR)pic.twitter.com/qM5vShlQ0l
Someone, somewhere thinks drones aren’t great for golf but it’s a tiny audience thinking that way.
This is spectacular.
In between questions about ripping off his shirt in Dubai after a rough final round—and getting quite cranky about those inquiries—Rory McIlroy made very clear that pro golfers are independent contractors who should be able to play where they want free of fines to pay for the Global Home’s moat cleaning.
Problem is, both the PGA Tour and European Tour are threatening major fines and other retaliatory tactics for players seeking releases to play in an event controlled by the Saudis, who’d like to poach those players for a golf league.
Another problem: McIlroy carries significant influence, as evidenced by news earlier in the day of green reading books effectively being banned by the USGA and R&A. A move likely instigated by his role in Player Advisory Council discussions and vote on the PGA Tour Policy Board.
So here goes Jay Monahan’s last non-grey hair:
RORY McILROY: I think we're independent contractors and we should be able to play where we want to play. So in my opinion I think the Tour should grant releases. It's an Asian Tour event, it's an event that has OWGR rankings, I don't see any reason why they wouldn't.
I do see reasons why they wouldn't grant releases, but I think if they're trying to do what's best for their members and their members are going to a place other than the PGA TOUR and being able to earn that money, I mean, we're independent contractors and I feel like we should be able to do that if that's what our personal choice is.
My personal choice is not to do that, but obviously a lot of players are doing that and I think it's fair to let them do that.
This didn’t really help his buddy Jay, either.
Q. Going down the road there could be legal battles and arguments.
RORY McILROY: I think the professional game needs to get to a point where we as professionals need to know where we stand. Are we actually independent contractors? Are we employed by a certain entity? That's stuff that's just -- there's a lot of gray area in that and that's what sort of needs to be sorted out, I think.
This was more helpful, I guess:
Q. With all the rumblings of the team concept and whatnot that's in the ether there, so to speak, do you feel like that can co-exist successfully with the Tour?
RORY McILROY: No, so for me, like the PGA TOUR is the best place in the world to play.
I'm not saying that the whole thing needs to be blown up and we do a different thing here. I think if people want golf to be more innovative and they want it to be more engaging and they want to see different concepts, there's no reason why the PGA TOUR can't do that themselves, you know? They have the know-how how to put golf tournaments on, they have all the staff, they have everything, they have the best structure in place to do it.
I'm certainly not saying that I want anything else to come of this, but there are certain elements to different concepts of professional golf that I do see merits in, but I don't see any reason why the Tour couldn't do it themselves.
Yeah, uh, about that. They’ve had years to react to disruptors, consider where sports might be heading, discuss updating how they do things and have dug in on a moldy old model. What was it Seth Waugh said back at the PGA? “I actually think it’s healthy. You either disrupt or you get disrupted. That’s what this is.”
Playing in his third non-major/non-WGC of the European Tour season, Collin Morikawa won the DP World Championship along with the thrilling, utterly meaningless-except-to-bank-accounts Race To Dubai.
History was made, however, as he became the first American to win the Race.
Afterwards, Morikawa was emotional in thinking of his late grandfather:
An emotional win for @collin_morikawa 💙#DPWTC | #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/NYVLsO3irg
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 21, 2021
This will count as an “Order of Merit” win for Morikawa, which is even sillier when put in this historical context by David Jones:
Morikawa was awesome today. But as for the Race 2 Dubai win -
— UK Golf Guy (@ukgolfguy) November 21, 2021
When Monty won the 1995 Order of Merit he played in 18 stand-alone European Tour events, averaging 6th place.
This year Morikawa won the Order of Merit and played in 3 standalone events, finishing an average of 47th. pic.twitter.com/CZdFgaoslF
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy fell out of contention after this horrendous break at the 15th and bogies at 16 and 18. He was not in a great place after his round, as James Corrigan recounts in his entertaining Telegraph story.
I’m not sure it was worth trying to rip your shirt off though it did get him out of post-round interviews (no nipple allowed!):
Wow! Rory McIlroy appears to have ripped his shirt in anger following his disappointing final round at the DP World Tour Championship (📸: @TOURMISS) pic.twitter.com/CnMLfSQCrK
— Golf Monthly (@GolfMonthly) November 21, 2021
Let’s take a closer took at this really bizarre scene just in case we later found out he rescued a child from an attacking tiger and was too modest to brag:
So much for The Great White Shirtless Shark convincing Rory McIlroy to take the Saudi’s money, reports the Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson.
When asked by Sportsmail, the Northern Irishman made it clear in no uncertain terms that his opposition to a proposed Saudi world tour remains unequivocal.
If the Saudis thought that appointing Norman as the face of their new operation would lead to a player exodus from the established tours, they might well be dismayed by McIlroy’s coruscating verdict.
I’d say my view only hardened after the first appointments,’ he responded, referring to Norman.
‘Then, when other selected individuals also came on board, I’d say that just hardened my opinion even more.’
Can’t these Floridians all just get along?
I know what you cynics are thinking, this is the guy who unfairly blasted the governing bodies for spending money to research distance and the corresponding issues related to chasing overall golf course yardage.
So he has some consistencies to mop up when waxing on about sustainability all while reluctantly supporting bifurcation driven in part by cutting down on resource waste.
Here is Rory McIlroy, speaking at the DP World Championship about the guilt of flying private.
Q. The big talking point of the month has been environmentalism with COP26 and that sort of thing. You're somebody with a massive global footprint. You travel in private jets. You play a game that some people argue is not the most environmentally friendly. I've never heard you speak on that subject. What's your take?
RORY MCILROY: It's funny you say that. So two years ago, after I won in China, I flew back home privately, and it was just me on the plane. And I just got this massive sense of guilt come over me just because this can't be good and all that sort of stuff.
So we ended up reaching out to the GEO Foundation who do a lot of great sustainability things in golf, and that was the only sort of organization that we knew of that I guess could help us go in the right direction.
The GEO Foundation is an R&A partners so…
What I was trying to do is make all my travel -- I wouldn't self-profess to be an eco warrior, but I'm someone that doesn't want to damage the environment anyway, so how can I make my travel around the world neutral, how can I neutralise what I do.
And they came up with a few different ways that I can do that. So on top of what I pay to fly private, I pay quite a bit more on top of that to make sure I'm carbon neutral by the end of the year.
Hey maybe the PGA Tour will do the same with its fleet!
So it's something that I have a conscience about and I take it seriously, especially when you see some of these weather events that are happening. And I live in a part of the world where hurricanes are very prevalent and becoming more and more prevalent as the years go on. I think we can all play our part in some way or another.
Just how so many Floridians think!
Wait, there’s a follow up?
Q. How much of a talking point do you think it is amongst your peers, the other players? Is something that's going to gain momentum?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think -- yeah. As you said, we play on big pieces of land that take up a lot of water and a lot of other things that could maybe be put to better use some could argue.
I think they’re studying that!
But at the end of the day, we decide to be professional golfers and hit a ball around a course. And I guess that's sort of the extent of it.
But as I said, we all can do our part. I certainly don't think it's something that I've talked to many of the players about really, but just from my conscience and my mind, I know that I'm at least -- when I do travel and I travel privately that I'm not doing it to the detriment of the world that we live in.
Next on the agenda: the size of the places you fly all over the world to play.
I’m not sure what to make of Rory McIlroy’s pre-Tour Championship remarks on Bryson DeChambeau and fan behavior, but suggesting professional golfers are held to a higher standard than other athletes suggests he’s a bit out of touch with the present day realities. One where other leagues have testing protocols for COVID-19 and stricter rules for those choosing not to be vaccinated, while pro golfers now have to deal with neither in the face of both COVID and now, bilateral pneumonia.
Anyway, his answer:
Q. Do you feel that fan behavior has become less respectful and if so what do you attribute it to?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I do, a little bit. I think I sort of know what you're getting at on the back of last week and some things that were said over the past few weeks, I guess. Yeah, a little bit. I think it's different. As golfers, there's a very thin rope that separates us from the fans, and then you hit a shot off line, and you have to go into the fans to hit it. So we get a little closer to them than some other sports.
Yeah, I think some of it crosses the line. I think there's a certain, I think certain other sports culture has fed into our game and fed into the fan base that's definitely affected it, and people will make the argument that, well, it happens in every other sport. But I would say that we're not any other sport and I think golf should hold itself to a higher standard. I mean, the players are certainly held to a higher standard than other sports, so why wouldn't our fan base.
This was more sensible and sensical on Bryson’s plight:
Q. Everybody seems to be on Bryson's case at the moment. Do you feel any sympathy for him or do you think he brought it on himself?
RORY MCILROY: I certainly feel some sympathy for him because I certainly, I don't think that you should be ostracized or criticized for being different, and I think we have all known from the start that Bryson is different and he is not going to conform to the way people want him to be. He is his own person. He thinks his own thoughts and everyone has a right to do that.
There are certainly things that he has done in the past that have brought some of this stuff on himself. I'm not saying that he's completely blameless in this. But at the same time, I think he has been getting a pretty rough go of it of late and it's actually pretty sad to see because he, deep down, I think, is a nice person and all he wants to do is try to be the best golfer he can be. And it just seems like every week something else happens and I would say it's pretty tough to be Bryson DeChambeau right now.
And I don't know if anyone else on TOUR has spoken up for him, but I definitely, I definitely he feel for him a little bit. And I agree, I don't think he's completely blameless in all this, but at the same time, I think he's trying to become better and he's trying to learn from his mistakes and I think everyone should give him a chance to try to do that.
Plus a new look at Augusta's new 11th hole, Women's Open ratings, R&A policy change and the Green Jacket maker is remembered.
It’s an honor and a blessing to have Rory McIlroy in the $9.5 million BMW Championship interview room today, so here’s a softball you can out of Camden Yards: charm us laddie. Regale us with whatever’s on your mind Vice Commissioner, we’re here to fawn. An update on the green reading book ban would be awesome too.
Anyway, go on Prince of Golfpass:
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think I feel like a lot of guys feel right now, a little jaded, a little tired. End of the season, there's been a lot of golf. Yeah, so a lot of travel.
So yeah, I'm just sort of getting through it, to be honest. I'm going day by day and just trying to get through it as best I can and try to make it to next week. After that, two weeks off before the Ryder Cup.
Yeah, just taking it day by day. The game feels pretty good, okay. Energy levels are somewhat sort of trying to dig deep at this point, but yeah, try and keep going and try and put in a good finish this week to make sure I'm in Atlanta next week.
Almost saved it, almost!
It’s not often the Tour comes to Baltimore so charm the local scribes with a fun anecdote or two.
Q. Just wondering your impressions of Baltimore in general. Not sure if you've been able to see much of the town or where you're staying, but curious what your thoughts are there.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I saw the airport for about 10 minutes yesterday and then I drove straight here and I'm staying on property, so I don't -- I can't really give you much of an answer on that one.
I can tell you that Caves Valley is beautiful and where we are this week, but haven't -- I've never been to Baltimore before, and I haven't made it downtown yet this week. Hopefully at some point I will.
Uh no that’s not happening.
Q. When it comes to late summer, kind of dog days like you were talking about, what is the most tiring or monotonous part of the week-to-week preparation?
What makes your life so, so, sooooooo hard?
RORY MCILROY: I don't know. I think just the -- I mean, this morning, I was tired. Look, we all had a long week last week, as well, but even just summoning up the effort to get out of bed and go get to your 7:20 pro-am tee time, it look a little more effort today than it usually does.
But yeah, just everything. It's a lot of golf. It's hard to feel fresh at this time in the season. It all just sort of catches up with you. I don't know if I could pinpoint one particular thing. It's just sort of everything blended together.
I can pinpoint! I can pinpoint!
Too many events in a short time spread across the globe.
If only you knew people in a position to address this!
Q. Is there one particular thing you're looking forward to once you do get a break?
Emergency Policy Board conference calls to fend off the Saudis?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, just not traveling for a little bit. I'm going to take a bit of time off after the Ryder Cup, and that'll be nice.
It's been a -- since we came back after the sort of COVID halt, I guess, when we came back in Colonial last year, I think this is my 33rd event since then. Next week will be 34 and then Ryder Cup 35. So all that in a space of 15 months, it's a lot of golf. It's probably too much for me. I've played more than I probably should have and feel like it's just sort of all caught up with me.
Who could have seen this coming!
Q. You were on the range for like ages yesterday working really hard.
Like ages?
Just curious what those practice sessions look like and what you're working on.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so I needed to try to get into a new 3-wood and into a new driver. I threw my 3-wood onto the New Jersey Turnpike off the 9th hole yesterday, or on Monday, and so I was without a 3-wood coming here.
The driver I just felt was spinning a little too much last week, so I just needed to get into something that wasn't spinning as much, and that was really it. So going through a bunch of different heads and shafts as you saw yesterday, and feel like I landed on a good driver and got a pretty good 3-wood, too.
That was the purpose of yesterday's range session.
Confirmation of crankiness! But the FedEx checks do clear so…
Q. You said the 3-wood went where exactly, on the New Jersey turnpike?
RORY MCILROY: I mightn't have reached the road but I threw it into the trees off the 9th tee at Liberty National, so if someone wants to go get a 3-wood, there's one in there somewhere.
But the session ends on a good note: he’s thought beyond the playoffs and even though the European Tour’s BMW PGA is not on his schedule now, McIlroy is going to be ready for the Ryder Cup. You know, stuff that really matters to him…
Q. Just talking about kind of the energy deficit you feel right now, it occurs to me that you learned at Hazeltine and I guess all the way back at Medinah that playing a Ryder Cup in America takes a ton of energy, and it can be incredibly taxing. Is that of concern to you at all?
RORY MCILROY: No, I think having two weeks off after the TOUR Championship is going to be nice. Like I sort of was planning to go over to Wentworth to play the BMW, but it's just too much travel, and with what's coming up with Ryder Cup -- yeah, that's a long week, no matter if you're in Europe or the States, especially I haven't missed a session yet. So say I play five sessions again, yeah, it's a really long week. So the two weeks off after the TOUR Championship are going to be well needed, and I'll go in there nice and refreshed and ready to give it my all.
Tiger Woods is a “Popstroke” backer, a Topgolf-inspired putting course/miniature golf venture that’s begun opening other locations.
So it’s noteworthy to see Rory McIlroy, who has had an association with Drive Shack, apparently invest in their putting course/dining/drink concept called Puttery.
The Dallas Morning News’ Dom DiFurio reports:
World-renowned golfer Rory McIlroy and his team have committed to investing at least $10 million in Dallas-based Drive Shack Inc.’s new golf entertainment venue concept called Puttery.
The company describes Puttery as a competitive and social golf entertainment experience. The venue will leverage technology to keep score as guests enjoy a modern twist on putt-putt golf that includes cocktails and food.
James Corrigan reports for the Telegraph on Rory McIlroy moving to guru Pete Cowen as he tries to win the Masters. He was not able to get confirmation but Bob Harig of ESPN.com did get this from McIlroy’s righthand man:
"Pete is an addition to Rory's performance team,'' Sean O'Flaherty, McIlroy's agent, wrote in a text message to ESPN.
What’s unclear according to Corrigan: if Michael Bannon, who has worked with McIlroy for over two decades, remains on the “performance team.”
Two weeks ago McIlroy walked back post-round comments that he would be making changes to his team.
Quite a few sites picked up Padraig Harrington’s kind “could have told you so” remarks about Rory McIlroy and the pursuit of speed. But the real headline can with his answer discussing what Bryson DeChambeau has done and why he should root for a rollback.
The full Honda Classic press conference transcript is here at ASAP. The full answer on a “curtail distance” question:
PADRAIG HARRINGTON: Okay, I think -- right. I've got to think this through. One, everybody argues about speed, and the argument always tends to go about whether you like people who hit it long and playing golf with long hitting or you don't. But that argument is just personal opinion. You can't argue, if some person likes it, some person doesn't like it, whether the golf is more fun or not more fun. That is purely down to each individual person. So anybody who's arguing on social media, it's crazy because it's just personal opinion. It's not a factual argument.
I would say, though, golf ball going further means it's more expensive to build a golf course, it's more expensive to maintain a golf course. Golf ball going further definitely slows down the round of golf in terms of it's a longer walk, it takes longer, and that's the biggest issue with golf is the pace, the time it takes to get around. The golf ball going further also slows down the style of play because there's more bottle necks when people wait on par-4s and par-5s. Golf ball going further has meant that some golf courses are obsolete, some of the great courses, and the golf ball -- I shouldn't say golf ball. Equipment going further. And it could be an equipment change. It doesn't have to be a ball change. With the ball going further, equipment going further, it also means that golf -- and I see this at home. Golf is extremely dangerous at home. People wing it off fairways. You go to any regular club in Ireland, guys who are 25 years of age are hitting it 340 in the air and they don't know where it's going. I'm not saying good players, I'm talking just your regular guys hitting it miles, and you can't keep it on these courses because there's doglegs, so it's dangerous, so for those six reasons I think the game should be tailed back.
But the one thing that nobody seems to be getting in the whole of this argument, it's a massive advantage to the long hitters if they tail back the equipment. If they bring it back, it's a huge -- Bryson gains massively if they draw back the equipment. The longer you hit it, if you reduce Bryson by 10 percent, say he's hitting it 350 and he's now hitting it 315 and you reduce a guy who's hitting it 300 and you reduce him to 270, Bryson is okay. He's still that same percentage ahead but it's a lot easier to hit the golf ball on a golf course at 315 than it is at at 345 or 350. It is an incredible advantage to the long hitters if they tail back how far the ball goes.
If only more listened and appreciated that the distanistas really do love the long ball, just in proportion with the courses we have.
I'm talking it will encourage even more of a chase of long hitting because it's such an advantage.
And remember, doesn't matter what they do with the equipment going forward. You can't change now. You're going to have young guys coming out who swing a 7-iron at 110 miles an hour and that means that there's no lie in the rough, there's no tree in the way that they can't get over or can't get out of.
Of course if you take 8% off their drives maybe that 7 becomes a 6 or a 5 and magically the tree is in play.
As I said, I saw it with Tiger Woods. In 1996 he destroyed everybody because he was faster -- he was a good player and was faster, and Rory did the same thing.
Now we're seeing Bryson, he's obviously getting the limelight for it, and it's very impressive, but it will be -- he should be screaming for a rollback because it would give him a big advantage.
I know he’s not taking pleasure in Rory McIlroy’s struggles but pride that a peer recognized the difficulty of “chasing speed” while still playing good golf as Bryson DeChambeau has done.
From DeChambeau’s third round press chat where he was asked about McIlroy’s comments from the day prior.
Q. I don't know if you heard what Rory said yesterday about he got into chasing distance because of what you've done. How does that make you feel?
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: You know, I appreciate it, first off. The second comment I would have that -- I wasn't trying to influence anybody. I was just trying to play my own game and hit it as far as I possibly could. And I knew there was going to be an affect. I didn't know what it would be or who would be affected by it, but again, golf is a weird game. This journey that I'm on is not taken lightly. I've tried to figure out a bunch of different variables that you have to in order to hit it straight, hitting it really far. I knew that there would be some people that would try and some people it would potentially not work for them and some people it may help them. So I really don't know that, but I do appreciate Rory's comments, it's kind of a sentiment almost and something that keeps me going every day.
It’s a journey not to be taken lightly, that he has right!
The sight of Pete Cowen watching Rory McIlroy no doubt generated plenty of Players range buzz.
But after McIlroy posted 79-75, the admission of struggles tied to his speed pursuit last fall should offer a cautionary tale. After round two at The Players:
Q. What are you most frustrated with?
RORY McILROY: Probably the swing issues and where it all stems from, probably like October last year, doing a little bit of speed training, started getting sucked into that stuff, swing got flat, long, and too rotational. Obviously I added some speed and am hitting the ball longer, but what that did to my swing as a whole probably wasn't a good thing, so I'm sort of fighting to get back out of that. That's what I'm frustrated with.
I felt like I made some good strides. I played well at TOUR Championship, played well at the U.S. Open. I sort of look back at Winged Foot and I look at my swing there, and I would be pretty happy with that again, and then after Winged Foot I had a few weeks before we went to the West Coast and I started to try to hit the ball a bit harder, hit a lot of drivers, get a bit more speed, and I felt like that was sort of the infancy of where these swing problems have come from. So it's just a matter of trying to get back out of it.
Hey, leave the West Coast out of this. We didn’t make you go all in on launch angle golf!
Sorry, go on…
Q. Not to play amateur psychologist, but you're obviously one of the longest players on the PGA TOUR. Why do you think you went down that route?
RORY McILROY: I think a lot of people did. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't anything to do with what Bryson did at the U.S. Open. I think a lot of people saw that and were like, whoa, if this is the way they're going to set golf courses up in the future, it helps. It really helps.
The one thing that people don't appreciate is how good Bryson is out of the rough. Not only because of how upright he is but because his short irons are longer than standard, so he can get a little more speed through the rough than us, than other guys. And I thought being able to get some more speed is a good thing, and I maybe just -- to the detriment a little bit of my swing, I got there, but I just need to maybe rein it back in a little bit.
Sounds like a good plan.
That’s Chairman McIlroy in 2022.
Not sure why he’d want this in his life but here goes…
Rory McIlroy elected PGA TOUR Player Advisory Council Chairman for 2021
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – The PGA TOUR announced today that Rory McIlroy has been elected Chairman of the Player Advisory Council (PAC) by the TOUR’s membership for the 2021 calendar year. Voting ended on Thursday, February 11.
The 16-member PAC advises and consults with the PGA TOUR Policy Board (Board of Directors) and Commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the TOUR.
Rory McIlroy, who prevailed over Russell Knox and Kevin Streelman, will succeed Jordan Spieth as a Player Director on the PGA TOUR Policy Board next year, serving a three-year term (2022-24). He will join James Hahn (2020-22), Charley Hoffman (2021-23) and Kevin Kisner (2020-22) on the Policy Board.
McIlroy, 31, of Northern Ireland, joined the PGA TOUR in 2010. An 18-time PGA TOUR winner, including the 2019 PLAYERS Championship and four major championships, McIlroy is one of two players to win multiple FedExCup titles (2016, 2019). When he assumes his role of Player Director in 2022, McIlroy will become the first international player to serve on the Policy Board, which dates back to the TOUR’s first season in 1969.
In November, the TOUR announced that the 2020 Player Advisory Council would extend its term through 2021 due to the vital role the PAC played in navigating the TOUR’s response to the pandemic.
2021 Player Advisory Council
Ryan Armour
Paul Casey
David Hearn
Harry Higgs
Billy Horschel
Zach Johnson
Russell Knox
Anirban Lahiri
Peter Malnati
Rory McIlroy (Chairman)
Ryan Palmer
Jon Rahm
Kevin Streelman
Justin Thomas
Harold Varner III
Johnson Wagner
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
