The Card – Volume XXXI

by | Mar 10, 2024 | The Card

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. The best story in professional golf this week occurred in South Africa.  Matteo Manaserro, from Italy, was a prodigy, achieving historic benchmarks at a tender age.  He was the youngest winner on the European Tour, at the time, the youngest player to make the cut at the Masters and appeared destined to be in the rarest air in professional golf.  And then he wasn’t.  Matteo was reduced to cobbling weeks together on the Alps Tour in 2020 and the Challenge Tour in 2022, playing in front of no one.  On Sunday he returned to the winner’s circle and said it was “the happiest day of his career”.  Looking into the abyss and staying at out of it… 3942 days between his 4th and 5th wins on the DP World Tour.  Golf is revealing.  Mannasero revealed that he wouldn’t submit to the game driving him out of it.  Bravo.
  1. I was fortunate to spend the weekend around a handful of men who have devoted their professional lives to making others better at golf and running golf programs at clubs across America.  Bruce Davidson, John McNeely, Gordon Johnson, and Charlie Epps convened at Congaree Golf Club to conduct a concentrated weekend program of instruction for a group of Congaree ambassadors.  The program was like the one executed every year for several deserving juniors from across the country with financial challenges.  To listen to these men talk with emotion about their gratitude for one another was a profound reminder that the GAME is not men playing for large sums of money.  The game is really everything else.
  1. Billy Harmon and I did a show together many years ago on Golf Channel called, “On The Range” along with Billy Kratzert.  It was designed to share the methods of the best players working on the range each week on the PGA Tour.  The show did not have a long run but for those who saw it they were gifted the insights from Billy Harmon that were outstanding.  The Harmon family is golf royalty, but I only wish Bill’s voice was heard much much more.  Humor, truth and humility is a splendid combination to have in a golf analyst.  This past weekend he had me crying with laughter and poignancy.  He’s a real gem.
  1. Bailey Tardy turned professional in 2019 after a collegiate career at the University of Georgia.  After building a resume through being productive on the Epson Tour she earned her LPGA card in 2023.  Sunday, at 27 years old, she won for the first time on the LPGA at the Blue Bay.  After winning Tardy talked about the doubts and the financial realities that come with struggling and missing cuts.  Pondering getting a “job” but ultimately pushing through to find progress.  Tardy winning is a great story and another reminder that doubts are inevitable especially as you go it alone, but belief that wins out makes the triumph even more satisfying.
  1. Rory McIlroy continues to share his thoughts on the evolving nature of the PGA Tour structure and schedule.  He removed himself from the tour board, but he suggested this week that he’s for the tour being “more cutthroat and more competitive.  He wants less players and less tour cards.  What?  Haven’t we shrunk the tour enough already with 70-man fields and no cut events?  Don’t we already have a two tour and tier system at a time that more players are proving their ability to win?  More competition is the field at the Players this week despite it being diluted by LIV’s existence.  Making fields smaller doesn’t make it more competitive, it just makes the odds greater that name players win.  By the way, Rory has come a long way from saying he absolutely hates LIV to his latest with ESPN’s Marty Smith when he was asked about joining LIV and simply said, “it’s not for me”.  I don’t think there is anyone in the men’s game who wants a deal with LIV more than Rory.  His position has evolved.
  1. Rory put together a scintillating inward nine on Saturday at Bay Hill to vault him onto the first page of the leaderboard only to go in full reverse on Sunday.  He managed to avoid making a triple in the API for the first time this season, but he did make a “7” on the par 5 6th at Bay Hill to continue a weird trend of sloppy play.  McIlroy now returns to a place in the stadium course where he has won but his stats thus far this season are bad outside of his exceptional driving.  He is currently outside the top 130 in SG approach, around the green and putting.  His commitment to a more robust schedule in advance of the Masters has yet to produce even one week of contending let alone finishing in the top 10.
  1. No more camping out for that elusive time at the Old Course.  An online ballot will replace the overnight queue for single golfers hoping for a last-minute tee time on the Old.  The modern and equitable digital solution will begin on March 12th with assistance from the golf logistics company, “ClubUp”.  While it was romantic that players were literally sleeping by the starters hut this more civilized and organized system is a proper solution to the unwavering demand to get a slot on the Old Course.
  1. Will Zalatoris is trending and his play at Bay Hill locked up a spot in the Open. His early year has been a true build back and he will get a ton of attention this week at the Players and most certainly at the Masters.  In addition to the alteration to his golf swing after back surgery he has made a tweak in the length of his driver shaft.  It looks like he is hitting 5 iron off the tee but he is putting it in play more and the broomstick is far less disorienting to watch than the stop and start loop stroke with the conventional length putter.
  1. Abraham Ancer was just getting to a point in his career that he was being considered one of the better players in the world and then he left for LIV.  Sunday in Hong Kong he won his first individual title against a field of players that is simply better than it was 18 months ago.  He does not have the major exemptions that other LIV players have so seeing him in the best fields will require him to work his way through the qualifying system for the Opens.
  1. The Players week always produces the stale and unoriginal discussion about its status as a championship.  I once asked Jay Monahan if he liked the event being called the 5th major and he paused which allowed me to editorialize my own position if I was in his.  Why would you want to be 5th?  You either are or you’re not and the Players is not a major.  It’s the Players and that is massive.  It’s not for forever, but especially now with the absence of so many players who play on LIV and will not be present, that conversation needs to take a year off or a decade.
  1. The Stadium course is one of a few courses that costar their events.  I played it one year after it opened in 1983 and it was a blast.  It was also unkept, rugged and truly looked native.  Those days are long gone but it remains one of the few provocative courses that are host sites for big events.  Here is hoping that the tour set up staff does not present a neutered examination.  March means lush overseed but it doesn’t have to be SOFT.  It’s a TV show, and firm is fun.
  1. I used to love sitting around the newsroom at Golf Channel with my researcher, Kevin Ryan, the day after the Players perusing the earnings of lesser-known players.  The Players purse was so bloated in comparison to all the other events that Ollie Schniederjans T16 in 2019 grossing him 193,750 seemed like a HUGE deal.  It was then.  I feel like I’m talking about 25 years ago not five.
  1. Luke Donald appears like a guy running an investment house in Canary Wharf while holding down the medal title at Sunningdale.  In reality, he’s a former world number 1, victorious Ryder Cup captain and a very capable lead analyst calling golf on television.  Kevin Kisner will be back in the tower next week in Ponte Vedra but it appears NBC may have options and they might exercise all of them to a degree.
  1. Mike Tirico shared the 18th tower in what is a four-wide arrangement this past week on NBC at Bay Hill.  Tirico is a machine and he’s also someone that everyone likes working with so his cozy proximity to Dan Hicks, the lead voice with NBC, did not make it awkward it just made it better.  Tirico is the big event face of NBC sports so his participation in the golf broadcasts is a bonus.  You can also look forward to hearing him on the Masters coverage from SiriusXM as the lead host.  Why?  Because he’s a machine. Don’t be surprised if he calls a Savannah Bananas baseball game in that week.
  1. Scottie Scheffler breaking back through after 51 weeks without a win is frightening… for his peers.  He is a truly historic ball striker and good putting means he will blow fields away which is what he did at Bay Hill.  He is now returning to the Players where he won last year and the Masters looms in less than a month.  This might be the beginning of a really special tear.  Add his menacing new beard which I think he can grow in a practice round and he casts the longest shadow on the PGA Tour by a legitimate margin.  Rory suggested he return to the mallet putter at Riviera.  Great suggestion, dangerous suggestion.
  1. Jackson Van Paris is not the best player on the Vanderbilt Golf team.  Van Paris finished tied for 10th in the Puerto Rico Open on a one-off sponsor exemption.  And we are talking about shrinking the PGA Tour down to less than 100 players?  Please.
  1. Great to see the Cologuard Classic on PGA Tour Champions celebrate individuals who have and are battling cancer, and it was especially sweet to see Stewart Cink playing for my old partner Charlie Rymer who has come out the other side of colon cancer treatment.  
  1. Wyndham Clark is one of my Masters favorites.  

The Card – Volume XXX

by | Mar 4, 2024 | The Card

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. 4.5 trillion to 1 were the odds that Amelia Garvey bucked at the NXXT Women’s Championship at Royal St. Cloud in Florida when she recorded a hole in one, an albatross, an eagle and a birdie in a single round of competitive golf.  Garvey, from New Zealand, has played on the Epson tour for the last two years opened her insane round with an eagle and then proceeded to ace the par 3 6th hole.  She punctuated the historic day by holing out her second on the par 5 13th hole.  Garvey made four bogeys as well during the round for a psychotic scorecard that totaled 66.  In true golfer martyrdom form the player who made an eagle, an albatross and a hole in one lamented that it was “a little bit annoying that this was a mini tour event, it didn’t make me that much money”.  
  1. Viktor Hovland is a bright light amongst too many players who appear utterly downtrodden to be making a living playing golf.  Appearing on Claude Harmon III’s podcast, “Son of a Butch” Hovland shared a sentiment felt by tons of fans when he said, “Obviously getting the paycheck for winning is nice but if that’s what you’re remembering by the end of the week that feels a bit soulless”.  Amen.  Hovland also expressed that it is sad that the only main talking point from the PGA Tour in response to LIV’s presence has been money.  That is the blame of everyone involved.  
  1. Talor Gooch is a fabulous player.  He also epitomizes the undercurrent of entitlement and aggrievement permeating from some elite players.  Professional golf is a meritocracy, or it was.  Play well and be rewarded, play poorly and feel a sense of vulnerability and jeopardy.  The world ranking system is in a precarious place in need of reform now with the existence of LIV.  However, Gooch throwing a pity party in the form of an imbecilic asterisk suggestion as it pertains to Rory McIlroy and the Masters is embarrassing for him. The list of excellent players who have failed to qualify for major championships through the years is endless to say nothing for hall of fame players who missed majors due to injury.  The aggrieved golfer is an utterly pathetic look.
  1. Monday is the annual pro-member at Seminole.  When I was on the professional staff there in the mid 90’s the event had long since been shuttered for various reasons including the presence of a bloated Calcutta by the early 60’s.  In 2004, then Seminole President Tim Neher, resuscitated the event with a healthy dose of club professionals solicited by the platinum standard of the profession, Bob Ford, the then resident professional.  By the early 2010’s Jack and Arnie were playing together with members in addition to all four major champions from 2013, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson, and Jason Dufner representing in 2014 with the green jacket and the major trophies in tow.  It is currently the greatest assemblage of golf talent and corporate power players, past and present, on one golf course any day of the year.  Paint on the wall in the Seminole locker room is the summit.
  1. Tiger Woods playing in the Seminole pro-member Monday with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh is interesting on a couple fronts.  One, this is his first appearance in the event at 48 years old.  In all the years Tiger has lived on Jupiter Island he has only played Seminole a few times including his first round with then President of the club, Tim Neher.  It doesn’t indicate to me that he’s any closer to playing the Players but it’s another modest example of his evolution.
  1. Luke Donald was exactly what I expected him to be on the NBC broadcast in the lead analyst chair; prepared, insightful and easily conversational with his tower mate Dan Hicks.  What we have discovered thus far is that there are varied voices capable of doing the job, but like a playing career, a broadcast career can be very long if you’re good which means the openings are few and very far between.
  1. An argument can be made that the best player in the world is playing on LIV, Jon Rahm.  Additionally, the most prolific major championship winner of this generation, Brooks Koepka, also plays on LIV.  But when you add Joaquin Niemann, Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, Tyrell Hatton, Bryson DeChambeau, etc., etc., you start to understand the erosion week to week of PGA Tour fields.  Moreover, at a time where there is NOT a player captivating the public you realize the perilous position the tour finds itself in.  That dynamic will be amplified the next two weeks at Bay Hill and the Players.
  1. When Rory McIlroy made a reckless triple bogey on the 16th hole Saturday to fall from the top 10 to outside the top 25 the Cognizant Classic was looking at another “star-less” leaderboard.  Shane Lowry is a major champion and imminently likable but he’s not a sticky TV guy.  Meaning you don’t stick around just to watch him.  NBC, CBS, ESPN sees these sagging numbers and they are all asking the same thing.  When are the stars going to take over a tour event?
  1. Joaquin Niemann has now won two events early in the year on LIV.  A fantastic player but his immediate reaction on each occasion was to point out something that should be better in his life.  After Mayakoba he moaned about not being in majors, not entirely accurate, and just this week he received a special invite to the Masters, earned, by the way.  Sunday, after winning in Saudi Arabia, the on-course interviewer suggested he’d be a favorite to win a major this year and his reaction was to point out his current world ranking was too low to support that claim.  Everyone knows the world rankings are out of balance but Neimann’s reflexive reaction in the form of lame humor is stale.  Literally in a week he won a golf tournament and received a Masters invite his first words after victory was stale aggrievement.  I don’t attend pity parties and Niemann is suddenly a regular host of them.
  1. Anthony Kim’s week was of zero surprise.  He finished 33 shots behind the winner in a 54-hole competition.  Immaterial.  As I stated on the 5 Clubs YouTube channel on Thursday Kim’s results should be judged based on progress seen over the course of the season.  Eventually the scores will tell most of the story, but he has so much he needs to improve on after a lifetime away.  Crowds on the ground in Saudi were nonexistent and it’ll be interesting to see the level of interest he can conjure when the tour returns to the states, after next week in Hong Kong, in Miami before the Masters.
  1. Hannah Green will likely win several more times in her professional career but her closing 30-foot birdie putt to win the HSBC in Thailand will be hard to eclipse.  Green chased down Celine Boutier by making birdie on the final three holes to win by one and become the second Aussie to win the HSBC alongside Karrie Webb.  Green’s fourth LPGA title comes soon after getting married in January and then more recently moving into a new house.  Green and her new husband, Jarryd Felton, have not had a honeymoon and have been apart for almost a month.  They will celebrate this coming week when they are reunited. 
  1. Jordan Gumberg at 28 years old has kept the dream alive and the lights on as he’s globetrotted playing professional golf on various tours.  Sunday, as the 669th ranked golfer in the world, he won in a playoff on the DP World Tour to win by far his biggest title.  The University of Arizona grad, by way of Ft. Lauderdale, now has a home away from home on the DP World Tour.  Gumberg got some late help on Sunday when Robin Williams, the leader with two holes to go made a double bogey to open the door for the playoff win for Gumberg who has played in three PGA Tour events in his career including qualifying for the 2023 U.S. Open.  Any day, anywhere in the world, there are a ton of guys who can win golf tournaments.
  1. The USGA announced on Saturday that Tiger Woods will be the recipient of the 2024 Bob Jones Award.  The award is the highest honor the organization bestows on someone in and around the game of golf.  Woods would have appeared an inevitable recipient considering his immense impact on the game, but this year makes practical sense because it conveniently ties in with the USGA’s likely decision to give Woods a special invite into the U.S. Open at Pinehurst.  The Jones award ceremony is conducted the week of the U.S. Open.  Woods has come agonizingly close on two occasions at Pinehurst in 1999 and 2005 finishing two shots back of the eventual winners, Payne Stewart and Michael Campbell.
  1. The Saturday announcement by the USGA that the 2036 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open will be conducted in consecutive weeks at Shinnecock Hills is cool.  Pinehurst pulled off the national championship fortnight in 2014 and two weeks on the eastern end of Long Island in June is dreamy.  Moreover, the future sites for the women’s open are a murderer’s row of historically great venues, especially the 30’s.
    • 2030-Interlachen
    • 2031-Oakland Hills
    • 2032-Los Angeles Country Club
    • 2033-Chicago Golf Club
    • 2034-Merion
    • 2035-Pebble Beach
    • 2036-Shinnecock Hills
  1. Of all the things I miss about not having Arnold Palmer of this earth, the scene of him riding around his own golf tournament, the renewal is this week, with a set of clubs strapped to the back was his essence.  He played golf, with anyone, especially at Bay Hill.  Arnold was the Everyman, the iconic sportsman, and golf’s first TV star.  He loved the engagement of a golf game more than any other.  The clubs on the back of his cart in the twilight of his life at an event he created but no longer competed in was emblematic of how he saw the game.  For all and for life.
  1. The Florida swing is associated with a much more punitive style of golf when players hit errant shots.  PGA National, Bay Hill, and the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass have an identity of punishing the fate of heart.  PGA National was softened by rains and they did not have a blistering wind day, but it doesn’t change the fact that the course was set up in a more benevolent way.  Stats proved that with proximity from the rough, which was lighter.  Even without the winner being decided on Sunday, the scores were much lower this year than past years.  Taking into consideration that the 10th was converted to a par five the most accurate way to show the leniency of the set-up is in the overall scoring numbers.  In 2023 there were 10 players who shot a four-round total of 272 or better.  This year there will be more than twice that number.  Bottom line from hearing from several players, the set up was easier and NOT because they had heavy rains on Sunday.  That’s not in the best interest of interest in the event.
  1. Austin Eckroat was a member of an Oklahoma State team with studs in Matt Wolfe and Viktor Hovland but also absurd depth in Sam Stephens, Kris Ventura, and Brendon Jelley.  A college team that produces multiple winners on tour is not that common but when you potentially have five guys who will all win tour events at some point, that is crazy good.
  1. Jake Knapp has the best new gait in golf.  It’s really not close.

The Card – Volume XXIX

by | Feb 25, 2024 | The Card

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. Every winner on the PGA Tour is a great story.  To cross the line on the deepest tour in the world is a massive accomplishment but the absence of stars winning on tour coupled with the number of terrific players now playing on LIV is a problem as they embark on the “for profit” arm of their business.  Leveraging departures for a two-tier system and more money against the backdrop of a force not required to adhere to market principles is a far more palatable strategy if the stars driving the changes are winning, and they are not.
  1. The winning drought that the tour’s remaining stars are experiencing is ironic and bad timing.
      • Jordan Spieth, last win April 2022
      • Justin Thomas, last win May 2022
      • Patrick Cantlay, last win August 2022
      • Xander Schauffele, last win July 2022
      • Max Homa, last win January 2023

    You add the weird and frustrating stretch of amazing tee to green performance with the confounding putting of Scottie Scheffler, who is approaching a year without a win, and you have a ratings nightmare. Without LIV players at THE PLAYERS the PGA Tour needs a star to step up, like yesterday.

  1. This past week saw Yasir al-Rumayyan speak at the Future Investing Initiative in Miami.  The leader of LIV golf was a star among billionaires, and he shared that more than 70% of the public investment fund’s investment are within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the international investment has declined to around 25%.  The reality is that the PGA Tour and its new partnership with the Strategic Sports Group NEEDS the PIF.  The players on the PGA Tour may think their new partners make them healthy and whole but it’s simply not the case.  The continued fracturing of the men’s game is wreaking havoc on the tour’s product.
  1. Joaquin Neimann receiving a special invitation to the Masters Tournament is hardly a surprise.  What would have been a surprise is if the press release announcing his invitation was supported by his results on LIV.  He’s a past Latin America amateur champion and his win in the Australian Open was the biggest boost to his recent accomplishments.  He’s a fantastic player and his inclusion is deserved and earned.
  1. Miles Russell is the number one junior golfer in the U.S. with a bullet.  He shot a 2 under par round of 70 at the pre qualifier for the Cognizant Classic.  He’s not the first 15-year-old to attempt to pre-qualify for a tour event and won’t be the last. 
  1. Rafael Nadal is ready to begin what might be his last year of professional tennis.  In advance of his return, he won the Balearic Mid-Amateur Golf Championship in Mallorca, Spain by seven shots.  I have no idea the quality of the field but is it possible Mardy Fish will have a new “celebrity” am nemesis in Tahoe?
  1. The report this week that Gil Hanse and his team, Caveman Construction, are being commissioned to undertake a decade long project at Sunningdale in England is just another amazing feather in their restoration cap.  No designer has been entrusted with more, by a multiple of many, than Gil to return more historic golf courses to their prior design principles.  Soon enough the world will see their expedient work at Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, the host of the Charles Schwab Challenge.
  1. If you never read Michael Bamberger’s “To the Linksland”, it has been republished for the 30-year anniversary of its release.  Buy it and read it.  Michael is a wonderful storyteller and his accounting of his journey with his then new bride to the British Isles is fantastic.  We featured the book in the 5 Clubs book club this past week on SiriusXM and with a new forward from Michael Murphy it’s a must.
  1. The 1286th ranked player in the world rankings, Carlos Ortiz, won the International Series Oman on the Asian Tour.  His world ranking is a result of playing on LIV and seeing his world ranking nosedive in the last year.  He held off a few fellow LIV players and will not get a huge world ranking bump because all his peers on LIV have seen their rankings plummet as well in the last 18 months.  He beat some very good players including Joaquin Neimann who finished third.
  1. Gil Hanse has described the Ohoopee Match Club golf course as a tapestry that is frayed at the edges.  Tucked away outside of Cobbtown, Georgia, Ohoopee has earned a reputation in the first five years of its existence as one of the finest and coolest hangs in golf.  It’s golf’s great dude ranch and after being on the property for two days this past week I have an even greater appreciation for the design.  I made a point of walking “outside the lines” and what I found was land that talks.  Fallen limbs, decayed walking paths leading to who knows where, vegetation with countless colors and textures leave you nourished.  You punctuate your walk looking across the meadow at grazing Zebra and wildebeest and you feel a sense of gratitude for the time that is uncommon.
  1. NBC gives Luke Donald the main chair next week as they continue their season long audition for the lead analyst post for the network.  Donald has always been sneaky good at everything.  He got to Number 1 in the world at a time that length was exploding as a huge asset.  He was the passed over European Ryder Cup captain who only got the post when Henrik Stenson left for LIV, and he performed a masterclass in understanding his team.  I expect him to be thoughtful, insightful and a great listen.  No, he’s not going to bring huge levity, but I expect the response to be very positive.
  1. Getting to see Old Town Club in Winston Salem, North Carolina for the third time in the last couple months has me even more convinced that it is one of the finest routings of a golf course in the United States.  The tree removal and re-grassing of the greens under the direction of Coore/Crenshaw has taken the Perry Maxwell design to another level.  It’s among the very best golf courses in the country. The convergence of the double green for the 8th and 17th holes is one of the coolest design features anywhere.
  1. The quartet featured in Monday night’s match are appealing and exceedingly likable, but the real star will be the Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner designed ‘The Park”.  The public facility was opened last year, and its open canvas will be fantastic for the match play format but it’s the angles and contour that make the golf course a total blast. Under the lights the reachable par 5, the drivable par 4 and the fantastic par 3 17th, which will play as the 11th hole in the 12-hole match are fantastic golf holes.  After a couple flat episodes, I expect this Match to deliver an entertaining evening.
  1. The Florida swing on the PGA Tour brings a much greater premium on ball striking.  Punitive and penal design is the hallmark of PGA National, Bay Hill, and the stadium course.  The value of par is much greater than the west coast swing and Bermuda grass and overseeded rye are now the agronomics of the month of March.  Save me the monikers associated with stretches of holes at each venue, but the Florida swing signifies that all roads lead to Augusta National.
  1. Jake Knapp may not have drawn a big TV audience in winning the Mexico Open, but he is extremely appealing.  He has a flow that reminds you of the 70’s and 80’s coupled with his Munsingwear swag.  He also has a gait and golf swing that emotes cool.  He’s a really good story for the PGA Tour especially if he can continue to build on the win.  
  1. Three rookies to win before March on the PGA Tour matches the total number of rookie winners in 2023.  There are more and more players coming from everywhere who can contend and win, and it flies in the face of a group of players trying to create a “super” tier on the tour with fields of 70 players.  The most elite of all these events should always have fields of at minimum 100 players with cuts.
  1. Anthony Kim will play competitive golf this week halfway around the world on LIV.  He was a legit star when he became physically compromised and walked away more than a dozen years ago.  Of course, the golf nerds, me included, will be into his return.  My question is whether he gets any attention from the mainstream sports media.  My easy answer is positively No.  He faded away; he wasn’t shutdown while he was at the height of his stardom.  He just wasn’t a big enough deal outside of golf to warrant much if any attention this coming week.
  1. When I think of PGA National and the rebranded Cognizant Classic, I think back to 2012 when a rising superstar in Rory McIlroy held off the biggest star in sports in Tiger Woods, who shot 62 on Sunday, to win the Honda Classic and ascend to number 1 in the world.  Rory is back this week, and the tour could REALLY use a healthy shot of full flight Rory.

The Card – Volume XXVIII

by | Feb 19, 2024 | The Card

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. Tiger Woods has made six official starts since his 2021 car accident, and he’s finished 72 holes just twice.  That small dose of competition includes a missed cut and three WD’s.
  1. Tiger’s goal of playing once a month seemed ambitious to many when he made that declaration last December at the Hero World Challenge and even though his inability to even finish 36 holes was attributed to the flu, it just appears that his progression toward something significant becomes increasingly more tenuous.
  1. For me to believe that Tiger can possibly contend somewhere at some point will require him to progress forward from wherever the previous starting point appeared to be, psychologically and physically.  There is simply no way to declare that his week at Riviera was progress.  So where is the next place to possibly achieve progress?  Bay Hill or the Players?
  1. Scottie Scheffler squandered a great opportunity to win in Phoenix and added another distressing week of putting at Riviera in an event he never contended in.  The historic statistical season of 2023 is following an eerily similar pattern in 2024.  Top three ball-striking with putting stats outside the top 100.  Scottie doesn’t need to putt great to win because he hits more good shots than anyone, but putting poorly will cost him more wins and Augusta is appearing now on the horizon.
  1. David Puig, 22 years old, and currently one of the youngest players on LIV golf won again on the Asian Tour.  Last year he started outside the top 1000 in the official world golf rankings but his willingness to play Asian Tour events outside of his LIV schedule has given him a huge boost.  His win this week in Malaysia is added to his win last fall in Singapore and he’s now projected inside the top 150 in the world.  Another example of the insane depth globally of players under 24.
  1. Jordan Spieth was rightfully disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard.  The question is whether the rule is too punitive, and should it even exist altogether in today’s world of digital transmission?  One, the rule is most certainly too punitive.  Disqualification should not be the punishment for a clerical error.  I’ve heard many people declare that signing the card is a time-honored tradition.  It’s a time adhered to practice; I have never considered it one of the game’s great traditions.  With the level of redundancy now at the professional level maintaining the scorecard practice is romantic and I’m fine with it continuing but the sport of professional golf NEVER wants to find itself in a position to explain why the person with the lowest score was disqualified from the Masters because of a scoring error.  Times change and the penalty of disqualification should be changed. 
  1. Chase Johnson was in the Genesis Invitational on a special invite and made the cut.  The 28-year-old from Kent State is trying to keep his dream alive and whatever the balance of 2024 looks like, he made the cut in a signature series event on the PGA Tour.  
  1. Gary Woodland was in the field at Genesis on a special invite as well, and he too made the cut.  The 2019 U.S. Open champion is TRULY one of the most sensible and real dudes on the PGA Tour.  I wrote about his candor a few weeks ago regarding his brain tumor and Gary having success and making progress is just good.
  1. The end of the west coast swing, Mexico is a different category, makes me melancholy.  It marks the conclusion of the best, in my opinion, stretches on the PGA Tour for golf courses and contrast.  The nostalgia of the California desert, the allure of Pebble Beach, the regality of Riviera and the enormity of Phoenix.  It’s top of class despite the proliferation of buffoonery at Waste Management this year.
  1. I played the new Crossroads at Palmetto Bluff this past week.  The 9-hole, multiple routing on 52 acres from Rob Collins and Tad King.  It has a decidedly Sweetens Cove bent to it, especially the communal nature of the experience.  Fire pits, food trucks and soon enough a dock for boats to drive right up to the course.  The holes are a blast for 17-, 37- and 77-year-old golfers.  Dramatic landforms, enormous greens with countless pin-able areas and so many angles to play all the holes from.  This a massive gift for the membership there and I hope they create a pathway for outside play.  It’s too good not to share.
  1. Getting a couple days at Congaree allowed me to learn even more about the nuance of the best Fazio golf course I’ve played.  The edginess is uncommon for Fazio and the turf conditions are the firmest and fastest in the USA.  So much ground game can be employed, and the club is anxious to host great events.  It will play host to the 2025 Palmer Cup, and it would be in the USGA’s best interest to find bring a senior open there especially with Tiger turning 50 in under two years.  The PGA Tour had an ambitious bid from Congaree to host the 2026 Presidents Cup and decided on the uninspiring choice of taking it to Medinah.  Congaree is making real impact on young people using golf as a pathway in life and it is a fabulous site for championship golf.
  1. I don’t think it’s the clothes, but Jason Day looks ten years younger.  Clean shaven every day may be a factor, but he looks youthful and energized.  There is real value in having your own look, which he finally now has, and he is going to be a trendy Masters pick with a building of form and his record at Augusta National.
  1. Our 5 Clubs book club, which we conduct on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio every two weeks, is honoring the 30th anniversary of Michael Bamberger’s “To The Linksland”.  It is being republished and I highly recommend everything Michael writes and if you have not read this memoir on his journey to Europe as a newlywed to caddy on the European Tour do it now.  I believe Bamberger and Jaime Diaz are the two greatest golf writers of the last 40 years.
  1. Hideki Matsuyama remains an enormous global star in the professional game and his final round 62 was as scintillating a round as you could construct on a Sunday at Riviera.  He’s destined for the World Golf Hall of Fame and his victory at the Genesis is bold type on his resume.  When Hideki starts taking his hand off the club in his follow through it means he’s staking it.  His 9th career PGA Tour victory is among his absolute finest.
  1. I had sensible people who cover golf ask me if I was concerned with Will Zalatoris after his first start of the year.  Those folks have gone into hibernation.  The broomstick looks quite comfortable in his hands and his golf swing looks fantastic.  He’s a superior ball striker with an absence of fear in the best fields and on the best courses.  He’s trending big time.
  1. Patrick Cantlay is painfully slow and when he plays poorly it becomes a complete drag.  Cantlay and Schauffele were beyond flat together on Sunday and their combined winless streak is at 37 months.  You add with that the longshots who have already won this year and you wonder how achievable a 5-win season is anymore on the PGA Tour and that’s considering the quality of player who has departed for LIV.
  1. Eric Cole finished tied for 10th.  When he cashes a fat check, which is regularly, I smile.  The pro’s pro.  I’m so all in on Eric Cole.
  1. Kira K. Dixon is a rising star.  She’s exceedingly likable and totally comfortable asking questions of all players.  She’s earned the assignment of covering swimming this summer in Paris on NBC and she’s fast-tracking for the biggest assignments in all of NBC’s sporting portfolio.

The Card – Volume XXVII

by | Feb 12, 2024 | The Card

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. Tiger Woods 2024.  It will begin this week at his event and his own goal is an event a month.  IF that is achieved, with relatively good health, its plausible that he could climb his way into legit contention.  That means Sunday late with critical shots struck within 4 of the lead with nine holes to go.  IF that happens anywhere, and, if it happens at a major, no one is prepared to truly process it.  The 2019 Masters was an ascension to the summit that was worthy of a screenplay, a W in 2024 would challenge sensibilities in a new way.  Five years removed from Augusta, his right lower leg almost removed, and a complete absence of a tournament schedule makes the climb virtually unimaginable.  Like I said, we are not ready for this.
  1. The Tiger apparel launch is interesting in the strategy.  He’s 48 and his actual screen time during tournaments is predicated on him being able to play.  Does he represent as a solo act.  Do they have a cadence to introduce other players wearing the line?  Nike never max’d the TW brand as it was not an appealing line for green grass facilities.  He’s remade his golf swing many times and recalibrated his corporate portfolio, but this is truly HIS gear.  What impact and cultural relevancy can it have?  It starts this week.
  1. The first Signature series event in 2024 with a cut is Tiger’s event.  Wholly appropriate considering his dogged determination to always compete on every solitary shot.  The tour needs to understand that Jack, Tiger and Arnie represent the platinum standard and if their desire and belief is that a cut is essential to elite championship golf, especially amongst the very best, then there is zero argument for the other side.  Zero.
  1. I mentioned two weeks ago that Kazuma Kobori was a special talent, and his roll continues. The 22-year-old from New Zealand turned pro in November and has won three times in his last five starts.  He’s a virtual lock for a DP World Tour card in 2025.  Kobori came to the States and won the 2023 Western Amateur, a huge win, and he’s showing he could be a part of a wildly talented collection of players turning pro simultaneously.
  1. Cristobal del Solar shot 57 and Aldrich Potgieter shot 59 this past week at the Korn Ferry event at the Country Club of Bogota.  The golf course was absurdly short and the stroked gains stats support that the round of 57 was not the most other worldly round ever shot.  What is absolutely true is that there are simply not many places that can prevent these players from undressing all but a handful of venues in men’s professional golf outside of the major championship rota and those sites are more vulnerable than they’ve ever been.  Pinehurst #2 will be a fascinating examination with the width of the course and the absence of truly dense rough.  Especially since the USGA has made #2 the anchor of all anchor sites for its biggest championship.  
  1. Vegas worked for LIV.  Talking to several sources on the grounds, especially Saturday, the place had a true atmosphere.  The metrics of the television audience is not the comprehensive way to evaluate what traction the events and the tour are gaining.  The shoulder discussions across media platforms, the coverage from legacy media, of which there were several reporters from those outfits in Vegas give a truer picture. Add the leaderboard and LIV has had an encouraging fortnight. 
  1. Dustin Johnson is the last person interested in the legacy of Dustin Johnson but it’s quite interesting.  Labeled an underachiever, his overall production flies in the face of that premise.  He’s the winningest player of his generation as we speak.  He has shown uncommon resiliency in the manner he won almost immediately after the debacle of the 2010 PGA and then winning the U.S. Open the year after the Chambers Bay 3-putt.  Additionally, he never had years without at least a win, and he went undefeated in his final Ryder Cup when the public and media had moved on to the younger generation being the biggest stars. It’s hard to gauge the value of LIV wins in its infancy but he could be the winningest player when he departs eventually.  I know I’m there for his Hall of Fame induction speech.
  1. Wenyi Ding shot 27 under, a total of 189, to win the college Amer Ari Invitational in Hawaii.  The freshman from Arizona State may or may not have set a college record.  The record is immaterial to the fact that he shot 189 over three rounds.  Exhibit #100000 that the kids are coming, and they don’t want to wait their turn.
  1. As Mr. Keating articulated in “Dead Poets Society”, sucking the marrow out of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone.  That’s where the WM Phoenix Open found itself this year.  I like the enormity of the event but the wholesale drunkenness of the event coupled with the patience of many players was an awful look for the event.  They have a brand and it’s a massive party, but you eventually see the charm, or what can be mistaken as charm, choked out of everything by gluttony. 
  1. The Zach Johnson incident sums up the week.  Were fans likely being douchey and relentless? Yes.  Does Zach come off as hypersensitive?  Yes.  The fans, who were likely hammered, don’t care, and while Johnson may have heard just enough, to confront the fans comes off whiny.  Zach is able to land the punch, so to speak, when he claps back but he likely won’t score with the judges.
  1. Getting a second look at The Tree Farm this past week only re-affirmed what I thought on my first visit.  The club will quickly ascend to one of the best hangs in golf because of the culture and touch points being created by their team.  Secondly, the work of Tom Doak on the routing and the collaboration of Kye Goalby and Zac Blair on the design and build out of the course is fantastic.  The 6th green is a piece of art, the loop of 5-6-7 is so so good and the willingness to be unorthodox by starting with a par 3 and ending with a drivable par 4 distinguishes the experience.  The atmosphere around the outdoor space at the soon to be finished clubhouse will make it one of the best spots in golf.
  1. The differing opinions from PGA Tour players about the reentry of LIV players into tour fields at some point is a classic example of not being able to see what the greater good is because of pride, hurt feelings or both.  Fans want the best players as often as possible playing against one another.  The inability or unwillingness of guys who stayed to simply acknowledge that fact is telling.  Be angry or betrayed all you want; fans have paid the price while tons of players have gotten exponentially richer at the fans and the product’s expense.  That day, by the way, seems further and further away.
  1. Smylie Kaufman and Kevin Kisner on the 16th hole on Saturday on NBC’s coverage was very effective.  They are irreverent and the environment was suited for their levity.  I think there are additional places to station them together on Saturdays coming up, including 17 at the Players and 17 at the PGA National, formerly the Honda and now the Cognizant Classic.  Chemistry is so critical to large chunks of live TV and those two have it, I expect NBC to utilize it.
  1. Jordan Spieth is showing real signs and building toward winning, but the short putts is something.  He’s 145th on tour from 3 feet and last year he was 172nd.  It feels flinchy and his process seems more deliberate from that distance.  He looked at the hole early in his career for a reason and in the cumulative its costing him better results and may cost him a win in a crucial moment.
  1. You had to know that Brooks Koepka trading for a veteran presence in Graeme McDowell for the Smash lineup was all they needed to start winning.  I’ve always said depth is the most important thing about winning in professional golf.
  1. Will this be the week that the commissioner of the PGA Tour makes himself visible?  It’s the middle of February and the leader of the tour has been a ghost and that includes not being visible at Pebble in a year they receive “Signature” status.  If you do not co-op the space with Tiger, when is it ever going to be safe to come out?  
  1. Joel Dahmen said it best about his college teammate Nick Taylor a couple years ago when he said Taylor was built to handle the deep end of the pool.  Dialing the area code 3-3-3 on the 18th hole on Sunday was absurdly good.  He adds this dramatic come from behind win to the Canadian playoff masterpiece last summer.  Taylor is becoming a real dude.
  1. Scottie Scheffler is a beast.  He relentlessly contends, rarely retreats and hits more great shots than anyone in golf BUT his putter is skittish at times and winning is the only measuring stick for him as much as the top 10’s can get him shine.  He is approaching a year without a win and that makes no sense with stats that blow your mind.  Charley Hoffman executed every shot late on Sunday and Scheffler three-putted 13, made a super soft bogey on 14, and made a weak par 5 on 15.  It’s a vortex he must break back through and close losses can work the opposite on his mind.

The Card – Volume XXVI

by | Feb 5, 2024 | The Card

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. Tom Brady’s stone-cold top of his tee shot at Pebble Beach is so comprehensive in its relatability and impact on him and everyone else.  Brady grew up in Northern California and dreamed of playing Pebble Beach when golf became more than a curiosity.  He started playing in the pro-am when he rose to stardom over 20 years ago.  He hates being bad at anything and his competitiveness is legendary, and he can be a poor sport.  The tee shot on the first at Pebble Beach will eat at him like a virus.  It can happen and has happened to everyone, but not him until now.  Brady loves the action, and he is a shit talker when competing at everything and now every single person he plays golf with has the “TOP” in their arsenal of abuse.  Even the GOAT can be undressed by the game.
  1. Josh Allen has a likability that jumps through the screen wherever the venue.  His love for golf was already known since he attended three of the majors last year as a fan.  To see Allen with his dad caddying for him this past week was even more endearing.  He proudly wore his new gear from Cypress Point during his Friday round at Pebble Beach and conducted interviews on Golf Channel with a full understanding of who Todd Lewis and Rich Lerner are.  Allen loving golf is a good thing.
  1. LIV golf’s roster gets stronger and stronger, but I am curious to see where the traction is in local markets and across their growing reach digitally especially outside the United States.  Mayakoba was always a modest crowd when it hosted a tour event but I’m hearing from a very good source in Las Vegas that the appetite for tickets for next week’s event, during Super Bowl is sparse, to put it kindly.  The strategy to be in market for the first Super Bowl has some cache but watching golf off the strip while the world congregates for the first time in Sin City is not selling.  If they can get some exposure for players from networks covering the game that’s a benefit but a no fans presentation contrasted against “golfapalooza” at the Waste Management is not a win.
  1. This past week was another example of Rory McIlroy displaying a willingness to express an opinion that is very different from a previous position.  Rory was hyper critical of golf being a part of the Olympic program and used the stage of the Open Championship in 2016 to dismiss the competition in Rio.  Part of that was rooted in him being used as a political football by government officials.  His position changed completely and his participation in Tokyo was full circle.  Similarly, Rory has expressed out and out hatred for LIV and the source of the money, but that position has evolved from resignation to acceptance.  This past week he declared that LIV players should be welcomed back post haste without any penalty.  A position not universally shared by his peers on the PGA Tour.  His subsequent conversation with Jordan Spieth who suggested the PIF investment may or may not be needed after the SSG commitment would indicate McIlroy thinks the tour desperately needs the Saudi’s money knowing without it they will continue to strip away the tours best players. 
  1. The USGA released their handicap rewind to all GHIN members this past week.  It’s a clever review of all the scoring data for rounds in 2023.  It was also a greenlight for countless people to share that information on social media.  It would have been a good time for the USGA to also remind everyone that NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU SHOT, or when and how often.
  1. Bernard Langer was scheduled to compete in his final Masters this April and now that will have to wait a year after he tore his Achilles tendon training this past Thursday.  At 66 his ability to win number 47 and beyond on PGA Tour champions was already going to be hard enough and now you must wonder if his final win to pass Hale Irwin is the end of the winningest career in tour history.  I think he will get off the mat to win again.
  1. Every pundit, player and fan suggesting the private equity group, SSG, that just put 1.5 billion into the PGA Tour with the possibility of matching it to 3 billion is doing all of this for the good of men’s professional golf doesn’t know the first tenet of private equity.  How do we make money off this investment?  If a byproduct of the changes and advancements they make to the PGA Tour to make it more appealing to the consumer, and by a modest degree make the game better, great… but that is not their mission.  It’s also not a criticism it’s just the plain truth.
  1. The Saudis are accustomed to getting what they want because they can buy anything and everything they want.  In the same week of the SSG/PGA Tour deal, PIF invested in four premier rugby league teams.  Their money, as I’ve said previously, is headed into other American sporting enterprises.  It may be disgruntled by the tour’s new position, and they may not, but they could also turn their attention to purchasing the DP World Tour.  Partnering is not their history but they may see the long-range value of a tour partnership.  But one thing will not change about the Saudis, they play by their rules with the balance sheet being their continual tie breaker.
  1. Wyndham Clark’s round of 60 was terrific, and yes, it’s the lowest competitive round in Pebble beach history but it comes with the caveat.  Lift, clean and place is a condition that alters the texture of the accomplishment.  It doesn’t extinguish it, but it must be pointed out.  It’s called an asterisk.
  1. Men’s elite professional golf is played in pants, not shorts.  Jon Rahm trying to win a golf tournament in shorts makes the event feel unserious.  Not diminishing anyone who wins a LIV event wearing shorts it just feels unserious.  
  1. LIV golf had a moment with Pebble being pushed to Monday.  Rahm in the mix and Sergio and Joaquin Niemann taking their playoff into the darkness.  Niemann is a wonderful player but when his first reaction is that he’s not in the majors you lose the moment.  The aggrieved act is not only not accurate since he is in the Open and likely in the PGA, but it rings hollow since every player who took the money knew the circumstances, and if they didn’t shame on them and or their agents for not knowing the possible major roulette they were playing.
  1. LIV shows golf shots and always has.  It does not get bogged down in elements that are either sold or frivolous.  The production is first rate, and they are required to sell the team concept because it is part of the competition but if you are not interested in the team concept the sales job gets redundant and stale, very quickly.
  1. Wyndham Clark joins a strong list of 54-hole winners at Pebble Beach including Johnny Miller, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, John Cook and Payne Stewart.  Weird irony that in a week where LIV got some real run with the golf gasbags that a SIGNATURE series event on the PGA tour with a short field, a 20-million-dollar purse was reduced to 54 holes.  
  1. Justin Thomas had one bogey free round in 72 rounds played last year on tour. He has three bogey free rounds in seven rounds played in 2024.  A warm putter is all that stands between him and a huge break back to where he’s always been…at the top of the food chain.
  1. Dylan Frittelli strongly considered doing something else when his game left him, and he found himself examining what would be next.  Instead, he dug in and Sunday he won the Bahrain Championship on the DP World Tour. His first win on that tour since 2017.  Just another story of someone staring into the abyss and batting it away to find success again.
  1. Caleb Surratt made the choice to leave the University of Tennessee and take the LIV money and join Jon Rahm’s new team.  Sunday, he birdied his last five holes and cashed a check for $350,000 and also shares in the split of $3 million for the team win.  Whenever the dust settles, Surratt will have to satisfy some likely qualifying process since he never had status on the PGA Tour.  Talent doesn’t hide, whatever he will need to do he will do it swiftly, he’s a dude.
  1. Mark Hubbard finishes in a tie for 4th at Pebble beach and rakes a big check and huge points.  His engagement off the 18th green in 2015 at Pebble will always be his greatest memory there but this past week was huge for his ability to land starts in the best events after ending last year 64th in the FedEx Cup fall.
  1. Waste Management Phoenix Open week is here.  Having seen all the debauchery, imbibing and the sheer scale of the whole thing for many years I always found it thoroughly entertaining.  The enormity of the build out, the grandiosity of the footprint and the singular experience make it truly different.  In a current landscape of way too much sameness, WM has something most of the others just say they have, a brand.