Rickie Week At The Players Means...Long Form Stories!?

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The lone negative of Rickie Fowler winning the 2015 Players in unbelievable fashion?

The youth-obsessed PGA Tour has bequeathed second-coming-of-Christ status on the week, riding Rickie like Kent Desormeaux on Exaggerator trying to catch Nyquist. Promos, more promos and undoubtedly on site "activation" that'll have his face plastered everywhere but on the ice sculpture in the Commissioner's buffet.

However, the win also allowed for a fascinating move into long form journalism, with D.J. Piehowski filing a lengthy profile and interactive piece for PGATour.com that's well worth a look. Just one highlight from the bio portion of the project that also includes graphics, embedded video and other goodies:

Rickie started to practice and play tournaments regularly, but on Wednesdays, he’d hit balls with his grandfather and hear stories about Taka's childhood, during which he was forced into a World War II internment camp for people of Japanese heritage.

Those moments with the man who introduced him to golf are the reason Rickie (whose middle name is Yutaka) cried after losing the Waste Management Phoenix Open in a playoff in February. It wasn’t because he missed out on a PGA TOUR victory; golfers lose far more tournaments than they win. It was because his grandfather, one of the 618,000 fans at TPC Scottsdale, had never seen him win in person.

Those moments led to Rickie getting his grandfather’s name tattooed in Japanese on the inside of his left bicep last year. They led to school projects and reports about Yutaka’s experience in the internment camp.

“I’ve never heard my dad talk about it and I’ve never heard Rickie talk about it,” Lynn says. “I think it’s possible Rickie could be the first person my dad gave those stories to.”

The epic Sunday finish also opened the door for Garry Smits to get more than a few inches of space in the Florida Times-Union to focus on Fowler's three times around the 17th hole.

On a day of extraordinary shot-making and putting from multiple contenders, Fowler’s three turns at No. 17 made the difference in his playoff victory over Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia to win the Players — and will be the defining moments in his victory, and to date, the most scintillating final round in tournament history.

A couple of nice meaty long-form stories got me to wondering where you feel we are with stories over say, 2000 words? With the reduction in print subscriptions and consumption, it was thought that long form could survive because the Internet was not worried about space. But then we realized that it's hard to hold attention spans online or on mobile devices.

Yet it seems to me that of late, more publications have been trying to bring back the long read, often with a dedicated sponsor. A few informal questions if you feel compelled...

A) Do you long for long form reads about golf related topics?

B) Do you reward a publication that publishes them with some clicks or a subscription? Or not think much about that?

C) Do you notice a sponsor if a story is brought to you by one advertiser?

D) Do any recent long form reads stand out as memorable?

Thanks class, happy Monday!

 

Danny Willett Says He Hasn't Heard From "Old Queenie"

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Michael Vaughn talks to Masters Champion Danny Willett, who has been off the golfing world's radar for nearly a month since winning Green Jacket.

Besides adding a little more perspective since the win, Willett tells The Telegraph about not wanting others to try on the jacket and who he's heard from. This might have dented his short term knighthood prospects...

“But there’s been lots of nice stuff. The Prime Minister sent me a letter which was cool. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer sent me letters and so did John Jacobs.”

Have you had one from Barack Obama? “No, I've not heard from the President of America yet - nor old Queenie. Still waiting for that one, bless her.”

He's Alive! Photographic Evidence Of AK Surfaces!

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Kyle Porter has friends in high places and pet stores, which is where a buddy of his ran into former PGA Tour player Anthony Kim, who was last seen a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Johnny On Cue: Jordan's Bent Left Elbow Needs Work

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Unaware of a comment Jordan Spieth's instructor made a few years ago predicting analysts like Johnny Miller would criticize his pupil's swing, Johnny mentioned during a Players Championship conference call seeing more of the bent left elbow at impact in 2016.

John Strege with both Miller's critique and instructor Cameron McCormick's prescient prediction.

“He has a tendency with that bent left elbow to come down with the face open,” Miller said in a teleconference call in advance of the Players Championship next week. “He has been doing it quite a bit this year. He really did it [at the Masters]. That was an amazing miss in the water and an amazing fat shot in the water.

“I’m looking forward to seeing if he and his teacher address that bent left arm. It seems like it’s more bent at impact and after impact than last year. It will be interesting to see if we see a little swing change to eliminate that shot to the right.”