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
As the Green Jacket has become cool again--thanks in part to winners parading the Pantone 342 blazer to some pretty swell places--Golf Threads has 13 things you probabaly didn't know. I certainly learned a few things about golf's most coveted article of clothing, including where it's made, where the fabric comes from, how long it's been since they've need to order new fabric and how inexpensive they are to make.
Powerful stuff from Lexi Thompson at her ANA Inspiration press conference a year removed from the four-stroke penalty that cost her a major.
Penalties, which, by the way, could not happen again thanks to changes in the rules, as Larry Bohannan explains in the Desert Sun.
From Beth Ann Nichols' Golfweek story:
“That night was extremely rough,” said Thompson of the hours that followed the toughest loss of her career. “I was screaming, crying. You know, I’ve re-lived it for a while. I had nightmares about it. You know, I still occasionally do.”
Thompson, 23, cried on every tee shot that followed her encounter with rules officials after the 12th hole. She said it was the fans who allowed her to finish the way she did.
“I heard them chanting my name on every shot, every tee,” she said. “I heard them on the green chanting my name, and I was like, I have to finish strong for them.”
Vandalism in golf takes many shapes and sizes, and while I know the purveyors of The Open will argue that Tom Morris was one of the proud creators and winners of The Open, there is no way to sugarcoat this as anything other than a dreadful, vandalous act as verified by the Twitter replies:
The Open’s flagship store opens today situated adjacent to the 18th green of the Old Course #StAndrews #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/VhSDUkDcvj
— The Open (@TheOpen) March 26, 2018
Every golf professional and golf shop owes something to this location's historical importance. Furthermore, the change is made all the more appalling by recent Links Trust efforts to restore the shop and highlight it's importance. The name Tom Morris has been an integral part of Links Road for well over a century and golfers from across the globe have come to pay their respects.
Historian Dale Concannon:
Literally scrubbing away the history that made St Andrews such a great place to visit #shame #shame #shame pic.twitter.com/qABuUuPnfj
— DaleConcannon (@DaleConcannon) March 26, 2018
This from local writer Kieran Clark...
This is a slap in the face of history. Old Tom Morris - a major figure in both the heritage of St. Andrews Links and The Open Championship - deserves better. Shocking. https://t.co/F5u3K7swa3
— Kieran Clark (@KieranClarkGolf) March 26, 2018
He'll be helming the ANA Inspiration's Golf Channel coverage this week with Judy Rankin and also undoubtedly will be thinking about the 35th (!) anniversary of NC State's improbably NCAA basketball championship.
But fresh off his prominent Olympics role, Terry Gannon continues to be the least-recognized top voice in golf.
Steve Eubanks of Global Golf Post considers what makes Gannon such a solid announcer, including his talent for asking the right questions of his analysts.
It's not the first Masters because we know the 9th green was a lot more interesting in Dr. MacKenzie and Bobby Jones' version, but still a fun aerial from the good ole days:
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Click here on the link if the embed is resisting, as it's more rarely seen Champions Dinner moments via the Masters Instagram account...
6 days until #themasters and an extraordinary gathering. #cominginapril
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The saki barrel has been broken, so the ANA Inspiration can begin. The honorary starters ceremony, this is not.
The #anainspiration has officially begun with the breaking of the saki barrel!
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Quite possibly the most awkward thing I've watched in years...if not ever.
Adam Schupak with a Golf.com exclusive on Augusta National's effort to crack down on ticket holders who have sold to third parties. They are being notified by letter that their $150 is to be credited and they can expect to no longer be attending the Masters.
As Schupak notes, this scenario means there may be unsuspecting buyers who show up at the Masters after having paid top dollar, only to find their tickets invalidated.
How are they spotting the offenders?
The tournament has long prohibited the reselling of its coveted single-day tickets and multi-day badges, but last year it added a new defense to catch offenders: color-coded strips on the bottom of the tickets that the tournament's ticket police can use as secret decoder rings of sorts to determine the original purchasers. Each of the colors in the six-color design represents a letter and five numbers that match the corresponding ticket number.
The Masters scripting absurdity put into perspective, as always, by Tim Herron.
So, I've settled on my apparel for @TheMasters. On another note, I have a new website at https://t.co/NE77R55omw #SayYesToTheHotDog #TheMasters pic.twitter.com/hfKUHHLu8i
— Tim Herron (@PGALumpy) March 26, 2018
While we've been salivating at the potential for this year's Masters to give us a match up for the ages, of all ages, there is another fantastic story out there: U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion Matt Parziale.
Alan Shipnuck gives the Brockton, Mass. firefighter's story the deep dive treatment for Golf.com and it's a
A half-dozen guys started talking at the same time, all in accents thicker than chowdah. They asked after Parziale's old man, Vic, who served 33 years in the same precinct before retiring last autumn as a captain. Inevitably, talk turned to Parziale's upcoming tournament schedule.
"I'm gonna try to get down there to watch," one guy said, "but I'm looking for a green blazer to wear so I can fit in." The room exploded in laughter.
Somewhere Bobby Jones must be smiling about the culture clash of a horde of Beantown back-drafters tromping along his gilded fairways. But it was Jones's abiding love for amateur golf that created a spot in the Masters for a guy like Parziale and his cinematic journey to Augusta.
As the 50th anniversary of his Masters win arrives, Bob Goalby will be the understandable focus of some preview coverage. Sean Zak at Golf.com pulled up the recently uploaded YouTube posting of the 1968 broadcast and posted this item along with a podcast.
Also of note is a sensational Golf Digest My Shot with Guy Yocom, who somehow got a Goalby My Shot pitch by the millennial filtering (must have Bob's Amana flatbrim that fooled 'em).
I was heartened to read this from Goalby:
WE'RE AT THE 50-YEAR mark of that Masters, and history is being kinder to me. Young people especially don't know about the controversy because it was so long ago. To them, I'm just a Masters champion. They'll say, "That's so cool. What year did you win? Can you tell me about it?" And I tell them about how I shot 66 on Sunday, the overflowing parking lot and the letter Bobby Jones wrote me about my shot to the 15th. Time is allowing me to be at peace and to feel even more proud and satisfied.
Golf's Michael Bamberger interviewed Shurley Hammack, son of Augusta National's first superintendent, who was raised on the property until his father's death and a abrupt eviction by that always gentle Clifford Roberts.
Still, “Daddy had no love for Clifford Roberts,” Shurley said over the course of a three-hour inter-view in which he displayed a keen memory and exemplary Southern-tradition storytelling skills. “For the longest time I thought his name was Sumbitch Roberts, ’cause Mr. Roberts would come down from New York and Daddy would say, ‘Sumbitch Roberts coming to the club today.’ ”
Simpson was the superintendent (the club’s term) for the first nine Masters. The course closed for the war, and the tournament wasn’t played in 1943, ’44 or ’45. During that time Augusta National was used for cattle grazing, but just briefly. The herd ate not only the grass but also the azaleas, and the experiment was quickly shut down.
Another revelation: Hammack's dad, Simpson, left holes in the greens when the club was closed for the summer, allowing Shurley and friends to still play the course. That will have the ghost of Mr. Roberts stirring...
If you didn't hear about Eun-Hee Ji's KIA Classic final round, she hit all 18 greens and made a one at the par-3 14th en route to victory. (Beth Ann Nichols' Golfweek.com game story has the lowdown.)
Besides a car for winning the event, she took home a KIA Sorrento for this shot. But it's the setup by Grant Boone, Judy Rankin and Jerry Foltz that adds to the spectacle of a surreal moment (and a rewarding sponsorship for KIA).
From Morning Drive's recap:
Let's forget that the PGA of America is bringing the Ryder Cup back to Hazeltine National just a dozen years after it last hosted, or that the course in question isn't particularly memorable, lovable or likely to be pursued by other organizations for a championship. The course was beautifully conditioned and in its defense, tainted by Team USA's dreadful Sunday singles placement of nearly all hole locations in the green centers.
According to the announcement...
Hazeltine -- site of the U.S. Ryder Cup Team’s 17-11 victory in 2016 -- will become the first American venue to host a second Ryder Cup. Four English courses have hosted multiple Ryder Cups: The Belfry (1985, ’89, ‘93, 2002); Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club (1961, ‘77); Royal Birkdale Golf Club (1965, ’69) and Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club (1933, ’37).
So let's ask as we always do with these silly announcements: why lock in venues that aren't in demand so far down the line? What is the incentive? Because the news value tends to range from "who cares" to "I just hope to be alive in 2028", instead of, "boy I can't wait!"
Maybe the PGA of America just wanted to piggyback on the far more popular Gold Medal winning U.S. Men's Curling team, and for that, I can't blame them:
We’ve got some news... pic.twitter.com/y6gaYajPCZ
— Ryder Cup USA (@RyderCupUSA) March 26, 2018
On this week's post-match play show we discuss the event, possible tweaks, and go through some pre-Masters scouting reports based on the week's play.
We also preview the Houston Open, which is facing an uncertain future and almost certainly is being played for the last time as a pre-Masters tournament.
The Art 19 option for listening but as you know by now I hope, the show is available wherever fine podcasts are streamed.
And as always, the show is brought to you by Callaway, makers of Rogues, Chrome Softs and the best internet golf talk show on the planet, Callaway Live.
This week's show features Sergio Garcia. A preview:
Tune in March 27th at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. EST to watch the full episode. Full episodes and highlights: http://cmp.callawaygolf.com/callawaylive/
Granted, favorite-to-win status means not a thing, but given where he was a year ago a second big win by Bubba Watson heading into the Masters is no small feat.
Oh, and he's just won the WGC Dell Match Play, which gives him wins at two prestigious events, including one played at the same format as the Ryder Cup. (Though as Rex Hoggard notes, it's still a mixed-bag record while Kisner's relationship with match play only has gotten stronger.)
Mike McCallister at PGATour.com with Bubba's amazing week and admissions that last year was a low point, though Watson still isn't specific about what exactly was the primary issue.
The Golf.com gang kick around this notion of Bubba as favorite and his resounding 7&6 win at Austin Country Club over a clearly-spent Kevin Kisner, who played a tough semi-final match against Alex Noren.
He had famous (and needing to shower) fans Sunday:
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PGA Tour Entertainment's highlight package:
Gulp...The Forecaddie says Valero may be sorry if it gets the pre-Masters slot to the Valero Texas Open and the TPC San Antonio, a polar opposite of Augusta National architecturally.
I'd add that players can now just go to The Masters early and hang out at their very own tournament practice center, play some ANGC, eat some peach cobbler and pass on pitching backwards out of the cedars in San Antonio should the Valero becomes the pre-Masters stop.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
