WSJ On The Year Of The Golf (Equipment) Free Agency

This is a nice big picture consideration by Brian Costa of the Wall Street Journal following up on post-Nike trend of players playing mixed bags either by force due to the Swoosh's equipment business demise, or going that route as club companies devote more resources to stars. (Thanks reader John). 

My ShackHouse colleague Joe House has noted on the show how the first three major winners this year are playing a mixture of clubs in looking for a wagering angle headed here to Bellerive, something Costa looks into and considers whether it's a trend. With purses rising and checks from companies flatlining or shrinking, the answer appears to be yes.

The math has also changed. Purse money continues to hit record highs each year, extending a boom that dates to the debut of Tiger Woods and survived his absence in recent years. At the same time, the market for equipment deals has cooled.

Agents and officials from the manufacturers say that a handful of star players—think Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson —still earn several million dollars annually on such deals. But the offers for most other players have dropped substantially. A midlevel Tour player who made $500,000 a decade ago might make $250,000 now.

Anywhere But Palm Beach Gardens: PGA Headquarters Move Could Go Many Directions

Outgoing PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua commented on the PGA of America's possible move to Frisco, Texas and opened the door to a move there, a bigger and more modern facility in Florida or other possible locations in the United States.

The comments leave the PGA staff less certain than ever, something Bevacqua empathized with in his remarks. From my Golfweek.com item:

“It’s difficult on the staff to be in this period of limbo where we don’t know exactly where we’ll be,” he said. “Are we going to stay put? Are we going to move to Frisco? Could we move somewhere else? So I know the goal is to resolve that and come to a conclusion as soon as possible, but we’re just not there yet, unfortunately, because we would like to have made that decision.”

Conde Nast Expects To Have Golf Digest Sold By Year's End

CEO Bob Sauerberg

The WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg offers an update on Conde Nast's plans to have "signed agreements" to sell Golf Digest by year's end.

There was also this:

It’s possible that Condé could retain an interest in the golf business, depending on its future owner.

R.I.P. Jarrod Lyle

One of the most heroic souls to have played the game at a high level, Jarrod Lyle has passed away after battling cancer.

From a remembrance by Mark Hayes at Golf Australia:

The following is a statement from Briony Lyle, who asks that the family’s privacy remains respected at this most solemn of times.

“It breaks my heart to tell everyone that Jarrod is no longer with us.

“He passed away peacefully at 8.20pm last night having spent his final week in Torquay among his family and close friends.

“Lusi, Jemma and I are filled with grief and now must confront our lives without the greatest husband and father we could ever have wished for.

“At the same time, we have been blessed and overwhelmed with the messages and actions of support from around the world and feel comforted that Jarrod was able to happily impact so many people throughout his life. Our humble thanks to you all."

Hackers Lock PGA Of America Out Of Servers, Leaderboards Unaffected But About Some Of Those Documents...

Forgive PGA of America officials for a little less joviality even as the St. Louis fans wholeheartedly support this week's PGA Championship: their servers have been hacked. And someone wants them to pay up in Bitcoin or else...

Eamon Lynch with the Golfweek exclusive explaining what could be an issue on many levels for the organization during their busy week.

Staff realized Tuesday morning that their systems had been compromised when attempts to work on the files generated an ominous message: “Your network has been penetrated. All files on each host in the network have been encrypted with a strong algorythm [sic].”

What kind of hacker doesn't know how to spell the lifeblood of their existence? But they do trade in untraceable currency which the PGA will not acknowledge.

The message also included a Bitcoin wallet number, but no specific ransom amount was demanded for the return of the files. Bitcoin wallets are not linked to a particular person or entity and cannot be used to identify suspects.

Say hackers, what logos have you seen for the 2024 and 2025 PGA's? 

Justin Thomas' PGA Champions Dinner Menu Revealed! Now, About Those Wine Choices...

Nice turnout for the Champions dinner at the 100th PGA Championship. Not sure they dug too deep into any wine cellars for those selections...

@justinthomas34’s Champions Dinner menu definitely won’t disappoint. 🤤

A post shared by PGA Championship (@pgachampionship) on Aug 7, 2018 at 4:36pm PDT

Bryson Wins The Long Drive With Flair

Since the PGA Championship brought back the Long Drive Competition to liven up Tuesday and give the paying fans a little something extra to enjoy, some players have been reticent to give it their all in fear of injury or altering their mechanics. Not Bryson DeChambeau! Well done effort here to edge Peter Uihlein and Tony Finau. 

@brysondechambeau sends it 331 yards and leads the Long Drive Competition so far! #ThatWasEasy #PGAChamp

A post shared by PGA Championship (@pgachampionship) on Aug 7, 2018 at 1:53pm PDT

Live From Discussion: Green Reading Books

Good stuff from Live From The PGA last night on green reading books, with players interviewed all saying they'll be better off without the cheat sheets and the Aimpoint founder even suggesting many players are mis-using the books. 

The discussion after those two pieces was also enlightening. 

Players In Shorts Not Growing The Game Or The Prestige Of Golf's Fourth Major

Many wonder if the PGA Championship is moving ahead of the U.S. Open in the prestige department. 

I'm pretty sure this look--extending to coaches, agents and other team moochers--brands a special member-guest casualness and classlessness that no move to May or Frisco can shake. But if we really want to grow the game,  I say let the boys wear what they put on their best dinner attire these days: gym shirts and shorts, and definitely hats on backwards! 

👀found some fans of the "shorts allowed on practice days" rule.

A post shared by PGA Championship (@pgachampionship) on Aug 7, 2018 at 3:16pm PDT

ShackHouse 74: PGA Championship Preview From Bellerive

House and I convene to discuss Bellerive, the final major of 2018 and try to decipher who the course will favor. 

As always, your iTunes or other podcast host site subscriptions are appreciated. Or you can listen here below. 

Green Reading Bibliophiles Trying To Make Their Case

Caddie John Wood pens a guest piece for Golf.com on the announced green book ban and states his case for defending for the pricey books employed increasingly throughout competitive golf. 

While I don't agree with his case, this was an enjoyable jab at the governing bodies, who probably do not entirely disagree:

Because it feels like there’s an elephant on the tee box that no one’s addressing — looking at you, 350-yard drives — and you guys are waving your hands and jumping up and down saying: “Look over here, look over here! Here’s the problem! Look at how easy putting has become!” Sorry, but if we get a calm day at St. Andrews in a couple of years and someone shoots 59 on the Old Course, it’s not gonna be because of a series of little arrows in a book.

His primary argument is that reading the books is a skill. It's also a financial burden for some players.

Deciphering the green maps takes work and diligence, in a short amount of time; it’s not as simple as mindlessly plugging numbers from the hole-location sheet into a graph. Used incorrectly, these books can twist you into knots; I guarantee you that as many putts are missed by misreading greens books as are made by reading them correctly. Misplace the hole location or the location of your ball by a foot, and you’re going to miss, plain and simple.

He goes on to make a strong case for enforcement issues, which indirectly makes a case for just banning them altogether for easier enforcement. 

Meanwhile, the folks who make money selling the books are understandably trying to lobby the USGA and R&A in the comment period. Jim Stracka of Strackalines has sent an email plea out to customers with suggested talking points:

I'm not sure those points are going to have much influence.

Ballstriker's Rejoice: Bellerive's Greens Are Slow, Weak And Not Likely To Improve

August and the first 100 years are going out with a bang!

We know how hard the agronomists work to get a course ready, so picking on Bellerive's slow, soft and tender greens is not high on anyone's list.  Especially as we sit here Tuesday with multiple deluges hitting the course after relentless heat all summer.

As Joel Beall first noted for GolfDigest.com, the early signs at Bellerive are not good. 

But as The Forecaddie writes with more details on the issues, the balky greens have been an ongoing issue for the course dating back to last summer and all of 2018.

The Post-Dispatch's take by Dave Matter is a bit sunnier, with Tony Finau calling the greens good, something to note for those on his bandwagon this week. 

Carlos Arraya, Director of Grounds here, was on Live From the PGA during Monday's show and is looking forward to cooler conditions as the week goes: 

We discussed on Morning Drive my first impressions of the course:

Bellerive From Above: All 18 Holes Of The 2018 PGA Championship Venue

Because the course seen limited play this summer due to maintenance issues and so few players have any history at Bellerive, this flyover should help get you acquainted with the 2018 PGA Championship host site. Caffeine won't hurt either.

The full scorecard and hole-by-hole imagery is here. The course is over 500 yards longer than last time to account for climate change, kale incorporation into diets and just Joey D in general.

Carve away 14 minutes and time to swat away a few mid-play ads. Here goes:

Almost Everyone Seems To Be In Favor Of Restricting Green Reading Books Except The People Profiting From Them

Mike Stachura at Golf World looks at the PGA of America giving a "generally supportive" endorsement to a proposal restricting what players can use to read greens. But as Stachura reports, the PGA Tour's official position was ambiguous at best even though their rules officials were part of the deliberations on the green-reading cheat sheets the governing bodies have seen enough of. 

That news comes despite a less-than-full-throated affirmation from the PGA Tour on Tuesday, in which the folks in Ponte Vedra Beach stated that they “will collaborate with both organizations in order to get feedback on the proposal from Tour players, PGA Tour rules officials and through our governance process.”

Other than Strakaline's Andrew Tredway looking to protect sales of the books to college golf programs--and you thought text books were expensive--most big name players are saying they won't oppose a ban.

“I don't use the book, but my caddie, John Wood, does,” Matt Kuchar said. “I'm for restricting it. For guys who want to stand over it and use the aim point with their finger, you know, that's a skill. Reading a book I guess takes graphing skills or plotting skills, but it's not golf as it's meant to be—plotting your way around using a book.”

As Stachura notes though, some players are questioning how enforcement will work, including Adam Scott.

“It seems to be the theme with the governing bodies for the last 20 years that they let everything go to a place they don’t like and then they struggle to dial it back. I don’t get it. I don't get that the size of the arrows that you write down in your book are going to be judged. It’s all mad.”

Certainly there will be some who push the spirit of the rules, but I'm guessing the rules experts are confident we'll be able to tell pretty quickly who is still hooked on his book. Unless of course the players pop in the restrooms for a look before heading down the fairways. 

Maybe they should just ban them after all. 

"Smylie Kaufman, his once-promising career on hold, speaks out about the dark side of social media"

His disappearance from leaderboards has gotten no where near the Anthony Kim levels of intrigue, but I've gotten no shortage of social media inquiries wondering what was up with Smylie Kaufman's game. Never were the inquiries sinister, but apparently Kaufman has heard from no shortage of critics.

Brian Wacker talked to Kaufman for Golf World about his injury and the social media commentary on his poor play.

A player who made the final pairing of the 2016 Masters has decided to take the rest of the year off to deal with an arm injury with hopes of restarting his PGA Tour career next year on a medical extension.