Divisor Will Push Koepka Back To World No. 1, Week After Rose Goes Back In Top Spot

G.C. Digital reports on the fine calculations by Golf Channel’s Alan Robison suggesting Brooks Koepka will again take the World No. 1 mantle from Justin Rose, just days after Rose reclaimed the throne (and hopefully assorted bonuses).

The 38-year-old Englishman returned to No. 1 in the world – a position he first assumed at the BMW Championship in early September – after his playoff victory Sunday at the Turkish Airlines Open. That moved him just .05 points clear of Koepka.   

Koepka’s divisor dropped from 45 to 44 in the two-year OWGR calendar, resulting in his average points rising.

After this week, Koepka will have 10.32 average points to Rose's 10.16.

Might this be a good time to agree to ignoring World No. 1 status for a while? When divisors dictate positioning to this supposedly meaningful throne even as the players in question are sitting at home seems like a solid reason to focus on more important areas?

Miami Voters Pretty Much Deciding On Fate Of Lone Muni, First Tee Facility

David Beckham wants a mall, hotel and 25,000 soccer stadium in Miami and Melreese GC is the unfortunate location he’s chosen. The City is on board and with the passage of a referendum can grant approval without the usual bidding process.

This unbylined Goal.com story gives a nice summary. The Miami Herald has a more detailed breakdown.

Brian Wacker of GolfDigest.com has the golf angle, including the history of a course that has helped produce Cristie Kerr and Erik Compton (who recently appeared on Morning Drive to talk about the course and battle).

The course, Miami’s only city course, houses The First Tee as well.

First Tee board member Carlos Rodriguez talked to Morning Drive’s Lauren Thompson about the the fight and to save the Melreese and the potential loss of the program’s Miami base.

Cinderella Story: Parel With Legit Shot At $1 Million Schwab Cup

If he doesn’t win the Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix this week, Scott Parel will need some help from Bernhard Langer and others to claim the $1 million prize. Still it’s been a while since the PGA Tour Champions has seen someone who played so little PGA Tour golf (five starts at age 38) turn into a leader money winner and potential Schwab Cup champ.

Eamon Lynch of Golfweek with Parel’s surprise rise from the Monday qualifying ranks, including this:

Parel didn’t even join the paid ranks until he was 31 years old, after a decade in the IT industry. He made just five career starts on the PGA Tour, and it wasn’t until 2003, when he was 38, that he secured Web.com Tour status. He made 18 starts that year and earned $3,344. His lone win came in 2013. By then he was 48 and turning his attention to the over-50s circuit.

With no playing privileges, Parel had to rely on Monday qualifiers, a system that offers odds only slightly better than a Mega Millions lottery drawing. He made it through eight times that first season but remained realistic.

ShotLink: Strokes Gained Says Bryson Won This Time (Really) Relying On Ballstriking

While his eagle putt from off the 16th green created the buzz (above), Bryson DeChambeau’s fifth PGA Tour win and fourth in the last five months was marked by an incredible ballstriking performance. Imagine how good he’ll be with a flagstick in the hole to help him make more putts.

From the ShotLink crew:

It’s pretty unusual to see a putting performance that mediocre win a PGA Tour event.

Also note in his five wins how he’s improved in ballstriking versus the field in each victory:

Poll: Will Leaving Flagsticks In The Cup Become A Thing In Pro Golf?

I’m still fascinated by the Golf.com exclusive reporting that Bryson DeChambeau’s plans to start leaving the flagstick in for most putts when the 2019 Rules of Golf kick in.

Given that he just won his fourth tournament in five starts, DeChambeau’s methodology and madness is bound to have some copycats if he proves it to be a useful way to putt.

But some have predicted it will be a visual mess for pro golf, as Hank Haney did. He sees the USGA and R&A having to back off the rule, or face PGA Tour intervention of some kind in the form of a local rule.

I certainly can see where the sight of some players wanting the flag tended and others leaving it in could turn greens into a weird game of Twister as caddies navigate through lines and wait to hear from the player if they want the stick in or out.

There will also be others who test things out with regulation flags in the green and undoubtedly many opinions what works. The Forecaddie has info on the actual PGA Tour stock flagstick, in case you have COR testing to do.

The Golf.com gang batted around the flagstick matter too and scores some points worthy of consideration. This from Luke Kerr-Dineen was spot on:

Kerr-Dineen: If the anchor ban provides the precedent, we can deduce that golf’s rules are decided — at least in part — by how the powers that be want the game to look. It’s not something that’s specific to golf. The NFL is a classic example of legislating the game in a way that makes it more marketable. If the bosses upstairs see Bryson putting with the flagstick in and don’t love the look of it, don’t be surprised to see them “revisit” this rule.

Personally, I can’t comprehend the advantage being worth the visual distraction that is so different from what players are used to. But I also can’t fathom anchoring a putter

This trend could go a few ways and I’d would love to hear what you think. I voted for the top one. Especially if Dave Pelz or others do more testing with putts and see no harm in the practice.

What will happen in 2019 with flagsticks and putting?

Bryson will do it most of the time persuading others to follow suit

Bryson will end the practice after the first putt bounces off the stick

Some will, some won't, it'll be a mess that the PGA Tour will have to bad

We won't even remember he ever mentioned it come January

pollcode.com free polls

Europe Explores Colosseum Ryder Cup Opening In 2022, But Will There Be A Decent Course To Play?

Rex Hoggard talks to European Tour Chief Keith Pelley, who says the 2022 Ryder Cup is very much headed to Italy despite no shortage of reports about ongoing instability that jeopardizes government assistance of the Cup. And Pelley teased a potentially big opening ceremony location.

“I’ve said all along the Ryder Cup in 2022 is going to Italy,” said Pelley, who added that the tour’s Ryder Cup support team is in Italy this week meeting with local officials. “Italy in 2022 is a story that people talk about but we had conversations this week about the opening ceremony being in the Colosseum. These are serious conversations with Italian decision makers and officials.”

Hoggard notes that Marco Simone, the host course, is of even greater concern, with Pelley conceding it is behind schedule.

Much of the concern over Italy as the ’22 host has been focused on the course, Marco Simone, which Pelley described as a “construction zone.”

A recent press release suggested a vast construction undertaking underway.

But a reader played there two weeks ago, shared photos of a course not under construction and offered this assessment:

Played it at €90 for the day. Terrible course on an awkward piece of land (hilly) with a clay - read mud - soil base. A real stretch to see a RC here. Kicker is apparently - according to the member I played with - that the massive overhead power lines which blot the landscape are to be relayed underground - a project in itself. I’m no expert, but with less than 4 years to “balls in the air” it seems a real stretch to imagine the event there - unlike other Euro venues which had been there for years and needed a bit of tweaking. Basically a total reconstruction is required - incl the clubhouse IMHO, but is there time ? 

Two new holes are under construction at least. And the Colosseum could have lights and proper presenters in 2022!

The LPGA Has Had Better Q-Schools...

I’m not sure why the concept of Q-School has drifted so far. At one times tours had a season-ending tournament where players shooting the lowest score got a card for the following year. Sometimes it took a few stages and some terrible stress to get there, but it all worked pretty well.

We know by now how the PGA Tour has turned their legendary Q-School into a Web.com Tour field filler, and this year it was the LPGA Tour’s turn to make everyone scratch their heads with exemptions for college players.

Seven of the eight amateurs who qualified for the eight-round finals earned full status for 2019, meaning they will skip the spring. With the top five women in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings given an opportunity, their likely imminent departures will be a tough blow for college golf and not necessarily the way to run a Q-School. At least one player—naturally a Bruin—was not comfortable with the effort to expedite pro careers.

From Beth Ann Nichols’ report for Golfweek:

“You’re kind of making the decision for them,” said Kristy McPherson, a South Carolina grad and LPGA veteran who earned back her card at this week’s Q-Series.

UCLA’s Patty Tavatanakit (above) was in the running for College Player of the Year last year as a freshman. She actually hesitated in coming to Pinehurst at all for Q-Series.

“My heart and soul was not in this tournament,” said Tavatanakit, who told her dad as much after the third round.

And now there is the headline-making story of a player’s mother spotted moving a ball from out-of-bounds to in-bounds. Randall Mell on the DQ of Doris Chen, the 2014 NCAA Champion.

An LPGA source familiar with the information provided for the ruling told GolfChannel.com that a homeowner along the course who was watching the event observed the infraction and provided a description of the woman he saw moving Chen’s ball. The LPGA, the source said, later identified the woman as Chen’s mother, Yuh-Guey Lin.

Chen won the NCAA Championship while at USC in 2014. In three seasons on the Symetra Tour, she has combined to make just $12,050.

Chen couldn’t be reached for comment.

That all said, there were success stories noted here by Golf World’s Ryan Herrington.

Asked To "Nerd Out" About His Game, Jordan Spieth Passes

Jordan Spieth opened with a fantastic 5-under-par 66 at the Shriners and has started the 2019 season in style.

And even though the always-interesting star telegraphed at The Open this summer to expect an increased guardedness when discussing his game, it was still disappointing to see him clam up this week when asked to spell out what he saw in his 2018 stats and what he worked on in his short off-season.

Q. 31st in the FedExCup is a pretty good low mark for a career so far. How do you assess it yourself given it was you first winless season in a while, and what do you need to do better this season?

JORDAN SPIETH: You know, I really felt like I played like 30th, but Tiger played healthier than everyone thought. He just kind of took my spot there and then went on and won

But, yeah, it was a building year. I look back at last year as something that I think will be beneficial for me in the long run. I really believe that. I know that's an easy thing to say looking at kind of the positive in a negative, but there were tangible, mechanical things that I needed to address, and I was able to throughout the season.

Unfortunately, I had to play so much, like I said, towards the end that I couldn't really get it intact. So I stepped on the first tee knowing that I was playing a C-game instead of figuring where my game is at through the first couple rounds.

But I've done a lot of good work over the last four weeks, whether it required time off thinking or required actual practice. I've done I think a good balance of that and come in here with confidence.

Q. Will you nerd out a bit on us on those things you were trying to do?

JORDAN SPIETH: I can't, you know, because that's a competitive advantage for myself.

Last I heard, golf is an individual sport where the competition is not reading your offensive schemes and making adjustments to your chip shots. Furthermore, if you hit a ball in the rough, your playing partners cannot capitalize on knowing what you worked on this off-season to hit a better recovery shot, can they? Really?

I can’t think of a single thing he could have said that would have aided the competition. Such insights are probably only interesting to family, friends and fans.

If PGA Tour players no longer feel free to talk about how they are moving their ball back an inch in the stance, or “revealing” that their play from 100-120 yards was an off-season focus, press conferences will be getting very short! And very awkward.

Shriners Field Reduced To 132 Players, 70 Break Par And They Still Can't Finish Before The Sun Sets!

Just work with the idea that 70 players broke par, 51 broke 70 and 11 shot 66 or less led by first round leader Peter Uihlein.

Not many strokes being played, right? No high rough and crazy tough conditions to slow down the pace, correct?

No.

The Shriner’s Hospital For Children Open, already facing a reduction of 12 spots this year to help get the field around before dark (as reported by Rex Hoggard a few weeks ago), still could not finish the first round.

Why? Sure, today’s players are slow but more than the usual tedium, their prodigious driving distances mean the entire field is forced to wait for every par-5 green to clear and every short par-4 green to become available to their drives.

But as you know, nearly all players and their recent Commissioners have stated that slow play is not an issue, nor is distance in the game causing problems for getting a tournament field around.

Hopefully next year the Shriners shrinks to 120 players. Because maybe losing two-dozen “playing opportunities” will help the players and officials realize there are some very basic financial ramifications for chasing distance.

The Hope Is Looking For A Sponsor Again...

Larry Bohannan of the Desert Sun reports on the latest sponsor loss for the beleaguered PGA Tour stop in California. An ownership change to a private equity group at Careerbuilder led to the change.

Oddly though, the company is on the hook for this year’s purse but won’t have its name on the event.

CareerBuilder is still contractually obligated to fund the 2019 tournament, meaning the event will still have a $5.9 million purse, will still be broadcast on Golf Channel all four days and will be able to fund its charitable donations which reached $1 million from the 2018 event. But Sanders sees a chance to start the search for what he calls the right sponsor for 2020 earlier than if CareerBuilder was still involved through the 2019 tournament.

Well Won't 2019 Be Fun: Bryson Intends To Leave Flagstick In While Putting

At least, until the first putt clanks off the fiberglass and he looks at the innocent synthetic material holding a flag in disgust. Thankfully, flagsticks don’t have feelings.

Nice exclusive here from Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier on Bryson DeChambeau revealing during a photo shoot that at all fiberglass flagstick events, he will be putting with the pin in the hole. The new Rules of Golf will allow for putting with flagsticks in the hole starting January 1, 2019. The change was designed to speed up the game. But the mad scientist has done the calculations and sees another rationale.

“It depends on the COR, the coefficient of restitution of the flagstick,” he said. “In U.S. Opens, I’ll take it out, and every other Tour event, when it’s fiberglass, I’ll leave it in and bounce that ball against the flagstick if I need to.”

It’s interesting that DeChambeau goes on to say he thinks this will make the hole play bigger and that his good, good friends at the USGA will ultimately backtrack on the rule.

I don’t see that, but I could envision a scenario where players start griping about strange things and airing odd grievances.

Or the USGA and R&A could announce a slight increase in the size of the golf ball, fueling conspiracy theories that the move was not to slow down distance but to mess with Bryson.

There will also be the inevitable re-airing of the flagstick vs. pin moniker. But wouldn’t it be fun if the science backs him up.

"Champ family's road from racism to Tour winner"

The Champs

Nice work here from GolfChannel.com’s Tim Rosaforte to shed a little more light on the background and development of long-hitting Cameron Champ, winner for the first time on the PGA Tour last week.

This on grandfather Mack, who got Cameron into golf and who got the first phone call last Sunday before the winning card was even signed.

From the plastic clubs he first started swinging in his grandpa’s backyard at age 2, to the set of Tiger Woods irons Mack brought home, from the hours they spent at the par-3 Foothills Golf Center in Sacramento, to a win in his second start as an exempt member of the PGA Tour, the biggest hitter in tournament golf wouldn’t be the biggest hit in this week’s Shriners Hospital For Children Open in Las Vegas without his “Pops.”

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Mack said when we spoke on Monday evening. “I knew one of these days he was going to get there. I didn’t think it was going to get there that soon. It’s just amazing to see the progress from a boy until now.”

Holly Sonders' Fox Sports Golf Career Ends

The golf portion of her contract was not renewed and Holly Sonders is the latest to not make the FOX/USGA cut, reports The Forecaddie.

Unlike Greg Norman’s departure after just one year, I’m saddened that Holly didn’t find a spot on the FOX team given what she gave up at Golf Channel and how popular she was with viewers and those who’ve met her. Here’s hoping she gets back in golf soon.

Topgolf CEO: 50 Markets By End Of 2019, IPO Under Consideration

Topgolf Executive Chair Erik Anderson was the featured interview at the Octagon Sports Marketing Symposium Tuesday and said the company hopes to be in 50 markets by year’s end with aggressive plans to expand stand-alone and other off-shoot versions of Topgolf.

Eric Fisher from SportsBusinessDaily reports and includes this:

Roughly half of Topgolf clientele were not initially active golfers, though play at their facilities has translated to some increases in play at traditional courses. Roughly half are aged 18-34, a highly coveted demo by every other sports property. “The big idea for us was take out a lot of the barriers of golf, such as around time, cost and skill, and make it about fun and community,” Anderson said.

And this on a possible looming IPO is of note:

Anderson said Topgolf is considering an IPO for the company, but did not provide specifics around the likelihood of that or a potential timetable for a decision. “We are a candidate to go public for sure. It would be silly to say otherwise. ... We’re probably an interesting public company, like Starbucks was given how people connect with us.”

SBD posted a couple of snippets of Anderson’s conversation.

Of course there was a “subscription” and a Netflix mention, but you’re not a good CEO if you aren’t tossing the millennials and those who want to pick their pockets the preferred candies of the day.

Here is Anderson on golf needing more shortened pay-as-many-as-you-play options (“mini subscriptions”):

On the companies Topgolf says you should be on the look out for. No big surprises here…

"The ruling bodies have put golf in a ridiculous position by utterly abdicating their role as stewards of the game."

Good to see Alan Shipnuck getting to the heart of the distance debate mess in golf.

From the always entertaining Golf.com mailbag:

Why haven’t the USGA and R&A controlled the distance the ball is traveling? Why do we keep having this discussion? Golf should not be only about how far you hit the ball. It’s sad some great golf courses are now obsolete. -@MikeyBateman1

I’ve kvetched about this extensively, but, yes, the ruling bodies have put golf in a ridiculous position by utterly abdicating their role as stewards of the game. Modern athletes, with highly specialized training regimens and diets, wielding cutting-edge equipment and swings optimized by Trackman and an army of specialists, are completely overwhelming the outdated playing fields. The only defenses are cartoonish — think the greens at Shinny and rough at Le Golf National — and they reduce the skill factor dramatically. The obvious solution (bifurcation) would harm the equipment industry while taking away a lot of the fun of spectating. (I don’t want to watch Cam Champ drive it 275…I can do that myself.) To test this new legion of bombers while allowing them to still hit driver demands courses be at least 9,000 yards, but that would require an obscene amount of water and land and make the game even slower than it already is. So it’s a quagmire with no easy solutions, and the problems become more obvious with every 350-yard drive, exciting as they may be.

And in 2019 look for all of the manufacturers to put more distance in the bags of pros, more long-bombing young players to replace merely long middle-aged pros, fewer drivers to be hit because the courses can’t adjust fast enough and more people to blame the agronomy!