Titleist Distance Questionairre: Who Knew Filling Out A Survey Could Be So Fun(ny)?

It appears our favorite ballmakers in Fairhaven are gearing up for a fight as the PGA Tour driving distances have jumped more in the last two years than in the previous dozen or so.

With the governing bodies surveying golfers on distance, the folks at Titleist are fearful of losing market share are asking their beloved fans, customers and others to fill out at wonderfully misleading survey on distance.

For starters, they suggest the governing bodies of golf have suggested a distance rollback percentage of 15-25%. They have not. This comically dishonest chart is inecessary to see just what lengths they’ll go to in order to scare golfers filling in answers to questions:

Despite the sheer fictional nature of the chart, the apparently embarrassment of making stuff up did not stop Titleist from posting the hilariously misleading chart atop pages essentially reminding the survey-taker of the dastardly deeds looming from the USGA and R&A:

So besides the sight of the fake rollback numbers, the notion of listing them above questions probably would not pass muster at most legitimate polling organizations. But as we know, this isn’t really about getting honest answers from core golfers.

Rory's Back On The European Tour He Never Left, It Seems...

The Forecaddie says Keith Pelley got on European Tour 1—or British Airways—and pitched Rory McIlroy on making sure to play four non-major/non-WGC events to retain his membership. With it, presuming Rory follows through, is the right to some day Captain a Ryder Cup team. Had he let his membership expire, no cart in Rory’s future and even more unnecessary drama than he’d already created.

It’s almost cinematic imaging Pelley—in somber black frames—pleading with Rory in his childhood home to find two events he hasn’t committed to!

Tiger On His 2018 And The Game Changing Dramatically

Evan Priest scores a year-end Golf.com exclusive with Tiger and this answer got me wondering if any other all-time great player experienced more dramatic equipment advances during the course of his or her career? I don’t think so.

Well, it depends. In that era, 280 was a long drive. Now it’s, “Hey, can you carry it 320 in the air?” The game has evolved and, I was telling some [people in Melbourne], when I came down here to play the Presidents Cup in 1998, some of the guys were transitioning out of persimmon. The game has changed dramatically since then.

Video: Players Starting To Ponder The Impact Of Golf's New Rules

Interesting to see we are finally getting some reactions to the upcoming new Rules of Golf as they near a January 1 debut.

Not shockingly, a few (Steve Stricker) are wondering about players getting to massage their lines and what that’ll do to speed of play (the play it as it lies debates will come eventually).

From Golf Central:

The Forth Worth Light And Shopper Is Alive And Well, Files

Fans of Dan Jenkins beloved Fort Worth Light And Shopper days will love this one right out of Jim Tom Pinch’s most forgettable copy desk horror stories.

From Michael Bamberger’s enjoyable weekly roundup of seven things in golf this week, go to #4.

The photo below, taken in connection to George Bush’s funeral last week, appeared in the Fort Stockton (Texas) Pioneer with this caption: “Left to right: Paul Marschand, Ben Crenshaw, Tim Finchem, Freddie Couples, Blaine McCallister, Brad Faxon, Jim Nantz, Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Albert Pujols, Chris Everett, Mike Kryzyzewski, Hale Irwin, Peyton Manning, Tony Larussa, Next guy is PGA Pro from Mass. Where the President was a member and Pam Shriver.”

As they say in tennis when the ball goes rolling one court over, “Little help, please.”

Thankfully, Bamberger does the copy desk work for them.

ESPN's Most Dominant: Brooks Koepka Still Feeling Snubbed And He Certainly Has A Point

There have been some odd media-related slights of 2018’s two-time major winner and Floridian Cup champ, Brooks Koepka, including at the U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Tour Championship.

The winner of two majors and three of the last seven has rightfully been a bit peeved. The latest snub came with publication of ESPN The Magazine’s list of Most Dominant Athletes of 2018 not including Koepka, he simply posted the list on Twitter:

🧐🧐🧐 pic.twitter.com/hboyNl753P

— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) December 11, 2018

With Ariya Jutanagarn winning one major to Koepka’s two, he’s understandably annoyed at the lack of respect given to his year.

Underrated in his season is how late he started due to a wrist injury. While “dominant” isn’t the first word that comes to mind, his play given the inactivity the first four months of the year suggests it could have been even better.

Best Trick Shots Of 2018 And One Fun Entry After The Deadline!

On Monday’s Morning Drive, we covered just five of my favorites after a painful vetting that left some amazing creativity on the cutting room floor. So we whittled the best down with a theme of harder-than-it-looks! Or in the case of winner Joshua Kelley’s, crazier than it looks.

Well done all you tricksters!

And a fun late entry after Academy chimed in!

View this post on Instagram

Triple Play #golftrickshot #golf #pga #mlb @barstoolsports #barstoolsports #baseball #whyilovethisgame #trendygolf #instagolf #fullsend #sendit #golfswing #golfbabes #golfislife #golfstagram #slides #golfaddict @golf.kings_ #actor #film

A post shared by Colton Adams (@coltonbeighadams) on Dec 9, 2018 at 3:57pm PST

CCR Votes Down USGA Event...

Country Club of Rochester, longtime supporter of women’s golf, put an invitation to host the 2020 U.S. Senior Women’s Open before its membership

Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that the vote was close. Nonetheless it has to be a blow for hopes of landing future U.S. Senior Women’s Open venues where a vote is involved.

One member who voted to bring the tournament to CCR, wrote in an email to the Democrat and Chronicle, “a minority of small-minded, selfish and elitist members have ensured this opportunity to have a women’s tournament in 2020 (wouldn't happen). It is a loss for our club and the City of Rochester.”

Club president Jeff Mapstone penned a letter to the membership on Thursday, and in it, he said, “We understand that there are mixed emotions throughout the club. We do respect that there are many differences of opinion among our 540 members.”

Not clear is just how much hosting would cost the club financially. Amateur events generally can run up to $1 million in expense to the host.

Preview: Exonerated Valentino Dixon Sees His First Golf Course After 27 Years In Prison

Golf Channel Films is debuting a swiftly but beautifully compiled documentary on the release of Valentino Dixon after 27 years in prison. Dixon, a non-golfer who’d never seen a course, painted famous and imaginary golf holes while passing the time until a group of Georgetown undergrads, Golf Digest’s Max Adler and Golf Channel’s team (including Jimmy Roberts) exposed his story.

The film includes Dixon’s first-ever visit to Pebble Beach, a frequent subject of paintings.

The summary for the film’s Tuesday, December 11 debut at 8 pm ET:

For 27 years, Valentino Dixon had been serving a 33 1/3 years to life sentence in prison for a murder he claims he did not commit. This past September, Dixon was released from prison following a series of events that began with a sketch depicting one of golf’s most iconic holes. Golf Channel’s latest Golf Films project, 27 Years: The Exoneration of Valentino Dixon unravels how Dixon’s drawing ultimately led to newly-discovered evidence pointing toward his innocence, and follows Dixon as he visits picturesque Pebble Beach, the first golf course he’d ever seen in person.

Here is Adler’s recent story on Dixon’s release and the original Digest story.

The preview:

Banner Time For Fairway Mowers, Strengthened Cores! PGA Tour Distance Average Up 6.1 Yards Over Two Years

GolfDigest.com’s Mike Johnson reports on the rather astounding jump in 2018’s PGA Tour Driving Distance average (4 yards) on top of 2017’s healthy jump (2.1) yards.

The governing bodies have relentlessly pointed to a flatlining since the old Statement of Principles days, but maybe the nation’s superintendents and physios worked behind the scenes to push distances forward the last two years. (Sarcasm emoji goes here.)

As you may recall the distance number was at an amazing 294.7 through June’s Travelers Championship, meaning the average spiked nicely in just the final two months or so of the season when things warmed up and the nation’s maintenance mechanics conspired to sharpen mower blades. Because, you know the game is played on the ground so much these days!

And as noted here on the eve of the Tour Championship, things were looking rather historic as far as increases go which Johnson affirms.

He reports last year’s 2.1 yard increase prompted the Distance Insights study and he included this curious description of the survey.

Though some who have participated feel the questions have been biased toward a negative impression of distance, there’s no denying at the elite level that the game’s best have gotten longer. Fourteen players averaged 310 yards or more this past PGA Tour season and 60 topped 300 yards compared to 7 and 40, respectively, the year before.

I haven’t heard of any negative bias from those who participated in the survey. Maybe there needed to be a few warm-up questions where people get to share their most intimate, fondest recollections of gaining distance off the tee? Or of the manufacturers? Or of their Trackman relationships?

Lake Merced Making Modifications For Steph Curry's PGA Tour Event

Ron Kroichick reports that it’ll be a busy year at Lake Merced Golf Club, hosting by the LPGA and the debut event of Steph Curry’s PGA Tour stop in September.

Either before the LPGA or in between, Rees Jones will work more of his magic in taking what once looked like a pretty stellar design and injecting his unique gift for extreme blandness to get the range and course to PGA Tour modern-athlete standards. Still, as Lake Merced displayed last year, it should make for a player-friendly stop.

Too bad there was no mention of putting back some of the lost MacKenzie…

Dr. Alister MacKenzie "Shall Not Grow Old"

Maybe you’ve heard: acclaimed director Peter Jackson and his team of digital wizards have created a stunning new form of digitization that takes old films and brings them to life in ways we’ve never imagined: colorization, optimization and incredible sound.

Well, golf architecture aficionado Martin Bonnar watched the film during its recent BBC premiere and spotted someone who looks very much like Dr. Alister MacKenzie. Given that the doctor wrote of his many encounters with battle matters as a military physician and the timing fitting with what we know if his life’s work, there is a very high likelihood that the architect of Cypress Point and Augusta National makes a cameo in this groundbreaking film.

Here’s our discussion on Morning Drive today, with some keen technical analysis from Charlie Rymer.

The documentary trailer is below. The film is only in U.S. theaters two days: December 17 and 27th before presumably another form of release.

Go see Dr. MacKenzie and many other brave soldiers who shall not grow old!

http://www.fathomevents.com/TSNGO Produced and Directed by Peter Jackson: The acclaimed documentary is an extraordinary look at the soldiers and events of the Great War, using film footage captured at the time, now presented as the world has never seen.

Amazing: LPGA Purses Top $70 Million in 2019 With 33 Starts And New Formats, Too

It wasn’t that long ago the Brand Lady was steering the LPGA Tour into the ground with her marketing obsession over substance.

With that in mind, congratulations to Commissioner Mike Whan, his team and the players for another incredible milestone announced today: $70 million in 2019 LPGA Tour purses.

As Beth Ann Nichols writes for Golfweek, the tour is also introducing some exciting new formats, including a team event and a co-sanction of the groundbreaking Victoria Open in Australia. That’s the event where men and women play separate events at the same time for the same purse.

From Nichols’ report, after reporting on the tour’s new tournament of champions even in Orlando:

Also new to the LPGA, the groundbreaking Vic Open on Feb. 7-10, the only professional event in the world where men and women compete concurrently on the same course for equal prize money.

The year’s Vic Open, held at 13th Beach Golf Links in Barwon Heads, Australia, will be sanctioned by the European Tour and ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia (men’s) and the LPGA and ALPG (women’s).

And finally, this summer’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational will be the first official team event in tour history. With a pair of sister acts winning on the LPGA in 2018, it’s sure to offer plenty of compelling teams and storylines.

Follow Up On PGA Tour College Program: Champions Question As Another Young Player Turns Pro (Prematurely?)

As the inevitable (and certainly understandable) cries of “that’s what Q-School was for” tumble in, the PGA Tour’s exploratory look into a system that feeds college players to their various tours is being met with expected criticism. As someone who loved Q-School (and wrote many blog posts in favor of saving it), the criticisms are legitimate from the geezers who remember the old system (Brentley Romine reports for GolfChannel.com).

That said, the ship on a proper calendar year schedule has sailed until fall sponsors realize they are badly overpaying for very small audiences.

In the meantime, college players, who make up the majority of polished, long-term PGA Tour players that fans get to know and watch grow old because they arrive on tour a complete player, are turning pro earlier than ever.

Check out Romine’s latest exclusive for GolfChannel.com on Alabama losing senior Davis Riley a semester short of getting a degree and finishing off a storied career for the Crimson Tide. Of all the players I saw at the U.S. Amateur, Riley was the most polished and complete. Maybe he didn’t have the extreme upside of eventual winner Viktor Hovland or runner-up Devon Bling, but his prospects are certainly strong. And yet, the only reason he’s turning pro can only be chalked up to the current schedule and system that has agents convincing him sponsor’s invites await, setting up Davis to maybe make enough money in 7 starts to earn a card.

This is a longshot players are repeatedly convinced to take by agents and families, with very few succeeding. Which is why any system that encourages players to finish out their careers makes more sense than what we have now.

Could The PGA Tour Be Onto Something Brilliant With College-To-Tour Concept?

Nice work here by Golfweek’s Brentley Romine to reveal some details of a PGA Tour plan to get in the business of connecting college golf with the various tours.

The plan is clearly in the early stages. And the PGA Tour’s acknowledgement quote (below) suggests they are looking for feedback on an ambitious plan to reward season-long college play with spots on various PGA Tours. We don’t know which tours or how many spots. But given the damage the wraparound season has done to men’s golf, along with the recent oddity of top college women playing LPGA Q-School mid-season, it’s refreshing to see a pro tour taking a proactive approach to the silly rush to turn pro.

Anything designed to encourage players to stay in school and develop their games and character should be celebrated. We’ve already seen too many young players fail because of immaturity, with more on the way in a sport that may be getting younger, but not that young!

The potential program, as outlined by Romine, could slow down the rush to turn pro for some and make aspiring players in college stick around longer.

“The PGA Tour has been working to develop a new program that will identify, prepare and transition top collegiate golfers to professional golf,” according to a Tour statement sent to Golfweek. “This program will be designed to reward season-long collegiate play with varying levels of playing access to tours operated under the PGA Tour umbrella, while upholding the principles and virtues of collegiate athletics.”

In other words, the best college golfers would be guaranteed status on one of several tours, ranging from PGA Tour China to the PGA Tour.

One Tour official with direct knowledge of the project called it “unprecedented.”

It certainly would be and if successful, the program could even impact the disastrous current system in the NBA.

We discussed today on Morning Drive.