State Of The Game 86: Richard Gillis And The PGA Tour’s Dance With Discovery

Richard Gillis, sport business writer and consultant joins us to discuss the PGA Tour’s new partnership with Discovery to deliver international audiences GOLFTV, launching in select countries January 1.

Rod Morri, Mike Clayton and yours truly break down the potential ramifications with Gillis, who has joined the pod before upon publication of The Captain Myth, which also comes up in the show.

As always, you can listen wherever podcasts are streamed, download or listen on iTunes, or below:

Big Timer Charlie Rymer Hangs Up His (Studio) IFB

After six years of waking up way too early, Charlie Rymer has dished out his last Watch-And-Learn tip to Morning Drive viewers.

The Forecaddie with the report on Rymer’s final show.

Charlie’s Tweet with some really stellar replies from many in the golf world:

After 1000 plus shows, today was my last @gcmorningdrive. It was a heckuva ride. Thanks to @golfchannel for the opportunity. To the amazing  cast and crew….much love and appreciation. Best of luck with with life and work.

Please stand by for  details on what’s next for me.

— Charlie Rymer (@CharlieRymerPGA) December 16, 2018

Having had the privilege to work with (and needle) Charlie, I can’t speak highly enough about his knowledge and passion for the game. Furthermore, watching him work and sound-out a segment was always a joy in person, and I’m not sure golf fans realize just how astute of an observer he is. Happy TV trails my friend!

Bubba Targets 15 Wins And The Hall Of Fame, But Uh...

…it’s a popularity contest now.

And while I know Bubba doesn’t read golf media coverage that would have told him a player’s likability to Hall committees is a prime piece of the puzzle, he might want to reconsider his desire to get to 15 wins in hopes of making his career HOF worthy.

Bubba, from Doug Ferguson’s AP golf notes column:

''Am I Hall of Fame worthy? I'm going to be dead honest with you - it would be the most joyous occasion in my life when it came to the game of golf,'' Watson said. ''I can't tell you if that's in or not. But my new goal is three more, see if I can get to 15.''

Given that he could not get picked for a 2016 Ryder Cup team he would have made on points had there been no Captain’s picks, Bubba may not pass the Hall’s new popularity criteria.

Either way, I’m just happy one of the few players who can shape the ball both ways is going to keep playing and reminding us what we are missing on a more consistent basis.

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.