Lawsuit Behind Him, Vijay Happy To Get Back To Taking Up Spots In PGA Tour Fields

The NDA’s are flying so we won’t know how many more forced social media posts we’ll have to endure as the irrelevant Vijay Singh takes up spots in PGA Tour fields, but he at least indicated to GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard what we all know. He settled more than amicably with the tour in his lawsuit over a deer antler spray suspension.

Although a confidentiality agreement prevented Singh from disclosing any terms of the settlement, he did seem pleased to move beyond the distraction of the lawsuit.

“I can get on and do my own stuff and not worry about anything anymore,” he said. “I think both sides are happy, although I might be just a little bit happier.”

Ahhhh…maybe one of the guys can ask him this week on the range how much Vijay’s win took out of the retirement accounts! That’ll liven up the range chatter.

As previously noted, Vijay has only made 11 cuts in his last 28 PGA Tour starts and hasn’t snipped a top 10 finish in that time.

Ogilvy On His Recent Links Golf Pilgrimage

Good stuff here from Geoff Ogilvy on a recent fun trip to the linksland.

He thankfully praises the New Course at St. Andrews, Elie and lived to not hate the game after having to play the Castle Course.

There was also this on the supposed redundancy of links golf.

That actually got me thinking. When people talk about “links golf” they tend to suggest that every seaside course can be thrown into the same basket. Not so. We played six courses on this trip and they were all very different. Links golf is actually more varied than parkland golf. Because there are no rules. You can have 600-yard par-5s and 230-yard par-4s. You can have stone walls crossing holes. And you can have any number of blind shots. Almost anything is possible. And that is the fun of it.

"Absurd" Has Insurmountable Lead In New Drop Rule Sweepstakes!

The voting suggest the new drop rule is not going over well so far.

After we discussed today on Morning Drive today I heard from several asking the genesis of a lower drop height, answered here in the Golf.com roundtable:

Michael Bamberger, senior writer: The knee-drop looks ridiculous. It exists for a very limited purpose, to stop multiple drops on slopes. I think the professor has it right: a better rule would be to drop anywhere from knee to shoulder height. 

The USGA’s Thomas Pagel also explained to Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com that the new drop location, changed from a 1-inch above ground height in the first proposal to knee height, was part of a “package deal.”

“It’s not just a drop from knee-height, but now it’s a focus on the relief area. People say that dropping from shoulder-height is simple, and it is, but under the old rules, there were nine different times you had to re-drop. We wanted to eliminate all those complications,” Pagel said.

“In order to focus on that new relief area, we said, 'Let’s get the player closer to the ground, and if you drop it from knee-height, that ball is going to bounce a little less.'”

Ultimately, however, the act looks awkward. Any player wanting to drop from higher up whether for personal, political or pure inflexibility reasons should be allowed to without the potential for penalty (which is incurred after playing a shot if the drop was not from knee height).

Different Perspectives On The Mike Davis Era

As with his course setup approach, Mike Davis’s departure from U.S. Open course setup duties has elicited many opinions.

Eamon Lynch of Golfweek makes a convincing case that mistakes were exacerbated by other USGA matters or perceptions.

Much of the ire directed at Davis had little to do with course setup, but had its roots in everything from rules controversies to equipment regulation (or the lack thereof). The USGA has an image – wholly dated, but still vital – of being ivory-tower killjoys, alert to the dangers of golfers having too much fun. As the organization’s public face, Davis abides the mockery with affable humor.

In the Golf.com roundtable, Michael Bamberger wants more Nick Price’s involved in decisions while Alan Shipnuck says the change was born only out of course setup mistakes.

Bamberger: The USGA is operated by committee. The decision to go to Erin Hills and Chambers Bay came when David Fay was its executive director, but ultimately the decision fell to the president and board. Mike did more to popularize the drivable par-4 than anybody not named Big Bertha. Some of the poor hole positions at U.S. Opens were avoidable. If you had ONE person like Nick Price out there when the holes were actually being cut you’d almost never have a problem. The lifers are absolute savants, and one yard can make a world of difference. The U.S. Open and the USGA tries too hard. That’s in our DNA — I don’t know how you can change that. It needs to take a deep breath and relax.

Dethier: I still think Chambers Bay was awesome and got a bad rap, and even this year’s conditions didn’t offend me like they did Zach Johnson et al. The USGA’s main shortcoming is that it remains the players’ favorite punching bag. It’s rare to see Tour players go after the Tour, but they salivate at the opportunity to take on the USGA. Sounds like that’s a focus going forward; we’ll see how they do.

Shipnuck: Davis is a good guy who truly loves the game and has poured his heart and soul into the USGA. But there were simply too many screwups on his watch. I’ll never forget in 2016, while Dustin was playing the final holes and confusion reigned, I found Davis upstairs in the Oakmont clubhouse, having just taken a shower so he could be fresher for the awards ceremony. It was tragicomic. The tournament was in flames but he didn’t seem to fully grasp the gravity of the situation.

B-Speak Alert: PGA Tour Renews "Lighthouse Collaboration" With Twitter

I’m not going to dwell on the PGA Tour’s bizarro digital streaming vision but let’s say Jordan Spieth has an early tee time and you want to see him play from beginning to end, Ponte Vedra has you doing this:

—Watching Twitter stream for warmup and maybe the first hole

—Logging in to your PGA Tour Live subscription via either NBC Sports Gold or Amazon Prime to see him play five or six holes, assuming you pay for it

—Watch the remainder of the round when Golf Channel coverage kicks in.

It’s a lot of work to watch a particularly player and the PGA Tour is certainly making the best of a contract structured pre-streaming era. But it all still feels like more of a leverage-building play than one considering the landscape and making viewing PGA Tour golf a manageable exercise. (At least for full-time streamers, the NBC Sports Gold offers less interrupted viewing on NBC weeks.)

But as a blogger who so misses the B-speak jargon of the previous decade, the renewal for early-Twitter streaming did provide an all-time keeper in the announcement.

Kay Madati, VP and global head of content partnerships at Twitter, added: “We’re thrilled to grow our lighthouse collaboration with the PGA Tour, bringing even more content to passionate golf fans around the globe. We saw tremendous excitement and growth in 2018 around golf conversation and sponsor enthusiasm for PGA Tour content on Twitter. This year, we will reach and continue to serve highly engaged golf fans every day throughout the PGA Tour season by pairing those conversations with live programming and real-time highlights, all in one place on our platform.”

A lighthouse collaboration. Nautical, inspirational, confident and I have no idea what that means.

Padraig Harrington's Ryder Cup Captaincy Begins Tuesday

Press conferences will be most insightful and never dull the next two years!

The fun begins with an 8 am ET rollout from European Tour headquarters. Golf Channel will have live coverage.

Over/under on the number of times during his Captaincy that Padraig is asked if 2020 Ryder Cup venue Whistling Straits reminds him of Irish links?

450…ish?

Poll: New Drop Rule Absurd Or Something We'll Forget About In Six Weeks?

On Monday’s Morning Drive we’ll be talking the new Rule of Golf drop procedure that has golfers letting go of the ball from knee height (8:30 am ET). I think the governing bodies need to revisit this one soon, spoken as someone who has no desire to stretch his hamstrings just to make a drop.

That’s because Bryson DeChambeau, a fit and flexible young lad, looked about as awkward as one can look in the first high-profile drop under the new rules. He called the procedure absurd after his round and most social media watchers agreed. Those with even less-limber hamstrings had to turn away.

Yet in assessing what he heard from players at the Sentry TOC, the USGA’s Thomas Pagel predicted to Golf World’s Dave Shedloski that concern over the awkward look and absurdity of a penalty for dropping at shoulder height (and subsequently playing a shot) will be forgotten in six weeks.

I think you know where I stand, but I’d love to hear what you think…the poll.

About that new knee-height drop...

"Jury is still out"

"Absurd"

“In six weeks, we’ll all forget about shoulder height.”

 

pollcode.com free polls

Maybe It’s Time To Re-think "Amateur Status"

It is a clear-cut violation of amateur status rules, assuming such things matter any more. Maybe they should not in a world that increasingly wants to market to and cash in on the kids. I digress.

To review: Lucy Li, 16, broke onto the national stage at age 10 by qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links, qualified for the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst at age 12, played on the 2018 Curtis Cup team and is the ninth-ranked female amateur golfer in the world.

Li, still an amateur golfer, is the centerpiece of this AppleWatch ad posted on Twitter January 2nd:

Sit less. Move more. Get some exercise. Apple Watch owners like Lucy make it their goal to do all three every day. Learn more.

— Apple (@Apple) January 2, 2019

There is no grey here. This was a heavily produced piece in which she is wearing scripted Nike outfits, is filmed in a faux social setting, and is shown in golf action wearing her watch while appearing in an ad to promote a product. She is blatantly allowing a third party to use her likeness.

Nothing in the language on amateur status comes remotely close to spinning Li’s behavior as anything other than an obvious violation.

Contacted by Ryan Herrington of GolfDigest.com, Li cited an NDA for not commenting while Amy Li, her mother, is claiming there was no payment for Lucy’s time or image.

Contacted by Golf Digest, Li said she had signed a non-disclosure agreement with Apple that prohibited her from discussing the video. Li’s mother, Amy, said via text message that Lucy and the family did not receive any compensation for being in the video.

We’re looking at either a blatant amateur status violation or a case of poor parenting by letting a child star in an ad without compensation.

The USGA is “investigating” and “thankful for the dialogue.”

But in a sport increasingly desperate for the attention of anyone under 30 with most organizations making decisions with an eye on how younger generations will view decisions, there is little chance the USGA will revoke her amateur status. Besides consistently abdicating responsibility on multiple fronts, they’ve refused to undermined their rules on amateurism by allowing teenagers to receive free clubs and scripted attire. The R&A sadly concurs.

Children are now billboards in golf on a first name basis with company representatives and agents. If the governing bodies of golf are not bothered and society is increasingly fine with pushing people to peak in life by 20, then why do we bother with amateur status.

Look at the follow-up answers to Global Golf Post’s tweet on this news. Starting with GGP’s own follow up post.

"We are at the beginning of the fact-finding stage… premature to discuss more. Lucy’s family has been fully cooperative.” @LPGA unaware, not contacted. 1stgolfer used an @apple campaign. Company market cap exceeds $700B. (2/2)

— Global Golf Post (@GlobalGolfPost) January 5, 2019

I understand amatuer status, but on the flip side, the USGA should be thrilled that golf was just used in a major marketing campaign outside the golf industry. Golf needs more of that.

— Joshua Jacobs (@JoshuaJTGA) January 5, 2019

The implication of both Tweets seems to be that a company that large and that successful excuses Li’s violation because it could benefit the sport having such wealth and influence like golf?

As an Apple fanboy it’s wonderful to see them taking notice, but to suggest ignoring the rules in place for corporate and youth-obsessed marketing agendas means it may just be time to throw out all of the rules.

The image and reputation of the amateur game was already in decline. Looking the other way on Li, as the governing bodies will surely do after checking with their image consultants, won’t stem the bleeding nor will it change behavior of “amateurs”. Players with exemptions to major championships regularly pass them up and turn pro instead of taking once-in-a-lifetime playing opportunities. The mid-amateur world is played in almost complete anonymity while the best amateur tournaments in the United States barely register a blip.

At the U.S. Amateur, a vast majority of spectators are either family, friends, agents or representatives of manufacturers who swarm players and even cheer on those who use their equipment.

The lure of professional golf is the only thing keeping amateur golf relevant. It’s a feeder world for men and women and Li will not be punished for acting like a pro when she’s likely turning pro soon, anyway. The modern USGA will not take on a player in such high profile fashion, particularly a young woman who has been a big part of their events. As Frank Hannigan always lamented, the organization’s decision-making is driven by a desire to be loved and a fear of being seen as having interfered with someone’s ability to make a living. The rules of amateur status are nothing more now than a linked page on a website.

So if we’ve reached this point, why not just accept that by allowing players to be paid for their time promoting products? Let them pay a few bills and live the American dream? The ones who want to be pro golfers look like they are already operating that way because they don’t care what the governing bodies think. A society where every opportunity to profit must be protected will probably side with Li and other players who are just playing golf ultimately just to make a buck.

Field Size Isn't Always To Blame: 33-Deep And Final Group Cannot Break Four Hours At Kapalua

Whenever PGA Tour slow play is discussed, field size is the go-to excuse for tepid pace in a world that has little patience for golf taking even longer.

Yet as Xander Schauffele was posting a magnificent 62 to Gary Woodland’s final round 68 at the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions, pace seemed fine even as Rory McIlroy hit a few wayward drives. Yet the final tally of 4:13 time for the final twosome in a 33-player field, with no obvious slowpokes dragging the field down, might have been considered embarrassing at one time. Now over four hours for twosomes constitutes the new normal.

Even with some shuttle rides thrown in, light rough, marshals to look for your ball and amazing athletes who never have to stop for air, the pace at Kapalua wasn’t great. File it away the next time someone says the best players in the world, even making a ton of birdies, are only slow because of bloated field sizes.

PGA Tour Commish: "Hard to argue you should be changing anything right now because the sport is growing and thriving."

It’s hard to get past the above quote from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan made in a 2019 Sentry TOC media session and reported here by Golfweek’s Dan Kilbridge.

The Commissioner’s views on distance are no secret: he wants to hype younger and longer players because he believes that’s why people watch the game despite all of the grandstands being at greens and not tee boxes.

You can take your pick of reasons for a short-sighted stance that even his youth-obsessed predecessor never went so far overboard to make. But more alarming is the view that the sport is growing and thriving, so why change a thing?

“We’re gonna be a party to all these discussions,” Monahan said. “We’re going to understand everybody’s perspectives as the USGA and R&A move forward with their Distance Insights project, but it’s hard to argue you should be changing anything right now because the sport is growing and thriving.”

If it’s growing and thriving, why do we have all of these expensive grow the game initiatives to jumpstart participation?

Why is the golf course industry fearful of a recession and a new tax code eliminating entertainment deductions if the game is thriving?

There is also the PGA Tour as a product. He should be hoping for a variety of players and a variety of playing styles to make the game thrive, not a one-dimensional power game. No sport that’s gone all in on technology and power has come out better. As a fan of sports, Monahan should know this. And he should know better.

Mid-Round Interviews Fail To Take Down Round One Of The Sentry TOC

The PGA Tour’s request of players to consider on-course, mid-round interviews passed its round one test at the 2019 Sentry TOC, with Patton Kizzire, Dustin Johnson and Marc Leishman all reporting no major side effects from penetrating questioning.

Leishman did, however, hit a poor tee shot at 17 after a chat at 16, but as Ben Everill notes for PGATour.com, the Aussie was not blaming the loss of focus on having a microphone in the vicinity of his lips.

“Nah that was just me, that was just a crap shot,” Leishman joked after his 5-under 68 left him fifth.

“I do (those type of interviews) in Australia every year; I think it's cool as it gives good access for the fans.

“I'm certainly not blaming my bad shot on it as it was walking up to 16 green so it wasn't as though it was right before (that tee shot).

"No one is going to blame an interview if they go birdie, birdie, birdie.”

Oh never rule anything out, Leish!

Bryson "Maximizes His Potential" With The Flagstick In, Just Like He Predicted He Would

Bryson DeChambeau’s naysayers can point to his brief sidesaddle putting method and little else in the imaginative arsenal of ideas he’s brought to the PGA Tour. And right on cue, he backed up his claims of seeing benefits to putting with the flagstick in the hole by doing so at Kapalua where the revised Rules of Golf were in effect.

One of the examples from an opening 69 at the Plantation Course to kick off the 2019 campaign:

⛳️ @B_DeChambeau uses the flag to his advantage. 🐦#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/LtlI4pMo4W

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 4, 2019

After the round, DeChambeau was bullish on the idea even though he had done very little practice with flagstick’s in the cup.

From Dan Kilbridge’s Golfweek report on the overall impact, with quotes from playing partner Dustin Johnson.

“I feel like I maximized my potential on that,” DeChambeau said. “Especially on 16 today, where it’s kind of blowing downwind, five percent slope, straight downhill, you want that pin in to help. So that’s what I kind of did and utilized it to my advantage. So I felt like for the most part I needed the pin to be in and it went in and it was a very nice help.”

He was playing with Dustin Johnson, who probably spent less time studying the modern rules than DeChambeau spent picking his shirt this morning. Johnson told him before the round he was cool with the whole flagstick thing and to have DeChambeau’s caddie Tim Tucker just handle the flag all day to avoid confusion.

“It’s definitely weird. Well, not weird, it’s just different watching someone putt with the flag in,” Johnson said. “It actually worked out where it wasn’t a big deal. It didn’t slow us down or anything.”

Brandel Chamblee said after the first round display that players will be compelled to research the concept and will find that they make more putts doing this:

TaylorMade: New Drivers "Exposing The False Narrative That Speed Limits Have Been Reached"

I found this to be a surprising aggressive approach by TaylorMade in rolling out its new drivers today. Almost like they want the governing bodies to be agitated.

In 2019, TaylorMade has taken Twist Face to the next level of performance with the introduction of Injected Twist Face technology, exposing the false narrative that speed limits have been reached in a metalwood.

It’s always a fine line the manufacturers toe between the mysterious desire to tear down limits on advances, yet always refusing to cross the line by making non-conforming equipment. Which is why the next line said this:

There are four key features to the design of Speed Injected Twist Face that allow TaylorMade to maximize ballspeed, working in unison to allow every M5 & M6 driver to be precision-tuned with a new, rigorous process to maximize speed to the allowable limit. 

And here I thought it was all of that foam roller work the guys were doing to loosen up their hips!

USGA's Mike Davis Handing Over U.S. Open Course Setup Duties

Mysteriously wishing to shift the narrative from the new Rules of Golf rollout on day three of the biggest revamp ever, the USGA has revealed to GolfChannel.com’s Jaime Diaz of plans to end Mike Davis’s run as U.S. Open course setup man. Davis has been handling that role since 2005. He will be succeeded by John Bodenhamer, who joined the USGA in 2011 to oversee amateur championships before being elevated to a greater role in recent years. (Will Gray at GolfChannel.com has this item on Bodenhamer.)

Diaz’s story comes with an admission from Davis that the USGA erred again at Shinnecock Hills after a detailed post-mortem of the 2018 U.S. Open was compiled.

Bodenhamer would go on to prepare a detailed behind-the-scenes post-mortem that has provided the USGA a more accurate assessment of what went wrong at Shinnecock, specifically an error in communication and execution along the chain of command. “It wasn’t that there was a judgment to make the course harder on Saturday by not applying water in the morning,” Davis said. “Water was applied on the front nine, where there were no complaints. It was a failure of carrying out the intention of applying enough water on the back nine. That was not the Shinnecock Hills club’s fault. We erred there. The USGA erred.”

Elevated to the CEO role in 2016, Davis tells Diaz the issue of distraction from organization duties became apparent, leading to today’s news.

“I feel like, finally, we’ve gotten this thing right in terms of the right structure,” Davis said. “In retrospect, if I had given up the setup role in 2011, which probably ideally I should have in my position, that would have been the right thing to happen. For a number of reasons, among them that when I came on board I was very comfortable in the golf arena but less so in the support functions, that didn’t happen. But now we are coming into a great time.”

Davis will continue to have a role in course setup, as well Jeff Hall, who appears to have been passed over for the U.S. Open lead role.

“John is going to take the lead, I will continue to be part of it,” said Davis. “I will continue to watch the golf course closely, mostly on the broadcast. But we need somebody to be the face, and John will be outstanding at that. Jeff will continue to take an important role. Bottom line, it’s a team effort. It hasn’t been one person and it won’t be one person. But I’m not going to be out there in the morning doing setups anymore.”

The move is obviously disappointing news to those who welcomed Davis’s many positive ideas about better showing off a course design or in eliciting different questions beyond who hits the ball the straightest. Presumably the USGA’s shift in philosophy will continue but lurking more than ever is the continued pressure to maintain difficulty at courses overwhelmed by spiking driving distances.

Patrick Reed Unveils Plans For Thirtysomething-Friendly Champions Dinner

Oh please let Guy Fieri cook for the Champions Dinner!

There won’t be much suspense or great surprise at Patrick Reed’s Masters Champions Dinner menu after he revealed it Wednesday in Maui.

Rex Hoggard reports on Reed’s efforts to provide a menu friendly to an older set. Maybe after studying the Woods Jupiter menu?

Reed said Wednesday at the Sentry Tournament of Champions that he plans to serve a bone-in rib-eye steak with mac and cheese, creamed spinach, creamed corn and a Caesar salad at the annual dinner for former Masters champions.

“Hopefully I can please the 30-something guys that are in the room. I mean, putting a piece of meat in front of them I think would do that, right?” he said.

There goes any hope of a passive-aggressive choice of Oklahoma-raised chicken for Jordan Spieth and a plate of Geritol tablets for Phil Mickelson!