Skratch's Prank Of 17th Hole Paying Customers
/Always a nice to see a well executed prank. Less nice to see is that contraption added to the world famous island green to save the walkway for Players week. Way too Disneyland.
When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Alice Dye's Greatest 17th Hole Contribution: Making The Top Shelf Functional
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The Forecaddie notes here that the late Alice Dye’s contribution to the 17th hole is greater and maybe a bit more refined architecturally than she gets credit for.
The 2019 tribute to Alice Dye:
GFore Founder Caught Up In College Admissions Scandal
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Not a great day for Mossimo and GFore…
Bermuda On Rye: Attack Of The TPC Sawgrass?
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Let’s face it, cautious golf at The Players can be a bit of a snooze, and while I’m all for firm and fast most of the time, the design here lends itself better to aerial golf, encouraging aggressive play and penalizing the overzealous. With the March date’s different winds and softer ground, it seems like we will see more drivers, more risk taking and a little more fun to the proceedings.
My story for Golfweek on this and the possible dent this may put in the hopes of plodders.
Plus, Brooks Koepka added this today:
I think you're definitely going to have to have a few more drivers in hand. Going back to your question, I think it was, I hit driver, 6-iron into 7 yesterday. And I've hit 3-iron and 9-iron off that hole. So you can't hit 5- and 4-iron out of this rough and you can't play it the way you used to. You've got to be more aggressive. With it being soft it kind of widens the fairways a little bit, the ball isn't going to roll as much, so I think it definitely plays into the longer hitters' hands and you can definitely have driver out quite a bit more.
As a side note, as much as I love the chance for recoveries from the rough, this pine straw right on the 16th fairway edge looks even better…
Tiger At The Players: "Everything is headed on track towards April."
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As The Players prepares for its March return, Tiger Woods confirmed his work with short game instructor Matt Killen and explained the state of his neck issues.
And mostly, he assured his worried fans that he’s got this all under control for that very important tournament in April.
Q. The other one, you've always talked about finding a rhythm for a season. You've had the 72 holes in L.A. and elevation struggles in Mexico and the putting, the WD last week. Any concern that you're behind schedule as far as finding a rhythm before you get to Magnolia Lane?
TIGER WOODS: No. I've played three tournaments this year so far, and that's about right. I was going to play three or four. If I would have gotten my rounds in last week, it would have been four tournaments, so I'm right there where I need to be. My finishes are getting a little bit better each and every time I've gone out so far this year, and I've gotten a little bit more consistent with my play, and I think that everything is headed on track towards April.
Eh em…toward the second week of March we know you meant.
Players: Will The Flyer Lie Make A Comeback?
/I’m not sure how exactly players will react to the 2.5 inch ryegrass overseed, but after surveying the rough at TPC Sawgrass Monday, I explain the possibilities here for Golfweek. So while the rough may be playing shorter and less problematic—in theory—the design here could punish the excessively aggressive.
Personally, I miss the flyer lie in golf and hope it makes a nice comeback here at The Players. Either way, anything but hack-out rough will suffice.
Video explanation as well:
Still Buzzing: Molinari's Excitement At Winning The API
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Connor Moore captured Francesco Molinari’s enthusiasm after winning Sunday’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.
"Trump's budget would steer $20M to Jack Nicklaus-backed hospital project"
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From Politico’s Dan Diamond, reporting for Politico on the White House-released 2020 budget steering $20 million to fund a mobile children's hospital project at Miami's Nicklaus Children's Hospital. Thanks to reader HR for sending this.
Nicklaus had lobbied Trump on the golf course in Florida, and he met with HHS Secretary Alex Azar and then-OMB Director Mick Mulvaney in Washington, D.C., to request funds, say two individuals with knowledge. Trump personally directed HHS to earmark the funds to help Nicklaus develop mobile children's hospitals, one individual said.
Jack Nicklaus, lobbyist. That’s something I never thought I’d see.
But, as far as pork goes, hard to argue against something that helps pediatric care.
Tiger Is Back With A Putting Coach And Shorts! Really, Really Big Shorts
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Swing looks amazing. He’s feeling good and says he needed last week off.
And then there’s Nike’s tailoring of those cargo-ish shorts. Great if he’s going to a 90s golf party or handing them off to Tim Herron at some point. Otherwise....
Oh, and Tiger Woods is working with a putting coach, Matt Killen, it appears. Brian Wacker reports for GolfDigest.com.
He joins the Players media interview room Tuesday at 10:30 am ET. Tune into Golf Channel Live From for live coverage.
"The emergence of PXG and others is indicative of how golf and golfers have changed in the decade following the last U.S. recession."
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I was thinking that PXG’s driver price drop signaled a weakening of the high end club market, but as WSJ’s Brian Costa writes, Honma’s entry into the U.S. and other signs suggest an expansion. (Thanks reader JB for this.)
There was this from Mark King, ex-Taylor Made CEO:
“How do you justify these prices? How do you justify the price of a Lamborghini?” said Mark King, the former chief executive of TaylorMade who is now a consultant to Honma. “People don’t understand what’s under the hood, nor do they care. There is a certain status it represents.”
And yet…
U.S. retail sales of golf equipment grew 8% from November 2017 to November 2018, at $2.6 billion, according to market data compiled by NPD Group. Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst for the company, said that growth was largely driven by low-cost, entry-level gear.
Higher-end clubs were not included in NPD’s data because they are not sold through retailers. But Powell said the emergence of the category is comparable to that of ultra-premium bicycles that sell for $10,000 or more.
“I think all of this is being driven by the boom in baby boomers retiring,” Powell said. “You’ve got some who are saying, ‘I always wanted to have a custom-made bike or a really high-end set of golf clubs, and now that I’m no longer working, I’m going to splurge a little bit.’”
PXG was included in the piece and Costa included this intriguing predictions that revenues would rise on the lower driver price.
PXG still isn’t profitable. Parsons said it had revenues of around $80 million in 2018—roughly at break-even—and expects to grow by 50% or more this year by opening more stores and slightly reducing prices. But it has already gained wider appeal—including among an array of pro golfers—than many in the industry initially expected.
And as Costa notes, with the economic divide growing, so might the high-end market.
Golf Architect Keith Foster Sentenced To 30 Days
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A sad chapter in the career of golf architect Keith Foster closed with his sentencing to 30 days in prison for importing and selling products made from endangered species.
Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post reports.
He has also paid a $275,000 fine. After pleading guilty, Foster lost contracts with Congressional Country Club in Bethesda and Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago.
The antique business was supposed to be a relatively safe outlet for Foster’s extra energy, he told Golf Club Atlas in 2014, compared to his other hobby of mountaineering.
“I always tried to challenge myself,” Foster said. “My wife much prefers my Outpost venture to climbing.”
Roundup: Remembering His Ownself
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Doug Ferguson’s AP obituary of Dan Jenkins opens this way:
Dan Jenkins, the sports writing great and best-selling author whose career covered Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods, began with Western Union and ended with Twitter, has died.
Bruce Weber packs a lot into the lede of the New York Times obit:
Dan Jenkins, a sportswriter whose rollicking irreverence enlivened Sports Illustrated’s pages for nearly 25 years and animated several novels, including “Semi-Tough,” a sendup of the steroidal appetites, attitudes and hype in pro football that became a classic of sports lit, died on Thursday in Fort Worth.
Sally Jenkins remembered her dad for the Washington Post, where Matt Shudel wrote the paper’s obituary of Dan.
Funny as in the way my dad could turn even a reading of the morning paper into a comedy. Like the time he shook out the New York Times and said of Margaret Thatcher, “The only time she cries is when she tries to pull a comb through her hair.”
Tom Callahan of Golf Digest leads with Dan’s early inspirations in the lede department.
An aunt named Inez owned a drugstore, a repository of dreams. Luxuriating in the store’s delicious aromas, Dan set up camp at the out-of-town newspapers stack. For a while, his favorite lead was by Damon Runyon from an account of Chicago mobster Al Capone’s tax-evasion trial: “Al Capone was quietly dressed when he arrived at the courthouse this morning except for a hat of pearly white, emblematic, no doubt, of purity.”
Golf.com’s Michael Bamberger shares his memories of Jenkins.
He took newspaper austerity and went to town with it. If he read Hemingway, I don’t know, but there’s some kind of link there, except that Jenkins was funny.
I sent him a manuscript and followed with a call in 1986, looking for a blurb for a book I had written, about a brief stint caddying on Tour. It’s impossible that he read it — why would he? I described it to him. With barely a pause he said, “Here, for a change, is an Ivy Leaguer carrying the bags of other people.”
Bryan Curtis filed the definitive Jenkins profile several years ago for Grantland and it holds up well.
He also filed this new tribute for TheRinger.com.
Dan was like a sportswriter who walks out of a movie from the 1940s, slaps a couple of big bills on the bar, and tells the bartender, “Don’t neglect me.” I’m not vamping here. That was his actual line.
Even by the standards of ’60s Sports Illustrated writers, Dan was a big drinker. But he worked when he drank. When one of his pals impressed him with a good line, Dan would sneak to the bathroom and write it down. Those lines wound up in his copy. He called them “overheards.” It was the original quote-tweeting, minus the quote.
Esquire’s Charles Pierce offered this salute, including this closing line:
The lights are dim at Goat Hills this weekend. Thanks for everything, hoss. As someone once mused, nobody ever said it wasn't going to be semi-tough.
G.C. Digital rounds up the social media tributes to Jenkins.
Golf Channel’s Morning Drive coverage, including a video obituary:
Jack Nicklaus’ tribute:
Phil: TPC Sawgrass Playing Like Augusta, Which Means The Rough Is Low Enough To His Liking
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Looks like we won’t have to wait until Tuesday’s practice round to hear if Phil Mickelson will play this year’s Players after saying he need to wait and see. I know you were worried.
Els On The Masters: "I've Had Enough Of It"
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If you were thinking of getting Ernie Els an Amen Corner lithograph for his birthday, think again, reports Mark Cannizzaro for the New York Post.
Els, at age 49 and currently ranked 359th in the world, likely played his final Masters in 2017, his last start at Augusta, and he’s just fine with that.
“To be honest with you, I won’t miss the place,’’ Els told The Post on Friday after shooting a second-round 75 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill to stand at 2-over to miss the cut by one shot. “I had enough of it — especially the last five years I played it terribly.’’
He does go on to say nice things about the members but it’s still odd to see someone with some success there so blatantly declaring that he’s had enough.
14-Year-Old Tied For Symetra Tour Lead With One Round To Go...
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Alexa Pano, 14, is tied for the lead at -8 heading into the Symetra Tour’s SKYiGOLF Championship’s final round Sunday.
Pano is in the field for the upcoming Augusta National Women’s Amateur and has played one LPGA event when she was 11 and in other Symetra events. Still…a 14-year-old with a chance to win on the AAA circuit for Women’s golf?
For Immediate Release:
ALEXA PANO, 14, CHASING HISTORY AT SKYiGOLF Championship
NORTH PORT, Fla. (March 9, 2019) – Asked if she ever expected to be tied for the lead in a professional golf tournament with only 18 holes left to play, 14-year-old amateur Alexa Pano of Lake Worth, Fla., didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Yes, sir,” she politely told a reporter. “That’s why I played in the tournament.”
At the inaugural $250,000 SKYiGOLF Championship, Pano is on the brink of history, trying to become the youngest player ever to win a Symetra Tour event. Hannah O’Sullivan, who now plays college golf at Duke, was 16 years old when she won the 2015 Gateway Classic in Arizona.
The “youngest” thing is something that the uber-talented Pano has grown accustomed to hearing, though on Saturday at Charlotte Harbor National she said she hadn’t heard it in a while.
“It’s something I’m kind of used to it. Playing up in events a lot, I’d hear ‘youngest person ever’ so often,” she said. “It’s actually kind of gone away from me. Now that I’m 14, I’m kind of ‘old’ and can’t win the ‘youngest’ thing. But here we are again.”
