Be Careful What You Wish For: Tiger Longs For Old-Time U.S. Open Setups

I chuckled reading Tiger’s post-third round remarks at the Memorial longing for the old style U.S. Open setups, and criticizing the shifting of tees for variety.

It’s funny how quickly the players have forgotten how much they loathed the Meeks years and high-rough, high-luck setups with little in the way of intelligence required.

From Dylan Dethier’s Golf.com report from Dublin:

“There was a time there where it was a brutal test, and then it became kind of a tricky decision you had to make, trying to bring in more options off the tees or into the greens. The Open has changed. I thought it was just narrow fairways, hit it in the fairway or hack out, move on. Now there’s chipping areas around the greens. There’s less rough. Graduated rough. They’ve tried to make The Open different and strategically different.

“I just like it when there’s high rough and narrow fairways, and go get it, boys.”

Woods singled out Chambers Bay and Torrey Pines as places he did not like the moving of tees from round to round.

Jack: Knee Height Drops Look "Silly"

I’m sure many of you saw this from his early week presser, but if not, add Jack Nicklaus to the list of those who mostly likes the new rules of golf (remember them when they were a thing!).

But about that drop from knee height, it’s not just the young guns who feel foolish taking a drop that way, notes Golf.com’s Josh Berhow:

“I think they’ll change the drop-it-from-knee-height rule,” Nicklaus said. “It looks silly. How about ‘Anywhere between the knee and the waist'”?

Amateur Hit With Slow Pay Penalty In Last Group Of U.S. Women's Open

Fast and complicated greens mixed with threesomes is a recipe for slow play, yet it was still shocking to see three hours for nine with the last groups of the U.S. Women’s Open. The USGA’s time par system, in use at all championships BUT the men’s U.S. Open, earned Stanford’s Andrea Lee a warning and then a penalty, reports GolfDigest.com’s Christopher Powers. However, there was understandable social media outrage over an amateur getting singled out ala Guan at the Masters, reports Golf.com’s Jeff Ritter.

Full broken record mode here: but you combine modern players with faster-than-normal greens, threesomes, and reachable par-5s, and there is almost no chance of breaking 5:30 hours on any tour.

With 11 players within four strokes of the lead, it should be a stellar final round.

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols on the improbable final pairing of Dukies and one-back Lexi Thompson’s adjustments that have put her in a great position to win.

Pebble Beach Flyovers: Third and Four Holes

While we’ll get to the loss of a double fairway at the ninth and two greens offering maybe two palatable hole locations, a case could be made for the third as Pebble Beach’s most architecturally adulterated.

When I first played the course in the early 1990s and attended a U.S. Open there in 1992, the third was always the hole to hold up as an example of Pebble Beach’s inland holes asking top-notch strategic questions. This was before the out-of-scale, out-of-character righthand fairway bunkers were installed by the Palmer design group and today’s athletes began traveling with resistance bands.

Back in the good old days, players were free to bail out away from the corner bunker, trees and barranca. Such a tee shot left a hanging lie in rough to a green best approached from the left side. A flyer might go out-of-bounds.

Best of all, there were rewards for to turning a ball over, shortening the hole, and improving the angle of approach.

The combination of the landing area dynamics and the degradation of the barranca may change the approach at this year’s U.S. Open. Bomb-and-gougers face little trouble just cutting the corner, a play we saw in the U.S. Amateur when tees were at the 404 yardage. Even if the player finds rough, they are approaching from the best angle, lob wedge in hand and yardage under 100 yards.

But hey, enjoy the flyover…

The short par-4 4th is not a hole to drive but it can be a fascinating tee shot thanks to the fairway bunkering and conditions. The green has shrunk a bit over the years and lost a little shape as this 1929 to 2010 comparison shows. The surface is steeply pitched back to front, making it one of the more difficult to navigate from above the hole. Tree diseases have taken out many of the tall woody view-obstructors down the right side, unlocking wonderful views and more influence from the elements off Carmel Bay.

During last year’s U.S. Amateur, I asked Jack Nicklaus if he ever tried to drive the fourth in his youth and he looked at me as if I’d ordered an Arnold Palmer. He did later confess to trying in practice, but made clear it’s an idiotic play in any era, any conditions.

Pebble Beach Flyovers: First And Second Holes

The countdown to Pebble Beach commences with two-a-days!

So here goes, the par-4 first, with a fairway narrowed and two trees lost this winter at the corner of the dogleg since this flyover was shot. Even then, the design elements here will still lead to a lot of irons off the first tee. In these crazy times, we might see a few players bomb-and-gouge a driver here, though I don’t know if the risk is worth it, particularly with an annoying cart path too close to play and potentially sending a ball in a less-than-appealing direction.

The second is reduced to a par-4 in the U.S. Open, but in firmer-than-February conditions with afternoon breezes, was still a short iron approach during last summer’s U.S. Amateur. The barranca is raked like a bunker these days, prompting some players to take daring goes at the green last summer from the rough or fairway bunkers. But that was match play.

The second green is tiny and one of the more deceptively difficult to read on the course.

Behaving Under Par: Nicklaus-Like Sportsmanship Values Fail To Show Up In Memorial Opening Round

Where to begin?

Phil Mickelson said the USGA only gets setup right when it rains at the U.S. Open.

Matt Kuchar tries to claim multiple things in hoping to get relief from an old fairway pitch mark, asks for a second and third ruling, and in general, reminds you why it took El Tucan to get paid what he deserved.

Bryson DeChambeau whines about being put on the clock and seems to believe you are entitled to more time when deciding to go for a green in two, or not.

Most fascinating of all: the bratty behavior took place at the prestigious Memorial tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus.

Funny how players refrain from the nonsense one week at year at the Masters—no whining about lies, no backstopping, no rudeness to the field—and used to take their behavior up a notch or two when Jack and Arnold were on the grounds.

Not any more.

In Kuchar’s case, he appeared to walk back the long effort to get relief from a pitch mark that was not his, reports Golf.com’s Dylan Dethier.

Kuchar’s behavior was seen by many and called out by just as many, including European Tour player Eddie Pepperell. Mercifully, officials Robby Ware and Stephen Cox handled themselves well and with quiet confidence and authority.

The PGA Tour took down a video it posted on Twitter of the exchange. #liveunderpar

Mickelson, who made a fool of himself during Saturday’s third round of the 2018 U.S. Open, is back on the offensive and not exactly buttoning down the karma heading to Pebble Beach in two weeks. Alex Myers with Mickelson’s remarks and some of the backstory, including this:

“I’ve played, what, 29 U.S. Opens,” Mickelson told reporters at Muirfield Village. “One hundred percent of the time they have messed it up if it doesn’t rain. Rain is the governor. That’s the only governor they have. If they don’t have a governor, they don’t know how to control themselves.”

Says the guy who couldn’t put a governor on his emotions last year. Got it.

Not that it excuses bad course setup or the mistakes made, but you’d think someone who loves to pass on questions would have passed on this one.

As for Bryson DeChambeau, GolfChannel.com’s Will Gray spoke to him about being put on the clock. His rationale to official Brad Fabel for taking his sweet time was fascinating.

“He came up to me and told me I had a bad time. And I was like, do you realize I was deciding between laying up and going for it?” DeChambeau said. “And we’ve had struggles the past three holes in a row, hazards and making bogeys and all that. Was that not factored in? ‘Well, it’s just 40 seconds, it is what it is.’ Well, I don’t agree with that.”

Remember: the players largely believe they should break from the governing bodies and make their own rules. It’s almost tempting to encourage such a scenario just to watch that boondoggle unfold!

Even After Apology, Haney Suspended From SiriusXM Show, Status Under Review

Hank Haney’s insensitive and dreadfully short-sighted comments regarding the current state of women’s golf have gotten him suspended by SiriusXM and its partner.

The offending conversation with Steve Johnson when discussing this week’s U.S. Women’s Open:

Haney: “Oh it is? I’m gonna predict a Korean.”

Johnson, laughing: “OK, that’s a pretty safe bet.”

Haney: “I couldn’t name you six players on the LPGA Tour. Maybe I could. Well … I’d go with Lee. If I didn’t have to name a first name, I’d get a bunch of them right.”

Johnson: “We’ve got six Lees.”

The PGA Tour, which has its name on the channel, was part of the decision to suspend Haney, reports USA Today’s Christine Brennan:

“Mr. Haney’s comments on women’s professional golf were insensitive and do not represent the views of the PGA TOUR or SiriusXM,” the statement read. “The PGA TOUR is committed to and proud of the increasingly diverse makeup of our fan base, not to mention the power and accomplishments of the game’s world-class, global players – both on the PGA TOUR and LPGA, whom we are working with more closely than ever before.

“SiriusXM proudly covers and supports both women’s and men’s golf and the athletes that make them great. At the PGA TOUR’s instruction Mr. Haney has been suspended from the SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio channel.  SiriusXM is reviewing his status on SiriusXM going forward.”

While I agree with and understand the outrage over Haney’s remarks, particularly from players in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at a terrific venue with strong fan support, I’m conflicted about the characterization and direction of the outrage that quickly turned to some very strong words.

One: in my dealings with Haney, few are more passionate about the game and seeing people of all ages, races and sex succeed. He wouldn’t have become a golf instructor otherwise. Hank Haney is not a racist or a sexist. Is he on too many hours talking about a sport where there is only so much one can discuss? Maybe.

Two: the flippant comment he made on his satellite radio show, which was in response by a remark from his co-host apparently referring to the number of women named Jeongeun Lee (there are six), is, one that I’ve heard mentioned hundreds of times over the years—including jokingly from Koreans or Korean-Americans—about the number of women with similar sounding names from Asian countries dominating the game. Sometimes it’s a compliment to the incredible depth and the devotion to craft by these women. Sometimes it’s not. This does not make Haney’s comment acceptable when expressed in condescending fashion and his disdain for the state of women’s golf may be tinged with some sexism, but the leap to racism seems like just that: a leap. I’d lean more toward ignorance of the LPGA Tour or international cultures than anything else.

Three: the LPGA currently lacks a dominating-star the same way the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and European Tour have also dealt with at times (and maybe even in the present). We happen to be in the midst of a parity era in women’s golf not long after eras dominated by epic star power from legends Se Ri Pak, Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa. Fields are deep, maybe deeper than at any time in the modern era. And we have injuries to some star players too.

Of course, Haney didn’t mention all of this and that’s on him. But his problem is not one of race, sex or bigotry. We live a celebrity-obsessed, marketing-focused world demanding stars who play well all the time or else. Anything less breeds apathy. That’s a shame and ignorant of how cruel golf can be at times. But taking such a stance is also not racist or sexist.

Tiger: "I forgot how small the green complexes are" At Pebble Beach

Besides relishing the return to a course where precision iron play is rewarded, it was interesting to see Tiger’s reaction to the state of Pebble Beach after a recent practice round.

From Will Gray’s report at the Memorial:

“I forgot how small the green complexes are. Add a little bit of firmness and speed to them and they get really tiny,” Woods said. “But seeing some of the new greens that they had re-done, taking a look at some of the new pins was nice to see. So come next week when I start concentrating and focusing on Pebble Beach, it will be nice to have those images.”

Part of Tiger’s forgetfulness has to do less with eroding brain cells and more with encroaching bunkers and the continued shrinking of Pebble’s greens since the last Open.

Once Again Team Match Play Highlights Golf At Its Best: Stanford Beats Texas For 2019 NCAA Title

Olympic golf is about to be on our radars and players will be forced to pretend how excited they are about the possibility of playing a purse-free WGC event at a greater Tokyo country club, the 2019 NCAA Championships once again reminded how much more compelling team match play is than 72 holes of stroke play.

Nothing about this year’s college golf should have been that compelling other than seeing a historic team cap off their season. They didn’t so two other top ten teams faced off in the final. Still, it featured players largely unknown to most watching, a course featuring an odd set of often buzz-killing green complexes and less than ten hour turn around to beat storms. Yet Stanford and Texas put on another stellar match play era show.

Everything about the modern NCAA’s TV-friendly format continues to be fan friendly and a constant, pesky reminder of Olympic golf’s refusal adopt a team format. Seeing players fight for their team in a sport where lone wolf types generally excel, and watching coaching and team components juxtaposed with match play makes for the ultimate “grow the game” theater. It also helps to have a telecast free of promos, thus allowing more time to listen in on player-coach conversations or to simply let announcers set up situations.

Anyway…

Stanford, taking its ninth title, looked soft last fall and made a change in approach, Brentley Romine writes for GolfChannel.com:

After Stanford finished eighth or worse in each of its three stroke-play events in the fall, Ray knew his squad needed to toughen up. He added a Friday morning workout to the team’s weekly training schedule. The high-intensity conditioning, led by assistant coach Matt Bortis, likened to a boot camp for golfers, so the team coined the hourlong sessions, “Bortis Camp.”

Bortis, who played three years at Arkansas before becoming an All-American at Texas as a senior, spent eight years in the Marine Corps prior to taking the Stanford job last October.

“Without a doubt, I’d say that we were the underdogs, but I think some of the stuff that we’ve been doing together has proven guys otherwise,” Bortis said. 

Speaking of Bortis, he touched all bases today. Winning on the course he once played at, coaching against the alma mater he played for after transferring to Texas and helping lead Stanford to a title. Adam Woodward with the details of a wild journey.

The highlights:

Rory On USGA: "If they can’t redeem themselves at Pebble Beach, then there could be a problem.”

The man who was said to be ready to boycott the U.S. Open but was not given a chance to deny that claim by a fellow player sounded much more forgiving today.

Speaking at the Memorial, Dave Shedloski reports McIlroy’s view of the USGA headed to Pebble Beach following last year’s setup issues at Shinnecock Hills.

“They’re trying to do as good a job as they can,” McIlroy, No. 4 in the world, said Wednesday at the Memorial Tournament. “And I think they’ll admit they’ve made a couple of mistakes over the last couple of years. Everyone does. And I think we should give them the chance to redeem themselves. If they can’t redeem themselves at Pebble Beach, then there could be a problem.”

Like a boycott?

Finchem Rakes In $10.6 Million Bonus And Then A Some In First Year Of Retirement

Maybe this explains why they’ve got mandatory cost cutting down in Ponte Vedra Beach. Still, even after retiring in 2016, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem was well compensated in 2017. Maybe Jay Monahan found some uncashed paychecks in the top drawers and Finchem took them down to the local Suntrust ATM.

My math has him at $18,886,755 in 2017 baesd on this report from Roxanna Scott of Golfweek.

Two More Looks At Seth Raynor, CC Of Charleston

The USGA’s George Waters does a nice job summarizing who Seth Raynor was, what the template holes meant to his work and seizes on the clever ways Raynor compartmentalized his green complexes.

The golf course architecture of Seth Raynor provides plenty of surprises. His work is built around concepts from classic holes that he never saw in person. He never played much golf, yet managed to design some of the most highly regarded golf courses in the U.S. His designs contain elements that are harshly penal and extremely forgiving. Perhaps most importantly, Raynor managed to provide a great golf experience for the best players and for those with more modest abilities.

And don’t miss Andy Johnson’s look at CC of Charleston as the venue you’ll most want to enjoy on the 2019 calendar (at least domestically!), and as he notes, the first Raynor design to host a men’s or women’s Open.

Texas, Stanford Advance In Day Of Wild NCAA Men's Semifinal Action

The vaunted Oklahoma State Cowboys were upset by that little upstart from Austin, while Stanford put away Vanderbilt in a thrilling NCAA afternoon session.

Due to a dreadful weather forecast, tee times have been moved up to early morning with a 7:30 am local start for Golf Channel. Coverage time update:

AIRTIMES UPDATE: Wednesday's live coverage of the championship match at the @NCAA Men's Golf Championships will now air live @GolfChannel from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET due to potential inclement weather. @GCMorningDrive will kick off our NCAA pre-game cvge at 7 a.m. ET. #NCAAGolf pic.twitter.com/Ob6lfBF28i

— Golf Channel PR (@GolfChannelPR) May 29, 2019

While the strangest story of the day should be the stunning upset of #1 ranked Oklahoma State—a team of historic proportions in terms of season long and stroke play qualifying—Adam Woodward’s Golfweek look at the driver saga of Stanford freshman Daulet Tuleubayev is a doozy. And all of this was going on as the frosh was trying to win a match, accidentally hit his ball off of the 17th green with practice strokes, and then somehow birdied the last.

Tiger Woods congratulated his alma mater immediately after the Cardinal clinched:

Congrats to the @stanfordmgolf team on getting to the finals. Making us all proud! I’ll be rooting for you boys tomorrow. #GoCard

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) May 29, 2019

Brentley Romine at GolfChannel.com focuses on Texas’s amazing play, highlighted by Cole Hammer beating NCAA individual champion Matthew Wolff and senior Steven Chervony’s win over Zach Bauchou.

Bauchou’s heartbreaking horseshoe miss that led to Texas winning.

Full Golf Channel highlights from the Texas-Oklahoma battle:

.@TexasMGolf is going to the Championship Match! #HookEm #NCAAGolf pic.twitter.com/lQOlE9JcD1

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) May 29, 2019

USGA's Reaction To Golf Digest Survey; SI's Take On The Story

The “USGA Confidential” oral survey by Golf Digest’s John Huggan and Brian Wacker undoubtedly added some meetings to the Far Hills agenda this week. And definitely made Jason Gore’s hiring look like a great idea, but publicly, the USGA is taking the high road. The Forecaddie’s assessment, including team McIlroy chiming in.

SI’s Daniel Rapaport took issue with several of the player and teacher remarks, but highlighted the purse griping and this caddy complaint as signs that pro golfers have lost the plot.

CADDIE FOR MULTIPLE PGA TOUR WINNERS: The USGA official with every group always patronizes the caddies on the first tee: “Make sure you've got 14 in there—count your clubs.” That's insulting. That's not their job; it's mine. And if I have 15, it's my fault. I heard a caddie say once, “Don't worry, I've got this. I do it every week of the year. It's only you guys who do it once a year.” That statement applies to so much of the U.S. Open.

If that’s not the definition of being mad simply for being mad’s sake, then I don’t know what is. The official this caddie speaks of is simply being courteous. He’s trying to avoid any penalty. One could argue he’s doing the players and their caddies a favor. To view that as “patronizing” and disrespectful betrays just how sensitive many of the players/caddies are.

The last two years, the first tee starter has been Seminole pro Bob Ford. It’s hard to imagine him patronizing a caddy that way, and if he did, the intent was with only good intentions. Or worse, the caddy was simply making up the anecdote.

Jack Nicklaus Isn't Swept Up In PGA Tour's Chase For 82 Push: "They Change Their Mind Ever Year"

Don’t we love when Jack goes into full “get off my lawn” mode?

The Columbus Dispatch’s Joey Kaufman reports on Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus, kicking off the week, getting asked about Tiger Woods sitting on the cusp of Sam Snead’s 82 PGA Tour wins.

If Nicklaus was dismissive about the possible feat, it mostly stemmed from how he felt the PGA Tour tallied its tournament wins. He professed to have little idea.

“I don’t know how you add up tournaments anymore,” Nicklaus said. “Every time I go to some place, winner of 113 tournaments, winner of 110 tournaments, I don’t know how many I won. It depends on how many the Tour is taking away or giving me.

“They change their mind every year about what they’re going to count. So I don’t know what’s what. No one in the world could know how many tournaments Sam Snead won.”

Actually, it isn’t quite that simple.

Check out Laury Livsey’s fascinating piece detailing the history of PGA Tour win counts and how the 82 number was settled on. This should give you an idea how much thought was put into the tally as it relates to Snead:

Yet even those additions cause heartburn for some today, with the 1937 tournament an 18-hole affair, the ’38 and ’41 tournaments 36-hole events and the 1950 “Crosby” a 54-hole tournament, declared a tie, with Snead, Jack Burke Jr., Smiley Quick and Dave Douglas. All earned official-victory designations because darkness set in on the final day without a winner emerging, and a next-day playoff was out of the question because of the players’ travel requirements.

In addition to the four “Crosby” wins, the committee also bestowed official wins on Snead for his 1952 and 1957 Palm Beach Round Robin titles, already crediting him with Round Robin victories in 1938, 1954 and 1955.

Because of the new standard defined by the panel, though, the committee elected to remove nine tournament titles from Snead’s official-win total, most notably his Greenbrier Invitational victories in 1952, 1953, 1958, 1959 and 1961, the latter two tournaments played at The Greenbrier but renamed the Sam Snead Festival. Also gone from his tally were the 1952 Julius Boros Open, the 1940 Ontario Open, the 1942 Cordoba Open and the 1953 Texas Open, which the record book credited Snead with winning, a tournament actually won by Tony Holguin. That Snead received credit for winning the San Antonio tournament meant the PGA of America and the PGA TOUR essentially perpetuated an error for many years.