Padraig Budges: Might Have "To Take One For The Team" And Play Fan-Free Ryder Cup

The first drip came in the form of a column by Paul McGinley, and given that piece, combined with a thought, I gave a Shack Show quick take about how the world mood should dictate a low key Ryder Cup.

Yet key players (McIlroy, Fleetwood) and 2020 European Captain Padraig Harrington who have emphatically declared: no fans, no Ryder Cup. Harrington made his views known in early April but now the captain has budged, Rick Broadbent reports in the Times.

Padraig Harrington has admitted that the Ryder Cup could end up having to “take one for the team” and be played without fans.

The Europe captain is adamant that he and the players want spectators to be present at the biennial event in September, but accepts the decision is “above my pay grade” and different scenarios are being investigated. He also said he thought that if the PGA Tour made a successful comeback in June then it “massively” increased the likelihood of fans being allowed into the Ryder Cup.

But as Brian Keogh at the Irish Golf Desk noted on Twitter, this may be more about the very survival of the European Tour, which banks significant Ryder Cup revenue necessary for operations.

Padraig Harrington: Ryder Cup may have to take one for the team and play without fanshttps://t.co/NOFWLQCHI9

Given recent comments by ⁦@mcginleygolf⁩ and now this, finances are clearly critical.

— Brian Keogh (@IrishGolfDesk) April 28, 2020

Pat Perez On PGA Tour's June Return: "I think it's a little early"

Bob Harig at ESPN.com caught up with Pat Perez about what he’s been doing during the COVID-19 lockdown. Like many players, Perez hasn’t touched his clubs much, instead working on a new home renovation.

Perez offered this on the PGA Tour’s planned June 8th return.

"I think it's a little early,'' said Perez, 44, a three-time PGA Tour winner who is ranked 141st in the world. "But I understand what they want to do. Everybody wants sports back. Of course they do. Everybody wants to get back. But it's such a bigger deal than sports, it's such a small percentage of what is going on in the world right now. People are sick, we don't know who all has [the virus]. It's serious.”

“Hey golfers, let’s not screw this up”

Incidents of golfers defiantly resisting distancing rules and other behaviors are on the upswing (Tim Gavrich with the GolfAdvisor roundup of incidents in Connecticut, Massachusetts and England) and the sight of Presidio Golf Course being turned into a park won’t do much for pulse rates (Tessa McLean with that report, and Jason Deegan with an excellent analysis of this growing par/golf debate at GolfAdvisor).

Still, the signs are positive for golfers itching to play. Course openings are up and in the United States, are projected to be in the 77% neighborhood by early May according to this week’s NGF report. It remains clear that golf is one of the safest and best things you can do.

Yet, as expected when the pandemic broke out and golf courses were closed despite the benefits, there is a sense the sport will subject itself to backlash by pushing too fast to open courses or convene large scale tournaments.

Sam Weinman addressed this in an excellent GolfDigest.com piece after a recent round with his son, suggesting golf is a litmus test of sorts.

We all want to play, and a cursory glance at courses in my area suggests most are trying to make it work—tee times spaced out, practice facilities and clubhouses closed, carts banned or limited to those who really need them. When my course sends out weekly emails outlining or emphasizing these restrictions, the subtext is always, “We’ve got a decent thing going here. Don’t screw this up.”

Yet there are reports out of different parts of the country and abroad where golfers are holding firm to the game they’ve always played. Big groups, two players to a cart. Beers flowing post-round. At a time when deep sacrifices are being made all around, there is great danger, both symbolic and otherwise, in assuming the asks being made of society don’t apply to golf. The game fights a bad rap as it is.

And this was well stated by Joe Beditz, CEO of the NGF:

“Golf now has an incredible opportunity to lead, not to mention an obligation to set a safe, responsible example for other sports and activities,” Joe Beditz, CEO of the National Golf Foundation, said recently. “Done right, this is a chance to show how golf as an industry, and community, can not only weather this crisis but come out of it in a positive light.”

"No cameras, no trophies, but Adam Scott just won the lockdown's act of kindness award"

Thanks to reader Kim for this dandy from Roy Masters in the Sydney Morning Herald on a kind gesture by Adam Scott.

Here’s the setup:

In this story, it’s an Adam extending the kindness to a guy who considers Adam his best mate. Confused? Well, so is 76-year-old Ross Campbell, who is suffering from seven brain tumours and believes 39-year-old professional golfer Adam Scott is his best mate.

In fact, although wheelchair bound, Ross thinks he plays regular golf games with Adam, exchanges tips and joins him in beers at the Riverside Oaks club house.

Check out the rest here.

Rick Reilly: "The first things I’ll do when this is all over"

Good to see Rick Reilly pulling out his typewriter and in fine form for this Washington Post guest column on the first things he’ll do when this COVID-19 is all over. Plenty of golf references, including…

● Tip waiters like I’m Phil Mickelson

● Walk on the sidewalk and not in the gutter

● Smile at strangers instead of suspecting them of wanting to murder me with a cough

● Have a conversation with friends that doesn’t involve a laptop, Zoom and a two-second delay

Golf Reset: Goodbye To The Almighty, Overprimped, Must-Be-Raked Daily Bunker?

Ad from Golf Architecture magazine suggesting Old Tom Morris would have approved of Better Billy Bunker.

I realize that jumping from the large scale topic of what really matters in golf—recreational vs. pro game—is a bit like jumping from talk of vaccines to multi-vitamins. Worse, doing so as we have as so much suffering is taking place in hospitals feels inconsiderate.

But the COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate trends in so many sectors, and as I noted in the introductory post to this occasional series, golf is not immune. So we march on with those caveats in mind and consider how this will change the bunker maintenance industry. And an industry, it has become.

Just a quick reminder here in case you skipped early Gaelic 101, “bunker” is derived from Old Scottish “bonker” and meant a chest or box, and became secondarily defined as a “small, deep sandpit in linksland”.

Since these bunkers appeared naturally on linksland, no one thought to arm them with a rake or liners to keep the shells out. That nonsense came later.

The first known reference in golf’s literature came in 1812, used in Regulations for the Game of Golf according to Peter Davies in the Dictionary of Golfing Terms.

Over the ensuing centuries golfers changed from accepting bunkers as accidental pits scraped out by divots or sheep, to demanding more maintenance. The shift was caused by two factors: the move from a match play mentality to a card-and-pencil, handicap-based game where tallying up a score could be disrupted by an unraked sand pit.

As golf courses moved inland, bunkers become very clearly man-made. The shift from natural to artificial changed expectations. Throw in the whining of golf professionals who were making their living on the links, and you have today’s irrational and expensive focus on perfect hazards. Even the Old Course rebuilds theirs every five years or so, which is why you get this kind of visual and psychological contrast from the old days to the present.

Hell Bunker on the Old Course a long time ago.

Hell at the 2015 Open Championship.

Besides the obvious changes in symmetry, artistry and beauty, the more “functional” Hell has been rigged with a flat floor to send balls closer to the face. Such artificiality goes against everything that makes the Old Course incredible. It could also be easily countered by raking the bunker once a week and letting whatever happens over those days leave the golfer wondering what they will find if unsuccessfully taking on Hell.

Not to pick on the Old Course, but the bunkers there used to look like this:

Despite the horrible looking lies to be found, golf somehow spread beyond the Old Course and became popular! All in spite of unfair bunkers that today would be seen as antithetical to growing the game.

Still, there were hopeful signs before the pandemic that the minimalist, scruffy, less-defined bunker was becoming more acceptable than the maintained bunker. The look of age, erosion and imperfection has become attractive again in part because of the thrill golfers find in overcoming such a bunker compared to carrying an overprimped hazard.

Here is a modern bunker, maintained for a tournament round, but otherwise looking ancient and imposing in an appetizing way:

Increasingly American superintendents have mimicked the Sandbelt concept of Claude Crockford’s day (and today) only raking bunker floors.

Here’s what a Kingston Heath bunker looked like in 2011:

With good intentions, this is an Americanized take on less raking. Though it’s mostly born out of a desire to prevent buried lies while ensuring clean, colorful, sanitary sand conditions:

In times of societal or economic trouble, bunkers have been filled in by courses. Even a master bunker creator like A.W. TIllinghast set out on his mid-1930s “PGA tour” of American courses looking for ways to save money. Bunkers topped his list.

However, filling these sandy things falls into the baby-with-the-bathwater class of overreactions. Especially these days where so much time and discussion is put into bunkers.

Which brings us to the rake.

Even though the chances of the coronavirus lingering on the surface of a rake seems extraordinarily slim, the removal of them from most golf courses allows us to think about a version of golf where hazard perfection is both antithetical to the role of a bunker and unnecessarily expensive.

The height of insanity might be seen as the time when courses spent bundles on various liners to keep sand in place and loose impediments out to prevent damaging nicks to clubs. Maybe having a chip or dent on the wedge will be scene as a bad of honor while bringing back genuine fear factor of landing in a bunker.

An entire cottage industry centered around selling bunker products reached a zenith when a golf architect, consultubg with a governmental agency to craft proposal specs, emphasized a costly bunker renovation using one particular liner product.

Turns out, the architect was president (at the time) of the bunker liner company that was recommended.

Concerns about making a course better and highlight its special heritage? Non-existent. Thankfully the scam was outed and he lost the design job. Now even the American Society of Golf Course Architects, of which he is a member, says the lifespan of an American bunker is twenty to twenty-five years, a big improvement from not long ago when ten years was the number.

Some of this bunker maintenance mania stems from the issues presented in the first golf reset post: making the professional golf bigger than the sport. But as easy as it seems to blame televised pro golf for many expensive trends, the bunker neuroses is mostly on average golfers fussing about their scorecard. Then again, there are you Scott Stallings’ of the world declaring unraked bunkers as a line-crossing that would make precious pros reconsider sending in their entry form to the first post-COVID-19 tournaments.

Think of bunkers and the all-mighty raking that was so cherished: imagine if footprints on beaches were deemed unsafe, and only the beaches raked and filtered daily were allowed to be open? The cost of such maintenance would be astronomical. Plus, the wait for beaches to be open after the maintenance teams had been through would drive everyone mad. A less extreme version of such nonsense occurs with golf course bunkers.

No one expects us to return to the days of yesteryear (above). Maintenance crews will still maintain bunkers and courses will leave rakes out, but golf without rakes (for the time being) should be seen as an opportunity to highlight the waste of resources and energy spilled to prevent the indignity of a bad lie in a place you’re not supposed be.

Tour Player Warns: “Guys are not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker"

I had not seen the stern warning from Scott Stallings in this James Colgan Golf.com piece, but it sent laughter down my spine and I hope, in these difficult times, you get similar joy from this Grade A, Bobby Joe Grooves level point missing.

Colgan writes:

These changes could see players putting with the flagstick in, playing without rakes in bunkers and pulling their own clubs to minimize contact with caddies, among other adjustments. While the proposed guidelines could allow golf to be played in the near future, Stallings doubts players would get on board with the changes.

“I just don’t think there’s any way guys are going to do that,” he said. “Guys are not going to play for their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies. That’s just not going to happen.

“I’m fully confident that there are going to be guys who choose not to play.”

The Golf.com Monday morning roundtable feasted on the Tour player and fitness fanatic’s declaration.

Sean Zak, senior editor (@Sean_Zak): Some probably will, but they’ll really look like sore thumbs. Are you really going to complain about an imperfect bunker when you could just be at home spending your money and not making any? Anyone who complains will not be embraced by fans, but then again, this is the Groupthink Tour. Their opinions tend to all be the same by the end of a tournament.

Josh Sens, senior writer (@JoshSens): Playing for “their livelihood with no rakes in the bunker and no caddies.” Egad. The horrors! Not even Dickens could have dreamed up such hardship. I’m sure Stallings is right. Some players will push back, and they’ll look as ridiculous as the above sounds.

Alan Shipnuck, senior writer (@Alan_Shipnuck): The bunker thing is getting a lot of play, but there could be an easy solution: Why not have one designated raker per hole who cleans up after every player? But the larger point is that sports is going to be different for all of us when it returns, and the players would be wise to get on board.

Michael Bamberger, senior writer: I think the game would be improved at every level without rakes in bunkers. Return to them their dignity. They are traps. They are to be avoided. The players will have to conform, or there won’t be a tournament in which to play.

Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): I don’t see this being an issue, at least from the Tour’s bigger names. Ever since they officially canceled the Players, it’s been mostly sunshine and roses when it comes to Tour players and the rulesmakers. I would say the far bigger issue would be if players felt there was no effort being made to bring golf back, but that’s clearly not the case. I’m sure Stallings will come around.

Bunker rakes were down my list of golf reset values topics, but I think the topic just moved up the list.

Scotland's Durness Golf Club Needs Help Surviving The Pandemic

Membership Appeal! Please Direct Message us with your Name & Email- to send you information PDF explaining our phlight 🙏 Aerial view looking down the 6th Par 5 with Balnakeil Bay and the famous 9th Par 3 hole behind it ⛳️ pic.twitter.com/azHWyOZdTs

— Durness Golf Club (@DurnessGolfClub) April 20, 2020

I’m sad to say I have not found time when in the Highlands to get to Durness but the repeated posts on social media have me hoping I someday get the chance to see one of Scotland’s newer gems.

Unfortunately, as Craig Berktram reports for National Club Golfer, a 9-holer that gets half its necessary revenue to survive from guest play needs help. They are offering some nice membership options to get needed funds if you message them on Twitter.

From Bertram’s story:

Head greenkeeper Alistair Morrison said the club had been contacted by people who had played the course and wanted to help and others who had never set foot on the links but wanted to make sure they’d still have the chance.

“I put the post on twitter and within a couple of minutes someone messaged me from India,” he explained. “He had played last April and fell in love with the place and wanted to come and visit again. You wouldn’t imagine it would get around the world so quickly.

“Some (of those who responded) had been here and some hadn’t. Some of their friends had been and they had seen the photos. Anything would be a huge help at the moment.”

Full membership, which offers unlimited golf when the course is open and reciprocals at the likes of Tain, Brora and Golspie, is £185 for 12 months starting from May 1.

Ru Macdonald’s Vlog on the course from two years ago.

And more pics…

The view Inland as your approach the 3rd par 4 with the beautiful Beinn Spionnaidh, Cranstackie and Foinaven mountains as a backdrop here at Durness 📸 @kevinmarkham pic.twitter.com/rZ3lTMUNMj

— Durness Golf Club (@DurnessGolfClub) April 26, 2020

Shack Show Quick Take: Why A Fan-Free Ryder Cup Might Be The Right Thing

After a few guests I felt there was an opening to consider the Ryder Cup/fan matter as a first world news distraction. In part, because after watching some of the recent replays and considering the times, maybe this is the year to tone things down.

It’s only about 9 minutes of my thoughts, so your input on both this Shack Show format and today’s topic is always appreciated.

In lieu of what would have been an 1100 hundred word blog post, you can just listen here at the show’s iHeart page.

Before half of Wisconsin sends hate mail, understand I was initially in the no fans/no Cup camp, and after looking through photos from Versailles in 2018, it pained me to offer this perspective knowing how many American fans were eager to root on their team at Whistling Straits.

McGinley Gently Pushes Back: Have An Open Mind About Different Ryder Cup

The last time Paul McGinley put his thoughts down on paper to expect a need to expect a different European Tour post COVID-19, the news broke soon after that several cancelled events would not be rescheduled and to expect minimalist build-outs.

McGinley has turned up again at Sky Sports to gently suggest a rush to write off a fan-free Ryder Cup needs further consideration for reasons beyond the fan component. Its not hard to sense his view that the financial strain could be problematic if the Ryder Cup is not kept on schedule.

This is a moment for all stakeholders in golf to continue to collaborate, communicate and support each other. We have no similar experience in modern times to look back on and to learn from. Having open minds could well protect the sport and some of its historic events from spiralling into crisis.

There needs to be collaborative sharing of thinking and a sense of camaraderie. We all want our sports to be back to what they were and, in time, they will be. But in the meantime let us embrace the "new norm" for what it is - an unwanted and unwelcome intruder that we will face together and ultimately control.

In the meantime, let us make the most of whatever degree of playing participation and spectatorship we are able to achieve.

For likely very, very different reasons, I support the idea as I noted in this Shack Show quick take.

"Guerrilla Golfers Sneak Onto Greens Closed by Pandemic"

I’m not sure how to characterize David Segal’s NY Times story on golfers getting their links fix in Florida counties where the sport is considered non-essential.

Segal may not be sure either, but instead he’s mostly documenting these strange times and in particular the confusing notion of Florida having different golf rules for different counties. (Thanks to reader John for sending this in.)

This from the NGF’s Jay Karens was a tad excessive in a time of pandemic…

The public perception of the industry is reflected in its inclusion on what is informally known as the Internal Revenue Service “sin list,” a group of enterprises that are blocked from all sorts of government initiatives, including disaster relief. Others on the list include massage parlors, racetracks and hot tub facilities.

So far, there’s been no reference to the sin list in any of the coronavirus programs passed in Washington. But Jay Karen, the chief executive of the National Golf Course Owners Association, says he and his colleagues are on alert.

“There’s a bias against the game and the business of golf, and it’s patently unfair,” said Mr. Karen. “The feeling is that golf courses are owned by a bunch of rich guys, which is a very old narrative that no longer holds true.”

Podcast: The Shack Show Episode 6 With Guest Nick Faldo

We covered a nice gamut in this chat, including the times, the world of travel, the recent Masters replay, radical game transformations, the driver head, Pringle sweaters, par-3 courses and dogs in a time of pandemics. Among other topics.

As always thanks to all who made this possible, starting with Sir Nick, show producer Tim Parotchka, everyone on the iHeart Golf team.

The iHeart show page. The Apple podcast page for episode six. And to subscribe or review the show.

Show notes:

A preview of Faldo’s new CBS Sports Network’s shows debuting Monday at 7:30 pm ET.

If you’re looking for lessons and swing tips, @NickFaldo006’s new show on @CBSSportsNet is just for you. FALDO FORMULA – MIND. BODY. SWING debuts on Monday at 8 PM ET pic.twitter.com/c9M4i2ELOG

— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) April 23, 2020

If you’re looking for lessons and swing tips, @NickFaldo006’s new show on @CBSSportsNet is just for you. FALDO FORMULA – MIND. BODY. SWING debuts on Monday at 8 PM ET pic.twitter.com/c9M4i2ELOG

— CBS Sports Network (@CBSSportsNet) April 23, 2020

Sir Nick and Saxon on Medterra:

Take1 Morning SNAX. @medterracbd tell us which one you like best? @FWeims @SnickLindz pic.twitter.com/XVCOViTvxN

— Sir Nick Faldo (@NickFaldo006) April 11, 2020

Podcasts this week considering Faldo’s career and 1990 Masters win, starting with The Shotgun Start’s two deep effort featuring guest Sean Martin. (Really great discussions for those who’ve forgotte how incredible Faldo’s post-game remake run turned out to be.)

A Pod Unlike Any Other’s look back at the 1989 Masters.

"A fully-operational Shotlink system, according to multiple officials, ranks only behind the players in tournament priority.”

GolfDigest.com’s Joel Beall and friends took a comprehensive look—with help from tournament officials sharing many financials—at everything required to get a scaled back PGA Tour event to be played in a time of pandemic.

Combined with the Commissioner saying testing is paramount with the continued testing shortfall and the likely need for some from certain locales to 14-day quarantine before turning up in certain regions, and the chances seem remote of a June restart.

As a fan of ShotLink, this part struck me as an odd priority given the tight working space for a ShotLink truck crew and the need for some volunteers to run the system.

“However, there are areas the Tour has identified as essential, chief among them Shotlink. The Tour’s proprietary data content is key for scoring, stats and its gambling relationships, such as with daily fantasy site DraftKings. A fully-operational Shotlink system, according to multiple officials, ranks only behind the players in tournament priority.”

Outside of scoring, I’m not sure how eager fans and players are to have that information versus a simple return to play when it’s safe to do so. Especially if setting up Shotlink impacts COVID-19 testing for those more in need.

Just as expanding fields are being expanded at a time the size of gatherings is under scrutiny, this is a headscratcher. Hundreds and hundreds of golf tournament are played annually without ShotLink but with some form of live scoring. If a “fully operational” ShotLink system is the only way to monitor scoring, a reassessment of priorities is certainly in order.

As an aside, DraftKings began public trading on NASDAQ Friday.

The Match 2: Floridians React About How You'd Expect To Governor's Tweet

While the PGA Tour works on some of the logistical hurdles before signing off, The Match 2 with Woods, Mickelson, Brady and Manning is such a go that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis put in a social media plug.

As Garry Smits notes for the Times-Union, the news of a for-charity golf match went over about how you’d expect in a state where farmers are suffering and the unemployment process is failing. Well, unless you’re the governor.

As of 5:30 p.m., 45 of the first 53 replies to the DeSantis tweet were from people railing about the state’s inability to fix its unemployment web site, and criticizing DeSantis for trumpeting a golf match.

“I can’t afford cable and I’ll probably have to start selling all my stuff, like my TV ... because I’ve been pending on my unemployment since [March 22],” said one person.

“I can assure you, most people would rather know they’ll be getting paid than watch golf,” posted another.

“Ron, I’ll play you 18 holes for my unemployment benefits,” said another poster.

A date and golf course have not been announced.

Tiger Woods spoke from his padded panic room about the event to GolfTV, summarized here at GolfDigest.com by Daniel Rapaport.



"Gleneagles’ “Go Fund Me” Campaign Needs You!"

The wokesters and non-top 100 collectors would be descending on San Francisco’s Gleneagles next month when the PGA Championship hits San Francisco. But with that event postponed and rescheduled for August, the “speakeasy of golf courses” needs help, as does another San Francisco brand, State Apparel.

The Save Sharp Park crowd has posted this unbylined story on the efforts to help Gleneagles and show support for the area’s golf brand.

This Spring, the 1-2 punch of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with high City water bills and maintenance costs that did not go away when the City ordered golfers to keep away, has the City’s lessee Tom Hsieh with his back against the wall. So he is conducting a fundraising campaign on “Go Fund Me”, where Tom explains his plight in a heartfealt letter – which we urge you to read in full. An excerpt:

"It appears that without financial assistance, I will not be able to continue operating Gleneagles nor will I be able to maintain it, even minimally in the coming weeks or months. So if you have a soft spot for public golf like no other,  and hope to one day play another round at a community based golf course,  please help. I know there are many more urgent causes out there and I urge you to support them first.  If you have any more capacity then please point it towards Gleneagles.”