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
While there was the oddity of seeing Bryson DeChambeau lumped in with a range of CBS and Paramount characters in a Super Bowl ad, it was also a gentle reminder of where cordcutters will find CBS golf broadcasts after March 4.
One other note: DeChambeau got the gig along with a brief cameo for Tim Tucker. It was Tucker who tried to block a CBS cameraman from capturing images of DeChambeau last year.
At the summit of Mount Paramount, a surprise greets our heroes as they celebrate sweet victory.
— Paramount+ (@paramountplus) February 8, 2021
This is #PeakStreaming. This is #ParamountPlus. Launching March 4. https://t.co/wy45vK00p8 pic.twitter.com/omJQ4UzOfk
Put some fans back on the course—even whose life goal is to coin the next Baba Booey—mix in one of the most volatile finishing stretches on earth and put Jordan Spieth in the lead? It should add up to a stellar Waste Management Open final round.
It’s been a while since Spieth has had a chance to win but seeing his Saturday 61 reminded just about everyone that the sport is more fun to watch when he’s hovering around a leaderboard.
I’ll leave the rest of your Sunday preview to 15th Club’s Justin Ray who went on quite a Saturday evening Tweetstorm:
Jordan Spieth field ranks through 3 rounds:
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 6, 2021
Driving accuracy: Last
Strokes gained approach: 1st
Strokes gained putting: 6th
Incredibly, Spieth isn't the only player to lose strokes off the tee and shoot 61 at TPC Scottsdale. JJ Henry also did it in the 2nd round in 2006.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 6, 2021
It's been 78 worldwide starts since Jordan Spieth won a tournament.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 6, 2021
In the 78 starts he made before this stretch, he won 13 times.
Last two times Jordan Spieth played in the final group on a Sunday
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 6, 2021
2018 Open Championship, grouped with Xander Schauffele
2021 Phoenix Open, grouped with Xander Schauffele
Record with 54-hole leads/co-leads on @PGATOUR
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) February 6, 2021
Xander Schauffele - 0-for-3
Jordan Spieth - 9-for-16
PGA Tour highlights from Spieth’s 61:
A week after Patrick Reed’s remarkable request, approval and endorsed embedded ball relief saga at Torrey Pines, it’s still the talk of 19th hole banter (at a safe distance). Playing it as it lies remains under assault on the PGA Tour. I’ve yet to hear from anyone who liked what they saw.
Then we added Wednesday word of a volunteer confessing to having accidentally stepped on Rory McIlroy’s ball. If true, it solidifies key differences between Reed and McIlroy’s situation on top of one other key point: McIlroy’s next lie was essentially no better than the first one.
It’s all pretty strange and was made otherword-bizarre when the rules community could not find one thing wrong wtih Reed’s actions.
It wasn’t always that way.
Thanks to reader E for sending in this gem from the Sports Illustrated when players were not bigger than the game.
Former USGA President Trey Holland wrote this guest piece for SI on Tiger Woods. It’s a fun read but best on the ruling part after Woods hit it some deep Pebble Beach rough:
"Then on the 3rd hole he hits his second shot short of the hole, near a bunker. The ball sinks in the grass. He says to me, 'I think my ball is embedded.' If it's embedded, he gets a free drop. There's an intensity in his voice. He knows how he wants this to come out.
"I say, 'Mark your ball, lift it and test the dirt with a finger. If the plane of the dirt--not the grass, but the dirt--is broken, it's embedded.'
"He tests it. He says, 'I think it is.' I say, 'Let me have a look.' I put my finger down there. I say, 'It's not.' He doesn't say a word. Replaces his ball. Hacks it out. Makes a triple
bogey.
"On Sunday we're back on the 1st tee. He says hi. Doesn't say anything about the ruling. He does his two-minute stare again, plays his final round, wins the U.S. Open. I congratulate him, and he says, 'Thanks, that means a lot. But I sure would have liked to have gotten that drop yesterday on 3.' Twenty-eight hours later and after winning the Open by 15 shots, he was still thinking about it. I was under the clear impression that he wanted to win by 18."
Dustin Johnson, chiming in on the USGA and R&A’s proposed equipment standards changes, is towing the Taylormade line. But having just broken or tied nine scoring records at the fall Masters, this was a curious claim:
“I don't think so,” responded the 36-year-old, when asked if golf needs to have something in place to control distance. “I mean, if you look at the scores over the last 15 years, scores aren't really any different, and I don't feel like the game is too easy by any means.”
He also gives an endorsement of sorts and states the most important point: players will adjust.
“It's all conditions I think. But I don't think that we're hitting it too far or our scores are too good. So, if they want to do something, that's fine, but obviously we'll all adjust to it and go from there. But as of right now, I don't think there's anything they need to do.”
So much to cover in a busier-than normal week for major championship news. But The Quadrilateral is here for you and Thursday’s notes edition is free.
Be sure to sign up and thanks to so many of you who’ve taken the leap. I’m beyond thrilled at the support on February 4th already, confirming my suspicions that the majors mean a lot to plenty of golf fans.
Here is more on The Quadrilateral and one note: I do anticipate Q&A’s and podcasts coming soon. But just keeping up with and analyzing the major(s) news has been kind of incredible lately! Thanks for your patience.
Tom Corwin of the Augusta Chronicle reports on Augusta National Golf Club jointly announcing a $1 million effort matched by a community foundation to help the COVID-19 vaccine effort. AU Health System is the partner and besides opening the doors to a recently acquired property on Washington, the club is also sending a bigger statement in becoming the first golf organization to endorse the vaccine effort.
“Helping expand access to COVID-19 vaccinations is another meaningful way to do more for our neighbors in the Augusta community that has supported the Masters Tournament for more than 80 years,” Ridley said. “The dedication of (AU Health), Georgia Department of Public Health and all health care providers working courageously during this pandemic is inspiring, and they deserve our enduring gratitude and support. We hope these resources will have an immediate impact on their efforts to protect those most vulnerable and our community at large through more vaccinations."
A victory for Donald Trump in Scotland, reports this unbylined Reuters story.
The Scottish Green Party brought forward a motion calling on ministers to seek an "unexplained wealth order" (UWO) against Trump over his acquisition of the golf courses and resorts in north and west Scotland. It was defeated by a vote of 89 to 32.
The party's co-leader Patrick Harvie said there were longstanding concerns about Trump's financial conduct, describing the ex-president as "an untrustworthy dishonest, racist, conspiracy theorist" with whom Scotland should never have associated.
Fans or no fans? Impact on play or not? And what about the kids?
The obvious question after Collin Morikawa held off players like Matthew Wolff and Scottie Scheffler at the 2020 PGA: has it been easier adjustment in the pandemic era without loud, biased-to-veterans crowds or the inevitable adjustment to playing before large crowds?
And how to prove or disprove it?
Thankfully, that’s what someone like Justin Ray likes to answer. I finally got around to this and as always, enjoyed his approach and use of the data to answer an interesting question.
While plenty of younger players have found the winner’s circle since the season resumed after the pandemic hiatus, there hasn’t been a rush of new faces lifting trophies. The average age for PGA TOUR winners since last year’s Charles Schwab Challenge is 32.1 – right around average for recent seasons. It’s actually a slightly older median than the 2018-19 season (31.8), as well as every season from 2013-14 through 2016-17.
How about making the cut? From the beginning of the 2017-18 season through the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational, players age 24 or younger made the cut 53.6% of the time. In the mostly ‘fan-less’ tournaments since, that number has actually decreased, to 50.9%. That may be partly an effect of the Herculean fields that populated the TOUR shortly after the pandemic hiatus ended – an abbreviated season meant condensed schedules for the world’s best players.
Too bad more players are not this grounded when it comes to the distance and skill discussion.
Of course this was said in Saudi Arabia where Bryson DeChambeau is headlining the European Tour’s stop there, but we’ll set that aside for now:
Q. I don't know if you had a chance to see the fact that the USGA and the R&A -- you have, good. You seem to be the only one that's literate coming into this thing. Anyways, what's your thoughts on it, and do you think that distance is an issue?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, look, I had a great conversation with John Bodenheimer and Jason Gore yesterday when it came out, pretty much right when it came out. That was my doing. I wanted to talk to them and get their piece on it. I totally understand what they are about. They are trying not to take the human element out of it, which I think is the most important factor in this whole conversation.
When it comes to the equipment aspect, they are trying to make it more of a -- I guess you could say same or fair playing field where you can't just put a 48-inch driver and it works for this person, you could gain six, seven miles an hour where somebody couldn't because the driver just doesn't work for them or whatever.
I think the most important factor in this whole discussion is that they are focused on keeping the integrity of the game and trying to make it more of a fair playing field while not taking out the human element.
I’m just stopping here to let you go back and read that last graph again. This is Bryson DeChambeau. Yeah he’s definitely cut back on the bacon.
From my perspective, I think it suits me really well because as of right now, I'm still playing the 45-and-a-half-inch driver, and it's suiting me perfectly well, and I'm not going to the 48. So if someone was trying to go to the 48 for them they could gain six, seven miles an hour pretty quickly and now it's not a possibility. And I think it's going to be more difficult for people to gain speed easily. They are going to have to work really hard, just like I have.
For me right now, I feel like it's a pretty good advantage from the way I look at it.
Q. Did you initiate the conversation?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I did.
Q. All that being said, would you not have a problem if they decided not to make adjustments into the rules?
BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: No, I welcome it as long as they don't change the human element. Again, I'm going to play with whatever they gave me. I'm not worried about it. I'm going to do what that they say is legal and I'll just go from there and find the best way to play for me under The Rules of Golf.
There's no issues -- it's funny, I'm sure there's a lot of excitement about me having a potentially controversial thought on it but I don't. I think it's a really cool thought process. It's a little flattering in a sense, because I did talk about that 48-inch driver for so long, and it just didn't work for me the way I wanted it to.
As it's played out, I think it's really cool to see that there's some change off of the conversations that I've had, and it's just pretty interesting to me.
Human element. I’m borrowing that. So should the USGA and R&A.
Rory McIlroy spoke at Wednesday’s Waste Management Open press center and made an inconsistent set of comments about the distance issue.
Headline writers loved his comments slamming the USGA and R&A distance report proposals for consideration, but the real takeaway should have been McIlroy’s endorsement (again) of bifurcation and the local rule concept floated as a result of the study. A position also inconsistent with the views of his partners at Taylormade.
Which is why you do such a study so that such companies see the decision was made on data and research, not opinions.
From Adam Schupak at Golfweek:
Asked if he would be in favor of a local rule or different rules for the pros, McIlroy said: “I would be all for that. If they want to try to make the game more difficult for us or more – try to incorporate more skill to the game, yeah, I would be all for that, because I think it only benefits the better play, which I feel like I am.
The waste of money remarks from Ryan Lavner at GolfChannel.com:
“So I think the authorities, the R&A and USGA, are looking at the game through such a tiny little lens, that what they're trying to do is change something that pertains to 0.1 percent of the golfing community, while 99.9 percent of the people play this game play for enjoyment, for entertainment,” McIlroy said. “
Of course, the manufacturers have the option to make anything they’d like to help people enjoy the game. Following the USGA/R&A rules are 100% optional.
For those keeping score at home, that’s a huge endorsement for a local rule picked up by the governing bodies.
A chat with No Laying Up’s Chris Solomon not long after the USGA and R&A announced serious efforts to address the distance issue.
-@GeoffShac joins the pod to help us unpack the latest press release from the USGA/R&A. Change is coming! Geoff explains what all of this means, and responds to common criticisms of any kind of rollback/bifurcation.
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) February 3, 2021
Apple: https://t.co/XEaKCCVBBL
Spotify: https://t.co/2v88BQtiOn pic.twitter.com/v1mvki7rnX
Not much year-to-year change for CBS at the season-opening (for them) Farmers Insurance Open according to ShowBuzzDaily. The PGA Tour moving to CBS and the NFL taking the week off meant golf won the sports week.
The 2021 final round on CBS dropped slightly from a 2.14 averaging 3.24 million in 2020 to a 1.95/3.1 million in 2021. Coverage last year include Tiger Woods within striking range and coverage impacted by news of Kobe Bryant’s death.
Embedded in the numbers are some signs of the Woods effect and Golf Channel’s ratings rough patch.
Weekend lead-in coverage numbers were down significantly from 2020 when Woods was in contention. Friday afternoon’s coverage essentially cut in half without the legend around.
My latest in The Quadrilateral takes a look at the surprising aggressiveness of the governing bodies proposing equipment rule changes and how the men’s majors will get caught in the middle.
One follow-up note since this paid subscriber-only piece was posted: the PGA of America offered a statement in response to my request for comment.
"We look forward to providing feedback once we have the opportunity to review the areas of interest."
Augusta National Golf Club has not responded to a request regarding Tuesday’s rollout and what it might mean for The Masters.
Last week’s winner in Dubai notably de-committed from the inaugural Saudi stop after the Kingdom was linked to gruesomely assassinating Washington Post columnist Jamal Kashoggi.
Paul Casey is back for the third playing and was asked what changed since citing his partnership with UNICEF as reason not to appear.
It was quite an exchange with the Daily Mirror’s Neil McLeman.
Q. Can we talk about the reasons why you're playing in Saudi this year? You previously declined to play for political reasons and now you're obviously there. Can you talk us, how difficult a decision has this been for you and what specifically changed for you?
PAUL CASEY: I don't think I was necessarily that political before, but you are correct, I took a stance where I didn't participate before.
I think something that -- which I felt at that time a couple of years ago, was that I think I was a little bit torn. You know I'm a father. I've got two kids. You know my charitable ties with UNICEF, and I felt that it was not right for me to play.
I've spent the last two years thinking about that a lot. I've learnt an awful lot. I've read an awful lot. And one of the things that I was flat-out wrong on was -- was with my UNICEF ties, is that they are not a political organisation. Their focus is purely on the vulnerability of children around the world, and making sure they look after children around the world and doing everything they can to save them. And that's important to me and that's my focus with my charitable views and endeavors.
And so I was reminded that if you stay away, if you don't engage, if you don't talk, you don't visit, then you're merely kind of hardening positions, and so that actually doesn't do any good.
Engagement and inclusion is really what it's all about. And look, I think things are not black and white. It's very much a grey area what we discussed in the last -- two years ago when I made a position. You know, if you mentioned something like children's rights -- there's not a country on the planet that meets every single rights of a child, not a single country on the planet. And so all you can hope for, Neil, is that a country is on a path towards meeting at many of those as possible.
There's something called the convention of a child, conventions of a child; the rights of a child. You can look it up. This country has signed up to those conventions and is making progress to ticking off as many of those as possible. And that's all I can hope for. And if my -- I felt that if my participation this year can assist in that process -- and if that can make a difference, one iota of a difference, then that's something important.
So it was more -- so I will hold my hand up and say that the position I had two years ago was probably not the right position to have. And so that is why I am here.
Q. You said in your October statement, "I hope my participation will make a difference." Amnesty International called golfers this week to speak up about human rights issues in Saudi Arabia, and since that statement, Loujain al-Hathloul has been jailed for five years for her activism. So would you like -- is part of that process to make a difference, would you like to condemn that?
PAUL CASEY: Run me through that again.
Q. Right. You said in October, you said in the statement, you said, "I hope my participation" -- "my participation will make a difference."
PAUL CASEY: Yes.
Q. In Saudi, okay. Amnesty International called the golfers in Saudi Arabia to speak up about human rights issues in Saudi Arabia. And since that statement in October, Loujain al-Hathloul a very well known human feminist activist in Saudi has been jailed for five years. That happened in December. So would you like to take this opportunity as part of that process to condemn that action by the Saudi government?
PAUL CASEY: And that's who is jailed her?
Q. Saudi Arabia have.
PAUL CASEY: Okay. Neil, this is the first I've read of that. Clearly I'm not well enough read on that particular topic. Clearly with what I just said to you in our previous question, yeah, there's no question that that is not aligned with my beliefs, does it.
Look, I didn't want to go -- I don't want this week to be about this situation. You know, what I've just said in my statements to you to answer your previous question, I think it's very clear you know my views.
Some genuine beauties here.
Not that it’s a surprise, but the first two submissions to this week’s edition of Tour Pros Say The Funniest Things happen to wear Titleist hats. Not sure if you know, but the Tour editions come with industry-leading moisture and common sense wicking. I cannot confirm, however that the lids contain a small frontal lobe zapper every time a player wonders if there might be something to this whole distance thing.
Webb Simpson, defending Waste Management Open champion with that amazing dry wit.
Wait you said there is video evidence? Oh.
Brace for Onionesque tree planting ideas…
Q. Today the USGA and R&A released some proposals regarding distance down the road, maybe limiting driver shaft lengths, maybe some ball testing things. Just wondering where you stand on the whole distance debate, and also how big a player should the PGA TOUR be in this whole discussion?
WEBB SIMPSON: Yeah, it's a great question. My first problem I have with the driver length is if a 6'10" really good golfer comes out, like are we really going to tell him he can't use anything longer than 46? So that's my only problem with the length of the driver.
Somewhere a seven-footer is thanking you for saving him from a career in basketball.
But I've been kind of saying for the last few years, I don't think equipment is the problem. I do think -- Jack Nicklaus hit it a lot further than Bobby Jones, and then the guys after Jack are going to hit it further than Jack. Distance was never really that big of an issue when Jack was playing and hitting it 300 yards.
I just think the issue comes down to golf course architecture. We need more doglegs. We need tighter fairways. We need longer rough. We need smaller greens. We need more firm greens. All those things I just named save money, saves water, saves land that you have to build a golf course.
To my superintendent readers, I’m sorry I didn’t give you a warning that you’d be subjected to first-year green committee-level ignorance. I’ll do better.
We know that 8,000-yard golf courses are not the answer. Books Koepka shot 16-under at Erin Hills. I believe that's what he shot. Lengthening courses is not the issue. Bunker placements, dog begs, tree placements. I even think at Augusta on 13 we don't need that tee 40 yards back. What they need is a mid-sized tree 20 yards in front of the tee box and five feet left of the tee box because the issue right now is guys can tee it up on the right and they can even cut it, some of these guys, over the tree. Well, if you put a tree there guys can't do that.
See, this is where Clifford Roberts would actually follow that advice and put a $200,000 bill in Webb’s locker this year. Kind of miss those dictators on days like this.
It's just like the 4th hole this year at Winged Foot; it's a dogleg left par-4 but there's a tree there with branches so the bombers can't hit their cut over that bunker, so a lot of the bombers just hit 3-wood.
Now, attaching branches, trickier task. Great golf architectural ploy though. Yikes.
So I really think the attention does not need to be on equipment or the golf ball. Billy Horschel had a great comment a couple years ago.
There’s something you almost never hear.
He said the golf ball is not an issue; I hit a 7-iron in college 180 yards and now I hit it 180 yards, so it can't really be the golf ball is the problem.
Can’t be the golf ball, says another Titleist guy!
Now, the driver, the face is a lot thinner. They're bigger. I understand that. But I don't think an equipment rollback does anybody any good when we can change the way golf courses are designed and it's better for amateurs, it's better for pros, and there are plenty of golf courses on the PGA TOUR that have stood the test of time because of the way they're designed.
Yeah amateurs love rough, trees and tiny greens that are bumpy because they can’t handle the traffic.
Equipment advances don't really pay off or pay a dividend on those courses, and I just feel like these tweaks we could make are really not that hard and they're cost effective.
He’s run the numbers has he?
Your last point about the PGA TOUR, I think their voice should be very loud. I respect the USGA and R&A a great deal, and I know that their intentions are great, but I don't think an equipment rollback is what we need. I think we need different -- I think we need to tweak our golf courses.
And you have, and other than the TPC’s, you send the bill to others. Such consideration!
Justin Thomas returned from a few weeks off to gather his thoughts after microphones caught him uttering a homophobic slur and not to worry Wally, he appreciated the Acushnet support through trying times and stuck to the party line.
Q. I'm sure you've probably heard the USGA and the R&A today announced some proposals regarding distance, things like possibility of limited driver lengths or maybe regulations on the ball. Just curious your kind of overall thoughts on distance and the whole distance debate and maybe where you stand there.
JUSTIN THOMAS: Yeah, I didn't know that. I mean, I think that they -- I think distance is what it is right now because of us, and I think because of a lot of the players are taking the training and becoming more athletes and becoming stronger and more optimal in their distance. It is what it is.
It sure is.
I mean, if you give us different stuff we're still going to try to find a way to hit it as far as we possibly can. I don't think there's any reason or it's not necessary at all to change the golf ball.
Why of course not!
I am fine with them maybe not going any farther with it, but I think Tiger said it a while ago that they missed that opportunity probably 20 or so years ago.
Yes back when Uncle Wally and friends were totally open to the idea! Damn, those missed openings.
Strap in, it’s about to get silly.
Companies have put billions of dollars I would say -- I mean, I don't know that, so I'll say millions of dollars into the construction of golf balls and equipment, and to be perfectly honest, I think it would be extremely selfish of the USGA and the R&A to do that because of all the hard work that they've put in to make their equipment and golf balls as great as they possibly can and maybe just take a step back and realize that we're doing some pretty awesome things with the golf ball and the golf clubs, and also look at your everyday golfer and go up to him and tell him that you want him to hit it shorter because just the top .001 percent of all golfers are hitting it too far, if you will.
So much in one sentence but we’ll just go with “extremely selfish” for non-profit organizations to make people obey their totally voluntary rules.
I think it's not a very good decision, but you know, I'm not sitting in the boardrooms and making those decisions. But hopefully the right thing will be done.
Agreed. Roll it back!
Kind of all makes this Tweet from Wesley Bryan look dignified if it too wasn’t so 1998.
More sustainable...help mitigate....interesting word choices. Sounds like a bunch of conservative, traditional, average golfers, with average skill sets, hitting it average lengths off the tee all got in a room together trying to figure out a way to make golf less fun https://t.co/TD7bphcMoU
— Wesley Bryan (@wesleybryangolf) February 2, 2021
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
