Quadrilateral Major(s) News And Notes: April 29, 2020

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This week’s open-to-all newsletter seems to have urged the flacks of the world to lecture me and of course, plenty of “grow the game” declarations and just all out meltdowns from the influencer set.

Oddly none of the USGA’s paid promoters seem bothered by the $160 U.S. Open ticket price reported on in the newsletter along with several PGA Championship notes.

Phil Unsure About A Torrey Pines U.S. Open Special Exemption

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You have to admire Phil Mickelson’s willingness to qualify and lack of desire to accept a 2021 U.S. Open special exemption. But with six runner-up finishes and as a native of San Diego, he’s a no-brainer based on any number of factors, from his career to the number handed out in the past to other legends.

According to this from ESPN.com’s Bob Harig talking to Mickelson after his Valspar opening run, the stance has at least moved from not wanting one to unsure.

"I don't know; I just don't know the answer to that right now," Mickelson told ESPN after shooting 2-over-par 73 at the Valspar Championship. "I'm scheduled to go through qualifying the day after the Memorial [Tournament in Ohio]."

As Harig notes, the USGA usually makes any such announcements in mid-May. The first was given to Ben Hogan in 1966 and most recent was to Ernie Els at Pebble Beach in 2019.

Here's Hoping Golf Does Not Listen To Adam Silver's Advice To Embrace Slow Play

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As the gambling talk speeds up and rounds continue to bog down, golf’s slow play may be seen as a positive in some sectors.

Let’s hope they don’t read Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred’s advice from his NBA counterpart: “you gotta stop talking about the pace of game because your pace of game is going to be absolutely perfect for sports betting.”

Sigh.

The full quote and the interview excerpt is embedded below.

Manfred reminded everyone of this Monday speaking at a webinar hosted by Sportico. He recalled the story of a conversation he had a few years ago with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who told Manfred that MLB’s slower pace gives it an advantage when it comes to placing wagers:

“I’ll tell you a funny story; I don’t think he would mind. One night, I was coming back from an event and the phone rang; it was Adam Silver. He said: Rob, you gotta stop talking about the pace of game because your pace of game is going to be absolutely perfect for sports betting. And he’s right; he usually is. And he was right about that. So we see it as an opportunity to make everything we do… better for our fans. It’s an opportunity that our fans clearly want.”

Would golf embrace slow play to help people get their bets in?

Yes I went full rhetorical there.

Zurich Classic Makes Ratings Jump; LPGA So-So In Saturday Prime Time

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Maybe without Live Under Par the kids just aren’t connected to the PGA Tour like before, or we’ll just blame cordcutting. Either way the 2021 Zurich Classic jumped to a 1.37 from a dreadful .97 in 2019. Both aired on CBS.

Showbuzzdaily with all the weekend sports ratings.

Despite averaging 700,000 more viewers the telecast only picked up 45,000 in the 18-49 yo category, going from an average of 250,000 to 295,000.

Streaming numbers are not made available.

For the LPGA Tour, a Saturday finish in LA meant eastern prime time and the Hugel-Air Premia L.A. Open averaged 277,000 on Golf Channel’s final round show. Not great but I hope the Saturday finish, where convenient, continues to get a chance.

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Four Players From Last Week's Zurich Classic Test Positive For COVID-19

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Tyrrell Hatton became the four player to WD from the Valspar Championship after testing positive for COVID-19. He joins previous WD’s by Sepp Straka, Will Gordon and Brice Garnett as players who were at TPC Louisiana playing last week’s Zurich Classic.

This is the most PGA Tour players in one week to test positive since the circuit introduced testing.

This is the first time all of the players were coming from another PGA Tour event.

Best wishes to all for no symptoms or a quick recovery. And I’m sure robust contact tracing is underway to ensure there was no spreader situation at TPC Louisiana or in the travel from New Orleans to Tampa for the Valspar.

While virus news is never good, this week’s wave comes as huge numbers of Americans are getting vaccinated and the EU and UK appear close to clarifying how required vaccination passports might work for summer travel. Besides the obvious safety issues that are raised by four positives in one week, there should be concern from the golf industry if pro golfers continue to test positive, resist vaccination and still attempt travel the world.

The sport has benefited from the cruelty of the virus by becoming seen as a safe haven with positive attributes.

Maybe pro golfers can do their part to put aside the infertility and microchip concerns to keep the world safer and golf’s image intact.

The 26 PGA Tour players announced as testing positive:

Nick Watney
Cameron Champ
Denny McCarthy
Dylan Frittelli
Harris English
Chad Campbell
Branden Grace
Tony Finau
Dustin Johnson
Adam Scott
Harry Higgs
Bill Haas
Kramer Hickok
Henrik Norlander
Jhonattan Vegas
DJ Trahan
Mark Wilson
Kamalu Johnson
Padraig Harrington
Danny Willett
Gary Woodland
Scott Piercy
Doc Redman
Seamus Power
Will Gordon
Brice Garnett
Sepp Straka
Tyrrell Hatton

**Paul Casey took issue with this post and the above list, names made public by the PGA Tour (I merely presented the full list to prove the number of players who have tested positive.)

I should have made more clear that it was not meant to humiliate them but instead to document the number since the “Return to Golf”. As someone who has dealt with the impact of the virus on a daily basis since November 30th, I certainly understand many layers of the pandemic and empathize with those who have had the virus or have lost a loved one.

Casey’s remarks:

Q. We just had four players this week test positive, all who were in New Orleans last week. It's still a thing, obviously. But if they had been fully vaccinated, obviously there's been timing issues with this, the schedule, getting eligible, but in theory they wouldn't have to be tested. There's this evidence to suggest they won't even transmit it. Isn't that the way forward not only for you guys but for everybody?

PAUL CASEY: I think so. I mean, how else are you going to get out of a pandemic? Either you need everybody to have had it -- which again, my understanding, what I read at the beginning, and you don't know what's right or wrong, but my reading at the beginning was we can't -- we're not going to get rid of this thing straight away. It was, let's mask up, let's distance so that they won't overwhelm our health services. But we have no way of killing this thing.

You know, when like Shackelford is writing this morning and almost calling out those guys who have had COVID, I think that's out of order. You know, a lot of guys still don't know -- guys who have had it and I've had friends who have had it, I've not had it but guys who have had it who are my friends, they don't know how they got it, genuinely don't know how they got it and have been adhering to protocols, so I'm disappointed that Geoff would do that.

Touch wood they didn't pass it on to anybody else and didn't affect anybody else, and it seems like we've not had anybody on TOUR who's been seriously adversity affected. I know there's a couple of media personnel, people in the media who have dealt with it badly or have had adverse effect, but yeah, look, I would try to preach as much as I can. I don't want to get up on a soapbox and kind of scream it, but we all want to get through this, and how else are we going to get through it unless everybody has got antibodies or we get vaccinated.

I'm still worried about international travel coming up. I've got to go play Porsche in a few weeks and then the Open Championship, and I want to go on holiday with my mates. I usually go to Italy and that's not going to happen again for another year. So I'm sick of it, and I'm willing to do the things necessary to get through it.

Quadrilateral: Sleeper Theories On Rickie's PGA Championship Exemption

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The Quadrilateral covers the majors and while this is not major majors news, Rickie Fowler getting a PGA Championship spot does not look great.

But the staff worked hard today to round up the deep sleeper theories. For my loyal paying subscribers’ eyes only as there might be some upset executives if this was available to their scions.

Monday Qualifying Matters, Files: Michael Visacki Edition

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This week’s Valspar Championship adds Michael Visacki to the field on the back of his first-ever Monday qualifying. Remember those? They still have them some weeks and dreams do still come true?

Great stuff from the journeyman and his playing partners:

Wilshire Reinforces A Sense Of Place

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I’ll leave it up to Ron Sirak to give you the context on Brooke Henderson’s first LPGA win in two years, coming from behind and barely holding off Jessica Korda, Jin Young Ko and Hannah Green.

I took in the final round and was taken again by Wilshire’s charm. But also how, even in a year without fans present, the energy was different than so many tournament venues. My latest for The Quadrilateral and why that matters so much.

Couples: "The only tweets I’ve ever heard make you money are birdie tweet tweets!"

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The PIP mocking can’t be going over well down in Ponte Vedra Beach where they kept this secret until Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch exposed this bizarre bonus pool

And especially when it comes from a former Presidents Cup captain and World Golf Hall of Fame member.

For those wondering where things stand on social media, even GOLFTV got into the PIP tracking.

The Golf.com Monday morning roundtable also chimed in with plenty of fodder. Just some of the points delivered:

Sens: What do I make of them? They are the inevitable result of a media culture that has turned everything in life into a high school cool-kid contest. It’s depressing, but I get it. I’m not a boomer, after all. Almost, but not quite. And I suppose it could be interesting to see what crazy lengths some players go to get a higher “impact score.”

Bamberger: That’s perfect, Josh. But that doesn’t mean we have to sit here and take it. I think it demeans the PGA Tour.

Dethier: Players were already being rewarded for their popularity and “impact” through ad deals, sponsorships, appearance fees and more. I’ve always seen the PGA Tour’s job as putting on tournaments and paying the winners. It seems off to me, then, for the Tour to pay its most popular players — but I guess the simplest way to think about it is that they’re advertising for themselves and they’re investing where they’ll get the highest return. It can make sense but I don’t have to particularly like it.

Bamberger: I agree with that, too. But do we really need ‘particularly’ in that last sentence? I don’t have to like it and I don’t.

Zurich Classic: Time For Four-Ball To Go?

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Four adults playing their ball and picking up when they’re out of the hole? That should (theoretically) go faster than four grown men playing pure stroke play.

Four-ball is a complete slog of a format with the best male golfers and needs to be eliminated where possible. But since the world’s best rarely are out of a hole and they’re slow as it is, the format produces a death march.

The Ryder Cup will not abandon four-ball matches even though they were not added until 1963. But the Zurich Classic is supposed to be entertaining. Its two best ball rounds drag on forever and produce so little tension.

But foursomes? Straight alternate shot certainly brings a different tension level. Maybe an excess of intensity given that foursomes is a match play format and was never envisioned as a form of stroke play.

As No Laying Up tweeted, four rounds of alternate shot might make the Zurich better. But four days of pure alternate shot would prove too fan-unfriendly over four days. I’d prefer to see the event go to Scotch foursomes (both players hit drives). Maybe play that version for three days and move to straight alternate shot for the final day?

Your thoughts?

2021 Zurich Classic Offers A Grim Window Into A Baba Booey Future

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With decent-sized galleries and apparently no mask mandate enforcement, the Zurich Classic’s compelling final round duel was occasionally interrupted by various drunken dopes and other dough brains screaming something to get attention.

Sigh.

One of the few upsides to the otherwise grim pandemic now appears destined to return or worse, become more prevalent due to pent-up obnoxiousness.

Otherwise, it was a nice performance for several teams, notably the playoff-winning duo of Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith who edged Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

After Smith drove into the water at the short par-4 16th, Leishman chipped in for a key birdie (below). And in other important news, Smith’s mullet may not be going even after he committed to its demise upon winning again (also below).

State Of The Game 111: Hideki And The PIP

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Longtime looper and great guy Tom Watson joins us to discuss the perspective from Japan following Hideki Matsuyama’s Masters win.

Then Rod Morri, Mike Clayton, Watson and yours truly discuss the usual issues and one unusual one: the PGA Tour’s no-longer-secret Player Impact Program.

As always, subscribing is free on your favorite app and you can access below or at the State of the Game pag here.

Wolff's Struggles Continue

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Pro golf’s desperation to lower its viewing demo means some young talents are going to be pushed to grow up fast and come under excessive scrutiny before they might be ready.

No case should be seen as more acute or troubling as Matthew Wolff’s 2021 struggles so soon after near-wins in 2020 majors.

The people who’ve steered him to live in new places and sign up for the stock Tour life should be questioning their judgement. Particularly given that Wolff is a good-natured chap increasingly showing outward signs of general misery.

This time it was the Zurich Classic alongside partner Collin Morikawa. GolfDigest.com’s Brian Wacker documents the latest rough week in a season that’s seen the former NCAA champion battle injury, post two WD’s, a missed cut and a Masters DQ for signing an incorrect card.

There’s also the element adjusting to a lonely life in the lonely world of professional golf. In college, there are myriad support systems for a player. On tour, it’s ultimately every man for himself, no matter the friendships. Some struggle with that transition more than others.

“It’s a different world to travel on your own,” Morikawa said. “Yeah, you have an agent, but you’re out there by yourself in a hotel room. You can’t prep for that. There’s a certain age where some people are more mature than others. I wouldn’t blame it on young age—he’s won and proven he can do it—but he just has to find that little thing in his swing and get over that hurdle.”