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
There is plenty to whet your (fall 2020) Masters appetite but you can’t go wrong with the virtual panel put together in the name of Save Muny: 1984 & 1995 Masters Champion Ben Crenshaw, 2017 Masters Champion Sergio García, and broadcast great Verne Lundquist.
Enjoy!
This week’s Vivint Houston Open benefiting the (cheating) Astros Foundation marks the first time in the COVID-19 era that a tournament is welcoming back significant crowds. (Announced at 2000 a day compared to last week’s 500 a day in Bermuda).
While face covering is required at all times and spectators at Memorial Park are forking out over $100 per ticket, they’ve been asked to socially distance. Yet even a Thursday crowd, typically the lightest of the week, appeared to struggle with both requirements.
While the obvious first concern involves virus spread, the responsibility placed in Houston’s hands will also determine how soon upcoming events can welcome back fans.
Golf.com’s Art Stricklin was on site and quotes players who felt safe inside the ropes but also addresses what was obvious to telecast viewers: a lot of people standing around side-by-side with the usual mixed-face covering buy-in.
In fact, the only complaint Texas native Jimmy Walker had was there were only 2,000 fans.
“I wish there were more this week, but at least it’s a start,” Walker said.
Local tournament officials wished there were more, as well, but settled on 2,000 after discussing it with the PGA Tour and City of Houston health officials. The U.S. Women’s Open, 20 miles away from here next month, is not allowing any fans.
“It’s pretty much shoulder to shoulder on every green,” said Houston business owner David Miller, who came as the guest of a client. “I’m trying to live my life, but be cautious about it.”
Camera views can be deceiving, particularly on a rear-tee shot like this where the crowd size and spacing is distorted.
Thankfully, players felt safe inside the ropes, according to Stricklin:
Spieth said he was taking a more wait-and-see approach with having fans.
“Yeah, I think we have to see,” he said. “It certainly felt more normal as we were playing, so obviously if we’re able to do it safely, that’s a huge win for the tournaments and the Tour. Hopefully it continues to go well like it did this morning.”
“Pretty much everyone was wearing a mask that I saw,” added Scottie Scheffler, who was tied for second, behind leader Brandt Snedeker, after a 67.. “I felt very safe out there on the course. So for the players, I’m sure it will be fine.”
Adam Schupak caught up with Adam Scott following his COVID-19 positive test and symptoms. The Australian was scheduled to play the ZOZO Championship as a key Masters tuneup but tested positive and road out a brief fever at a hotel and then rental house.
The Genesis Invitational winner earlier this year—seemingly a decade ago—is now entered at this week’s Vivant Houston Open Benefitting the Cheating Astros Foundation and admits to a pre-Masters preparation setback.
“Not only not getting Zozo in, not getting any practice in for those 10 days either is a little setback, but I’ve actually come out swinging good this week and at least feel fresh,” he said. “Hopefully that works in my favor…What I had planned in preparation was to kind of peak at the Masters and Houston’s a big part of that. It’s even more important since I tested positive and had to kind of not play in Zozo and not really get practice in and make sure I got healthy again. So, this is an important week for me. There’s a lot to take out of it.”
This was an interesting and typically thoughtful admission from one of the game’s more cerebral players:
“It just becomes harder for guys getting well into their 40s to be consistently competitive. It just takes a bit more. They’ve got to find their right weeks and take advantage of that,” Scott said. “Hopefully there’s room for a couple of older folk to hang in there like me for those next five or 10 years.”
A Masters favorite, Johnson will prep at this week’s Houston Open and remain pleased about one thing and one thing only.
“The first day I didn’t hit balls for very long because I got kind of tired,” he said. “Then kind of practiced a little bit more each day. My health is good. The state of my game is undetermined.”
While Johnson said he isn’t sure how he got coronavirus—everyone around him, including his fiancee Paulina Gretzky and two kids, River and Tatum, tested negative, he said—there is at least one positive he is happy about.
“The only good thing that came out of this,” Johnson said, “is I know I'm playing next week at the Masters.”
Evan Priest talks to looping legend Steve Williams about his favorite Masters memories for Golf.com. Eventually the topic returned to his old boss, the defending champion Tiger Woods—and how he might handle next week’s fall Masters.
I do wonder if Tiger’s lackluster showings in the COVID-19 era are impacted by an intangible we cannot ever measure…
Williams himself has reservations about Woods at a November Masters. Cooler temps will make the course play longer, and they won’t be ideal for Tiger’s iffy back. More concerning is that Woods will be in unchartered territory at a gallery-less Augusta. He uses every fiber of the Masters experience — including the tournament’s unrivaled stresses — to his advantage. Without the thousands of patrons and their piercing, adrenaline-pumping and equally nerve-rattling roars, will players feel the pressure?
“It could be really difficult to get the competitive juices flowing,” Williams admits. “When you turn up to a major, they have a different feel from regular PGA Tour events; there is a buzz and an excitement about them. With that element missing, for someone like Tiger who hasn’t played a lot of tournament golf this year, it’ll be hard to get that spark you need. But Tiger is going to give it 110 percent.”
One of the stranger recent Traditions Unlike Any Other: Masters amateurs doing an obligatory night in the Crow’s Nest around Monday’s Amateur Dinner, then moving to a rental house with their “team” (because you know, amateurs need to be with their agents).
With COVID-19 making the sharing of a living space possibly problematic—it’d still be nice to hear that one amateur stayed all week in what most normal human being-Americans would call one-off lodging opportunity-of-a-lifetime: the Crow’s Nest during Masters week.
Well, the rest of us can dream next week to the club providing a little bit of access to golf’s ultimate lodging spot:
Golf.com’s Alan Bastable was able to access the first-ever Masters patron-only shop. He reviews some new and surprising items, and also explains the setup:
How long the inventory will last is anyone’s guess. God willing, we’re unlikely to see another November Masters anytime soon, which means this year’s gear will have a special one-off cachet for collectors. The tournament has leaned into the timing with fall-themed course prints and holiday decorations, including tree ornaments and a Santa garden gnome.
Buyers are limited to two check-outs, but given the ease of online shopping (and the fact that fans won’t have to lug their merchandise home with them from the course), it’s not hard to imagine Masters-happy customers’ buying more than they would have if they’d been shopping in the brick-and-mortar shop at the tournament.
Which, makes the future of this approach something plenty will watch.
But back to those surprising items. The most bizarre of all has to be the Masters food spread.
Alex Myers at GolfDigest.com writes:
Masters food: As in, you can actually buy Masters food. From the Masters. From Augusta National. They will ship it to you so you can host a legendary Masters party or you can just pig out by yourself while you enjoy this feast for 10-12 people that’s offered on the new online Masters Patron Shop:
I’d like a few more cookies and their chicken sandwiches instead of the pimento cheese, but man, that’s tempting.
Several items from the new shop have hit ebay and the prices suggest Gnomes are the new beer cup. For those in the mood to overpay:
$399 Fall Masters (dressed like Santa) gnome.
Gnome long sleeve for the low, low price of $199.99
$399 Masters watch to remember 2020 by.
Just $75 for a 2020 Masters pin flag.
The 2020 Golf Framed Pin set at just $399 is actually not ridiculous. Blame 2020.
Even with a Masters invitation (somehow) on the line and of course, the all important FedExCup points, Brian Gay’s Bermuda Championship win still had fewer Golf Channel viewers than the Timbertech Championship.
That event featured Darren Clarke holding of Jim Furyk and Bernhard Langer for his first PGA Tour Champions win.
Saturday’s third round of the Timbertech “won” the weekend and averaged 43,000 in the coveted none-Villages demo.
The Bermuda Championship’s Thursday and Friday telecasts draw enough of an audience to crack the top 150 cable shows.
One key to pro golf’s athleticism canard: this marketing narrative serves as a distraction from the real reasons the distance discussion never goes away. With more and more golfers hurt when their masculinity is damaged when it’s revealed their “athleticism” is only as good as the driver they are fitted with, the debate gets sidetracked. Then we easily forget that it’s the lost strategy of this great game fueling the the rollback question.
As Mike Clayton lays out for all schools of thought, strategy should still be the soul of the game and enough people miss it.
A key question for professional golf (a version of the game increasingly separated from the version played by the masses) is, “is brilliant, interesting design and the age-old concept of what constitutes strategy compatible with, and capable of, testing the best players in the game?”
“Increasingly not” is my not unreasonable conclusion.
I also enjoyed this as Clayton and friends do not downplay Bryson DeChambeau’s accomplishment at Winged Foot, but instead use it as fuel for the discussion.
Gil Hanse, Winged Foot’s consulting architect, charged with restoring AW Tillinghast’s famed and treacherous greens, might agree. Hanse watched DeChambeau’s opening 36 holes to witness whether he could pull off his unique strategy. It’s fair to say that he came away surprised, somewhat dismayed and impressed.
“It’s not a beautiful way to play golf. It’s not even shot making. It’s just kind of bludgeoning. I feel sad about the way golf is going. There are some arrows in the quiver if this style of golf renders architecture and strategy obsolete. But”, said Hanse, “it was impressive”.
With a 2020 title in the pocket and the injection of real muni golf onto the PGA Tour schedule, I will set aside my feelings about the cheating Astros*. And this week’s host, their cheating, thoroughly remorse-free owner, Jim Crane (along with various dishonest players).
While I’ll never quite fully grasp why this murky crew pushed one of America’s elite golf associations aside to take over a storied Tour event, we at least have Tour players prepping for the one-off Fall Masters on a low priced public course. This is a long overdue victory for the Houston Open and validation for the Bethpage effect we hoped had taken a stronger hold by now.
Josh Sens gives the revitalized Memorial Park a positive review and explains how the Tom Doak-Brooks Koepka effort does not try to protect par for this week’s Vivint Houston Open.
The work that made Memorial Park Tour-worthy once more — bringing the Houston Open back from the suburbs, where it was held for decades, to within the city limits — began in earnest in late 2018.
The first phase alone cost $18.5 million, but the money didn’t come out of taxpayers’ pockets. It was furnished by the Houston Astros Foundation (a non-profit founded by Jim Crane, the owner of the baseball team), which, in consultation with the city, tapped the noted architect Tom Doak to renovate the course.
Every renovation brings its own demands. Doak’s mandate was to dream up a Goldilocks design, a course that would ask compelling questions of the world’s best golfers while answering the needs of its muni clientele during jam-packed year-round play. As his consigliere, Doak leaned on Brooks Koepka, an official advisor on the project, a four-time major winner, who provided his two cents on design.
From the start, both men knew that defending par against the pros couldn’t be a top priority. That would only yield a one-dimensional layout. The emphasis, instead, should be on excitement — especially, Koepka urged, on the closing stretch. Electric late-day lead changes were what he hoped to see.
History and design buffs will enjoy Sean Martin’s “Five Things To Know” about Memorial Park as the Tour descends on Houston.
This isn’t the first time Memorial Park has been the venue for the Vivint Houston Open, however. It hosted the event 14 times between 1947 and 1963. Winners at Memorial Park included major winners Arnold Palmer, Bobby Locke, Jack Burke Jr., Bob Charles, Bobby Nichols and Jay Hebert.
Burke’s father, Jack Burke Sr., was a Houston golf pro who is credited with hitting the first tee shot when Memorial Park opened in 1936. Jack Burke Jr., who also won a Masters and PGA Championship, was on-hand for Memorial Park’s re-opening ceremony last year. Burke is 97 years old.
Charles’ win at Memorial Park in 1963 was the first on the PGA TOUR by a left-hander. He won the Open Championship later that year to become the first left-hander to win a major.
Memorial Park nearly was the site of Jack Nicklaus’ first PGA TOUR win, as well. Nicklaus lost a playoff to Nichols after suffering a strange penalty in the third round of the 1962 Houston Open. While tending the flag for his boss’ 35-foot birdie putt, Nicklaus’ caddie accidentally pulled the hole liner out of the ground. Nicklaus was assessed a two-stroke penalty after his ball struck the liner.
I’m not sure there is much news here beyond the obvious: top players endorsing sports better. Even then, not exactly groundbreaking at this point. More intriguing will be what happens if any of these players grows uncomfortable with bettors feasting on a negative portrayal of their game by an official, PGA Tour-sanctioned site.
For Immediate Release:
DraftKings to Make Debut at 2020 Masters with Bryson DeChambeau in Exclusive Multi-Year Deal
Collaboration with the World’s Sixth-Ranked Golfer Underscores Significance of Golf Within the Gaming Industry
BOSTON—November 2, 2020—Today, DraftKings announced an exclusive, multi-year relationship with Bryson DeChambeau, who will become the first active professional golfer to represent the digital sports entertainment and gaming company via an integrated brand, content, marketing, and VIP centric collaboration that will feature Bryson DeChambeau as the face of DraftKings golf.
Whew, that was a mouthful. Pausing here to regroup. Ok, continue.
Bryson is currently ranked No. 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking and is coming off his first major championship at the U.S. Open in September, 2020. Starting with the 2020 Masters, the DraftKings logo will be featured on DeChambeau’s signature golf cap.
“Professional golf has been a key growth sport in both daily fantasy and sports betting, and our collaboration with Bryson DeChambeau is a notable new layer of mainstream brand exposure and fan experience,” said Jason Robins, co-founder and CEO, DraftKings. “As one of golf’s most promising athletes and the current U.S. Open champion, DraftKings is strategically aligning with winning athletes like Bryson who embody and embolden the competitive fire of our customers.”
Competitive fire! Come on 22!
So he’s wearing a logo on the cap. Oh, wait, he may speak.
At DraftKings, golf remains the fourth-most-popular sport for daily fantasy while golf sportsbook handle has grown over ten times year over year. Excluding NFL games, the 2019 Masters ranked among the top five highest-bet sporting events on DraftKings while 2020 has featured many of the company’s most popularly bet golf tournaments of all time. Amidst this surge in golf betting, the athlete sponsorship also entails unique experiential elements to engage fans such as playing a round of golf with or receiving golf lessons from Mr. DeChambeau.
Yeah, bettors really love swing instruction over, say, what he thinks his chances are of a top-10 at +200.
“DraftKings has been at the forefront of innovation for how people experience golf, and the company continues to modernize the game through technology built by and for sports fans,” said Bryson DeChambeau.
Or, someone writing that for him.
“The gaming industry has already helped golf reach broader audiences, and I am proud to work with DraftKings on boosting fan excitement and engagement in the game.”
With the 2020 Masters taking place in November for the first time in history and overlapping with the NFL during the final round on Sunday, DraftKings is offering a $100,000 free-to-play pool that captures the action of both sports.
Oh, do tell.
I’m feeling a distinct Studio 54 vibe to Bryson DeChambeau’s pre-Masters speed build-up teased not long ago on Instagram. Maybe some strobe lights and a disco mirror ball?
From Steve DiMeglio after he caught up with the U.S. Open champion preparing for next week’s Masters.
As was the day he crashed the 400-yard barrier for the first time. DeChambeau, 27, who topped the PGA Tour in driving distance with an average of 322.1 yards last season, posted on Instagram a picture of his FlightScope X3 launch monitor screen that revealed eye-popping numbers – a ball carry of 403.1 yards and a ball speed of 211 mph. And he did so with a 45-½ inch shaft in his driver, not the 48-inch shaft he’s experimenting with.
“I was speed training, there was a lot of electricity in the air, a lot of music going on. I’m up there for 45 minutes swinging my butt off and the numbers go up and they go down and they go up and they go down,” he said. “And all of a sudden, I swung as hard as I could and caught one really good in the middle of the face.
“I turned around and saw 211 and I just went, ‘Oh, my god.’ I was jumping up and down and then I saw the carry distance over 400 and I went, ‘Oh, my god.’ I was going crazy. That was moving it. It was a bit of a draw but it was really good.”
DeChambeau also shared details of a recent Augusta National scouting trip. After rehashing a few yardages and contrasts in how the course played over the two days, DeChambeau said…
“I don’t want to alarm anybody. I don’t want to come off as bragging, but the golf course does play shorter now for me.”
Hit the link if you want to know how the 48-inch driver effort is going.
The Palm Beach Post’s Tom D’Angelo followed up with Jack Nicklaus following last week’s provocative endorsement for President Donald Trump’s re-election. D’Angelo says the idea to make the social media endorsement came from Vice President Mike Pence.
“I’m delighted to do that,” Nicklaus, the North Palm Beach resident, said Friday, speaking about the controversial post for the first time. “I said, ‘You know how I feel about him. He’s been very supportive to everything we’ve ever done. He’s asked for nothing. If I can just on my own do that, I would be happy to do it.’
“And I know it was going to cause me some grief. So, that’s what I did.”
Later in the story, D’Angelo reports Nicklaus’s claim of hospitals attempting to profit by false-reporting COVID-19 deaths, a recent claim of President Trump.
Nicklaus told a story about two people he knows whose parents died from something other than COVID and, according to Nicklaus, they were asked if the cause of death could be changed to COVID and declined.
“The hospital gets more money with COVID death than they do another death,’ Nicklaus said. “I’m sure there’s been a lot of that.
Politico has reported that Nicklaus lobbied Trump on behalf of the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami seeking $20 million toward a mobile children's hospital project.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announced lockdown measures were announced last week and include golf getting a not-so-special shout-out for England.
Outdoor exercise and recreation encouraged and is unlimited - only with your household/bubble, on your own or with one other person from a different household (golf is not allowed)
Sean Ingle and Ewan Murray report that a reprieve may be coming for golf, tennis and swimming.
The possible compromise could come after Johnson has been pressured by England Golf and its chief, Jeremy Tomlinson, to reconsider. A petition has garnered over 250,000 signatures.
In an open letter to “fellow golfers”, Tomlinson took issue with protocols revealed by the prime minister on Saturday. “I would like to make clear England Golf’s intention to respectfully challenge the government’s rationale for closing golf courses. We will do so utilising all in our network – MPs, colleagues, media and friends – to make sure we are heard by government,” he said.
“Listening to the prime minister, the news that he is actively encouraging safe and responsible outdoor exercise for households or two individuals pointed to our great game of golf being at the heart of this policy. The guidance which followed stating that golf courses were on a list of venues which should close, therefore, appeared contradictory and came out of the blue.”
A petition has garnered over 250,000 signatures.
Courses in Ireland have already been closed over a week and were caught off guard by the lockdown measure, reports the Irish Times’ Ruaidhrí Croke.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
