"Two South Korean golfers will play these Olympics with everything to lose"

With a depleted field, no spectators, a bland format, dicey forecast and an ultra-private venue forced into not discriminating against women, Tokyo’s Olympic golf isn’t exactly the center of international intrigue.

Si-Woo Kim and Sungjae Im will not agree.

They’re easily the most compelling story of the golf portion of the Games after skipping The Open in hopes of medaling. Their reward should they make the podium? Exemption from mandatory military service for any medal won.

Check out a very nice piece of research and writing by GolfDigest.com’s Daniel Rapaport, who explains why this is the case for Kim and Im, the history behind the policy and the unfortunate case of Sangmoon Bae after he had to quit a burgeoning career for two years of military service.

Golf Channel coverage of play begins Wednesday at 6:30 pm ET in the United States.

Bryson's Bagman Opens Up on Subpar Pod, Shares A Few State Secrets

I couldn’t find a listing on Golf.com for the latest episode—maybe in case staff member Bryson DeChambeau logs on. Mercifully there are multiple podcast outlets where you can listen to caddie Tim Tucker discuss the big breakup with hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz.

Besides apologizing for the Rocket Mortgage eve quitting and talking about his new life up at Bandon Dunes running a long planned luxury shuttle service, Tucker reveals how the old boss could be “very demanding” (no kidding!) and this which could be seen as a state secret reveal.

From GolfChannel.com’s Ryan Lavner’s interview highlights:

“That to me is one of the most important things we’ve done – green density,” Tucker said. “Understanding I’m hitting a 7-iron with 6200 (rpm) spin landing into a 2% slope, it’s gonna run out four yards on a 6mm green density. That’s important and it’s predictable.”

Kids, don’t try this at home. Just play a practice round and trust what you feel under your feet.

Links Content Golf: North Berwick And Hayling

Hayling Golf Club (Links fro the Road)

While golf moves to soft, green, inland Japan I refuse to let the links season go just yet. Thankfully some fantastic “content creators” are giving us fresh, smart and beautiful looking short films to watch. One is on an old, well-known favorite in North Berwick and the other is on a course I knew nothing about, Hayling.

First off, Cookie Jar Golf’s Old Tom Trails series continues with this on North Berwick after David Jones teased us recently with hole-by-hole drone footage. Cookie Jar fleshes out the story of this amazing place and how it’s history and various clubs share the links:

Meanwhile Links From The Road posted this sensational look and commentary on Hayling Golf Club’s links, its design backstory and what it tells us about where golf is headed. Enjoy!

How To Make Olympic Golf Major

The Quadrilateral is all about the majors and Ryder Cup this year, but I couldn’t resist making one more plea to make Olympic golf major. Or seem bigger, more dramatic and definitely resembling something closer to the Ryder Cup than the WGC Kasumigaseki.

Working within those parameters I presented a format along with the men’s and women’s teams who would be competing this week. Subscribers already enjoyed this in their inbox this morning, so sign up if you haven’t. Well, get the vaccine first then sign up for The Quadrilateral.

Five Years Later, The Rio Olympic Golf Course Is Very Much Alive And Well

January, 2020 Google Earth image of Rio’s Olympic course

After much sweating, headache and even a little fear for lives, the Rio Olympic golf course was completed in time for the games. The Gil Hanse-Amy Alcott design was a massive collaboration between multiple parties, including the PGA Tour and International Golf Federation. Yours truly even paid a visit to share ideas, a documentary crew captured the process and the course was kind of a huge hit.

So while most of Rio’s other Olympic venues languish—and lazy stories like this Business Insider claim of its abandonment have circulated, only to then report in 2020 it wasn’t busy, the Rio course is appears to be thriving in ways that seem unimaginable five years since Justin Rose took gold over Henrik Stenson.

Most amazing of all? It may center around how stunning the conditioning looks. To say this course looks lean (in a great way) might be underselling it. Long feared as a place that would be overwatered and too lush for the Sandbelt-style golf envisioned by the design team to show the world a more sustainable game, the Rio course is delivering. Look at this close up from the Google Earth shot 19 months ago:

Now that is a beautiful shade of green!

But if you want proof that the course has become a lively place to be on a daily basis, give their Instagram account a follow. They had a concert in the progressive clubhouse last week! And you can follow along to see what the operators are doing to promote the game. No, the purveyors aren’t growing the game in the favelas, but they are keeping the place public, thriving and conducting outreach programs to juniors.

While some smaller events have been played there it’s a little surprising another big event like the Latin America Amateur Championship hasn’t been played there.

A recent post with video footage:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Campo Olímpico de Golfe (@campoolimpicodegolfe)

Grayson Murray Vents Frustration At Pro Golf Life, Finds A Friend In Phil

Oh and Elkington too. It’s a real who’s-who of Commissioner’s favorites chatting away on Twitter about, what, ultimately, I’m not sure except Grayson Murray’s brave admission he’s an alcoholic and is angry the PGA Tour has not helped him recover.

You can read Murray’s Notes app essay—nothing ever good comes from a Notes app essay—or just get a flavor of it in the screen capture below. Murray had deleted his Twitter account earlier this year after urging former President Donald Trump to play his own event after Trump Bedminster was stripped of the 2022 PGA Championship.

More newsworthy here is Phil Mickelson’s assertion that “we’ll get back to you” is the only response he gets from the Global Home.

Something tells me that’s not entirely accurate.

But I do look forward to Grayson joining Team Mickelson in the Premier League with Elkington serving as Senior Assistant Cart Driver to Manager Tim Mickelson.

Rahm's 2021 Olympic Dream Ends With Another COVID Positive

🇪🇸 Olympics pic.twitter.com/ZsXg3GDEsh

— Jon Rahm Rodriguez (@JonRahmpga) July 25, 2021

Plenty remains unexplained but for now we’ll just go with the IGF press release and Rahm’s statement above.

IGF STATEMENT REGARDING TEAM SPAIN 

TOKYO, JAPAN (July 25, 2021) – The International Golf Federation was informed on Sunday that Jon Rahm tested positive for COVID-19 as part of the final testing protocol before leaving for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and therefore is unable to compete for Spain. 

The Spanish Olympic Committee stated that without adequate time to find a replacement and comply with the necessary health protocols required for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Spain will only be represented by Adri Arnaus.

In accordance with the IGF’s Late Athlete Replacement Policy, the next available athlete identified by the IGF Reallocation Reserve List will replace Rahm, following nomination by his National Olympic Committee. 

The men’s Olympic competition begins Thursday, July 29 (local time) at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

Rahm test positive during the Memorial Tournament and was forced to withdraw. He had received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine earlier in the week after a close contact. Rahm then came back to win the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

He’s since traveled to the asymptmtc Scottish Open and The Open Championship where he was presumably tested multiple times. Rahm joins Bryson Dechambeau and caddie Austin Johnson as known cases post-Open.

The PGA Tour’s COVID-19 testing program was set to end this week at the 3M Championship according to GolfDigest.com’s Tod Leonard.

Presumably his case will be of interest beyond golf to determine how he could so quickly have tested positive again and whether the highly contagious Delta variant played a role.

**World No. 199 Jorge Campillo is going to take Rahm’s spot.

IGF STATEMENT REGARDING TEAM SPAIN 

TOKYO, JAPAN (July 26, 2021) – The Spanish Olympic Committee has informed the International Golf Federation that Jorge Campillo will replace Jon Rahm as a representative of Team Spain in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. 

Campillo will join Adri Arnaus in representing Team Spain for the men’s competition which begins Thursday, July 29 at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

DeChambeau Out Of Olympics Due To COVID Positive, Reed Steps In

USA Golf announced the unfortunate news of Bryson DeChambeau testing COVID-19 positive. He is out of the Tokyo games and will be replaced by Patrick Reed.

This is one of those press releases that should have ended after the third graph…

Bryson DeChambeau tested positive for COVID-19, as part of the final testing protocol before he left the United States for the Olympics 2020 in Japan. He will be unable to compete for Team USA. 

Patrick Reed will replace DeChambeau and is undergoing the requisite testing protocol today, Sunday and Monday before departing for Japan. The first round of competition is Thursday, July 29 (local time). Reed is now the only two-time Olympian for the men’s competition, as he played for Team USA in 2016 and will now compete in the 2020 Olympics.  

Representing Team USA Golf now includes Patrick Reed plus Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele in the men’s competition, and Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang, Lexi Thompson and Jessica Korda in the women’s competition.  

“I am so excited to have the opportunity to represent our country and be a part of Team USA in Tokyo,” said Reed.  “I wish Bryson nothing but the best, and I know how disappointed he is to not be able to compete, and I will do my best to play my best and represent our country.”  

“I am deeply disappointed not to be able to compete in the Olympics for Team USA,” said DeChambeau.  “Representing my country means the world to me and it is was a tremendous honor to make this team. I wish Team USA the best of luck next week in Tokyo. I will now focus on getting healthy, and I look forward to returning to competition once I am cleared to do so.” 

No mention of having been vaccinated and yet, testing positive.

Barring a false positive we’ll put him down for still researching the vaccine.

“We’re obviously disappointed for Bryson, as we know how much he was looking forward to representing the United States in his first Olympics,” said Andy Levinson, USA Golf Executive Director.  “But we’re thrilled that Patrick Reed is excited to play for his country when he is called upon,

He’s not be asked to storm the beaches of Normandy, but go on…

even with the strenuous testing protocols and he is set to arrive just in time to compete – on a golf course he will have never seen prior to the start of competition. It really illustrates the importance of the Olympics and the value Patrick places on playing for Team USA and for his country.  We’re excited to welcome him to Tokyo soon and know he’ll be a formidable competitor for Team USA.”

We really didn’t need the hard sell.

Then again, as Bob Harig noted for ESPN.com, Reed was third alternate after Patrick Cantlay and Brooks Koepka. They presumably declined.

Shirtless Shark Says Mother Nature Was "Good To Me", Deletes Nude Shower Shot At Sirius' Request

Always great to hear Greg Norman singing the praises of the job Florida’s doing with COVID-19 as the state deals with a COVID surge. Oh, and the amazing body bequeathed to him by Mother Nature.

Appearing on Australia’s Today Show to plug a new Sydney housing development, the voice of The Masters on Sirius/XM admitted the satellite radio provider asked him to delete a nude shower photo posted just prior to tournament week.

“It’s just who I am!” Norman said to laughing hosts Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic. “Aussies are very outgoing people. I’m a very natural person, as you guys can tell. It is what it is and Mother Nature was pretty good to me.”

The Australian, who now resides in Florida, added that an American radio show pleaded with him to delete the photo because they thought that it would be the main news story “all week.”

“I love my outlook on life and it really is not offensive, to be honest with you,” Norman said. “I look after myself. I enjoy working out.”

Indeed, the post was taken down. What an insult to Mother Nature.

If you want to torture yourself, the full interview…

GasGate: A Laughing Matter Now, But The Open's 18th Tee Incident Reminds That Golf Betting Could Get Ugly

With a one-stroke lead, Collin Morikawa backed off his 72nd hole tee shot at The Open.

After some chuckling, it was believed someone had consumed one too many of those bratwurst and was maybe a bit nervous for Morikawa. Thankfully, the 24-year-old went on to win his second major in less than a year.

But on the Pardon My Take podcast, Morikawa explained a far more disturbing story given the push for golf betting. The Daily Mail transcribed:

“Some spectator, at some point in the day, snuck a little old school microphone, like a recording. Threw it underneath one of the marshals around there and started playing these farting noises right as I was about to swing,' Morikawa told Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take podcast.

“Louis [Oosthuizen], his caddie, my caddie, we all knew it was a farting noise. But we seriously thought it was from the spectators. We thought someone was playing it on their phone. 

“The marshals were all looking, we're looking around, the marshal digs in the grass and pulls this little recorder out. What're the odds of that happening?'“

Pretty good if someone had money on the second place player up ahead.

Report: PGA Tour's 2021 Asia Swing Seems In Doubt

GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard has seen a rough draft of the fall 2021-22 PGA Tour schedule that commences in 56 days. It appears the three-event swing through Asia—the CJ Cup, ZOZO and WGC HSBC—are in doubt or unlikely to be played in their traditional locations.

One person with knowledge of the negotiations said that the CJ Cup is looking into venues in the U.S. again, but the other two events in Asia likely wouldn’t relocate to the U.S., meaning some players would likely be reluctant to travel because of the pandemic.

Certainly understandable with international travel issues. But this is amazing:

There’s currently an off week after the Tour Championship (Sept. 9-12), though some sources said the Tour could slide a new event into that spot.

They can’t even leave a week off to recharge everyone’s batteries. Example 4,018 of why it’s absurd to incentivizing PGA Tour executives to grow playing opportunities and purses, even if you’re having to track down players who won 20 years ago to fill out a field. Players who can’t get in a Champions Tour event!

"Women Golfers Are Embracing the Power Era. Is That a Good Thing?"

Paul Sullivan takes an NY Times look at chasing distance through the eyes of a few LPGA Tour players and it’s fascinating to read that some already regret the effort. But it’s also staggering to see the dispersion of average distances compared to the men.

The difference between the longest hitter on the L.P.G.A. Tour and the 168th ranked player, who is the last one on the list, is 60 yards. On the Ladies European Tour, which co-sanctions the Evian with the L.P.G.A., the difference is 79 yards between first and 168th place.

But even those numbers may downplay how far the longest hitters drive the ball, because the bombers do not always have to reach for their drivers to get maximum distance; they can play it safe with a 3-wood or iron and still be way out there.

By contrast, the difference between the longest hitter on the PGA Tour and number 168 is 33 yards. And almost all of those players are capable of hitting the ball 300 yards or more.

Anyway, it’s a good story and one to bookmark if you’re the parent of an aspiring young woman wondering if distance must be chased.

NBC: 2021 Open Final Round "TAD" Up 10% Over 2019, No Thanks To Streaming

I did a full breakdown of The Open’s ratings in the free-weekly Quadrilateral, and thanks to SportsMediaWatch.com’s Paulsen sharing the actual Nielsen ratings vs. NBC’s “total audience delivery” factoring in other ways folks see the coverage, we get to see just how few stream golf.

That’s kind of important for the sport to recognize at some point in the hard push to turn television viewers into streamers, even (A) the technology is still not there (B) golf is a background sport and a passive viewing experience except for the last holes of a tournament. Since no one has made the streaming experience as simple as hitting the power button and a number, with the option to come and go easily, it will continue to be a less enjoyable viewing experience for live events.

I digress.

It looks like the 2021 Open delivered a generally solid showing given the number of weekend hours NBC carried coverage. For Immediate Release:

STAMFORD, Conn. – July 20, 2021 – NBC Sports’ comprehensive coverage of the 149th Open Championship at Royal St George’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent, England, delivered across-the-board viewership gains for NBC and GOLF Channel vs. 2019.

Across more than 40 hours of live championship coverage on NBC and GOLF Channel, the Open Championship produced a Total Audience Delivery of 2.148 million viewers, up 8% vs. the 2019 Open coverage (1.983 million TAD) and up 27% vs. the most-recent Open Championship at Royal St George’s in 2011 (1.697 million TV-only). Sunday’s Final Round coverage on NBC delivered a TAD of 4.169 million viewers, up 10% vs. 2019 (3.784 million). 

Early Round viewership on GOLF Channel drew a TAD of 1.069 million viewers, up slightly vs. 2019 (1.065 million) to rank as the second most-watched Early Rounds on GOLF Channel in five years.

Of course, The Open’s only been on Golf Channel since 2016 so…

As I noted in The Quadrilateral’s wrap up, had a better week being off site than in Kent, with what seemed like more willingness to tackle a few subjects head on. You know, topics that are now avoided during PGA Tour coverage in fear of the red phone ringing. From the press release:

Week-long pre- and post-game Live From The Open coverage on GOLF Channel averaged 148,000 viewers, up 24% vs. 2019 to rank the most-watched week of Live From The Open since 2017 (161,000 viewers). 

Langer On Distance Regulation: "They haven't done anything...it's just common sense"

Golf Monthly’s Andy Wright reports on Bernhard Langer’s pre-Senior Open comments regarding distance and rendering venues like this week’s host, Sunningdale, obsolete.

“The R&A and the USGA are making our rules, we try to play by their rules and so far they haven’t done anything really of any great impact to bring the ball back or any of that,” Langer, who is looking to win his 12th senior major this week, said. 

No, they haven’t.

“They’ve obviously put restrictions on the trampolining effect on the driver but people are hitting the ball incredibly far, the young folks. 

“It’s a fascinating part of the game, so it’s a difficult decision and I do get it, because people come out and watch Bryson DeChambeau, right? Because he is the longest guy on tour right now, or one of the longest, and it’s fascinating to watch.

“People came out to watch John Daly because he could hit it really far and if you take that away, then you make the game maybe less attractive.”

Then again, tees can be moved up and depending on the execution of any regulation, a case could be made for real long hitters standing out more, getting a greater advantage for their skill and the thrills of players driving a green or going for a par-5 in two offsetting whatever would be lost in altering today’s version of golf.

“But at the same time, you’re making some golf courses obsolete in terms of the distances that they’re hitting it and golf becomes a little more expensive because you used to have 7,000 yards of golf, now you need 8,000 yards. 

“You need an extra 1,000 yards, more or less that you need to take care of, maintain, rent, buy or whatever you want to call it, water it. It’s just more expensive to do an extra 1,000 yards than not, it’s just common sense.”

Yes it is.

The Quadrilateral: Major(s) News And Notes, July 22, 2021

This week’s major notes open to all analyze NBC’s ratings (and tiny streaming numbers), the Ryder Cup teams if the matches were this week, and fresh photos of Augusta’s summer work.

You know the drill by now: the Quadrilateral is free at least once a week, but to ensure you get all editions, access to past issues and the chance to opine on a dignified message board, you can upgrade without ever facing a membership committee.