Running 2015 golf thread

[Rhody31]

Egads........that playoff was fun to watch.

Every course on Tour should have a risk-reward par 4 like 10 at Riviera. You can make 2 or you can make 6.

I prefer No. 4 at TPC Boston, but that's because I'm a homer.
I'll tell you what - guys' eyes light up at that hole. It's a fun one to play regardless of level because you step up to the box and think a birdie is possible. Most groups I have play from the black tees which usually means 260 to the green. The whites are 232.
I give the same speech to every group - "Guys, if you're playing for a score, sting something 160 yards up the left side and hit a wedge in. If you're playing for the story, take out the big stick and go for it, because nobody wants to hear about how you laid it up and made birdie."

 

[Chef2]

I prefer No. 4 at TPC Boston, but that's because I'm a homer.
I'll tell you what - guys' eyes light up at that hole. It's a fun one to play regardless of level because you step up to the box and think a birdie is possible. Most groups I have play from the black tees which usually means 260 to the green. The whites are 232.
I give the same speech to every group - "Guys, if you're playing for a score, sting something 160 yards up the left side and hit a wedge in. If you're playing for the story, take out the big stick and go for it, because nobody wants to hear about how you laid it up and made birdie."

17 @ TPC-Scottsdale is very similar to that. It's not the tee shot that is difficult on that hole, but the second shot as well. Get a little gust of wind into your face, you're on the wrong side of the bunker, then chipping from the green over the bunker to the pin.

 

[Small Town Guy]

Rory's going to miss the cut this week. Will be 11th missed cut on the PGA Tour. Just to compare to a random person...Tiger's missed 12 in his career.

Not that I expect Rory to take time off till he's tournament ready. Certainly the favorite at the Masters, but he's also a streaky guy, which makes him unstoppable when he's going well, but he can also struggle a bit for a few tourneys in a row when it goes wrong.

 

[Chef2]

Rory's going to miss the cut this week. Will be 11th missed cut on the PGA Tour. Just to compare to a random person...Tiger's missed 12 in his career.

Not that I expect Rory to take time off till he's tournament ready. Certainly the favorite at the Masters, but he's also a streaky guy, which makes him unstoppable when he's going well, but he can also struggle a bit for a few tourneys in a row when it goes wrong.

I really do hope Rory gets a green jacket. When it's all said and done, that may be the one that he doesn't get though.......Arnold and Watson never got a PGA, Trevino never got a jacket........

 

[Riptide]

Is Lee Trevino still around golf?
Haven't seen his name in a long time.

 

[Chef2]

Buck will still play 4 or 5 events per year. That's about it.

Him, Gary Player, and a few others have come out and said that 30 minutes alone with Tiger, and they'd have it figured out.

I know Tiger is too proud to go up and ask them, but would be interesting if he did.

 

[Double Down]

Being s great player does not make one a great teacher. There is zero chance Player and Trevino, who had unconventional swings to begin with, could fix Tiger Woods in 30 days, much less 30 mins. It's a cute thing for everyone to run with because it feeds the "Tiger is so stubborn, why won't he just be great again!" narrative, which is much easier to accept than "He's old."

Meanwhile, Patrick Reed is going to make people eat all that Top 5 mockery of he wins yet again on a legit course. (Probably finishing Monday.)

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

One of the more interesting developments this year - aside from the Tiger saga - has to do with Caddies and their fight with the PGA Tour. They formed a union about two years ago seeking relief from their alleged treatment as second-class citizens on the tour.
They're also bucking certain dress requirements (wearing bibbs with sponsors logos) without compensation.
I think they have a lot validity to their claims... Case in point, yesterday.
Honda Classic round is rained out (God is pissed Rory missed the cut), Caddies, who are not allowed in the clubhouse, are given shelter in a open-end tent. A metal tent.
Caddies bristle at shelter offered during storm | Golf Channel

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Caddies are employed by golfers, who could obtain better conditions for them if they so chose. Golfers being exceptionally self-centered even by the standards of pro sports, this is unlikely to happen.

 

[Vombatus]

For distraction and entertainment, the PGA should have put a booger-eating kid in the tent with them.

 

[old_tony]

I didn't really realize it, but golf is apparently in a serious decline.

Why America fell out of love with golf - The Washington Post

 

[Corky Ramirez up on 94th St.]

I didn't really realize it, but golf is apparently in a serious decline.

Why America fell out of love with golf - The Washington Post

From the article:

"It's difficult, dissuading amateurs from giving it a swing, and time-consuming, limiting how much fans can play. Even what loyalists would say are strengths -- its simplicity, its traditionalism -- can seem overly austere in an age of fitness classes, extreme races and iPhone games."

Guess what ... it was difficult to pick up 150 years ago, or 50 years ago. And is this argument more about the fact that today's generation does not have the patience to take the time to learn and play something? The courses I play (eastern Connecticut/Rhode Island) have been roughly the same price for 15 years now.

Also, fewer people on the course means it will be easier for me to make a tee time. I am all for that, especially as I look out my window and see four feet of snow on the ground.

 

[I Should Coco]

I didn't really realize it, but golf is apparently in a serious decline.

Why America fell out of love with golf - The Washington Post

Substitute, say, George Will's name for Tiger Woods and the exact same wording could be used for an article about newspapers and/or magazines.

* Not enough time
* Too expensive and old-fashioned
* "Structural decline"

Of course, I still enjoy both reading newspapers and (occasionally) playing golf. I'm like a talking dinosaur.

 

[Riptide]

Too expensive. Golf priced itself too high for a lot of people.

Lots of courses closing down. Is that a regional thing, or is it like that across the country?

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I don't think its cost so much as time.

And the old Country Club model is long gone.

Of course, I also think they flooded the market. Courses, clubs, swing coach stuff ...

 

[DanOregon]

It's funny when you think about it, but it isn't that people are less active, but those who would likely be active playing golf are probably bicycling, playing basketball, working out at a gym, running, doing things that are a lot more active than golf. I'd rather ride a bike, run or hike through a golf course than play a round.
Oddly, what I enjoy most about golf is completely losing myself in a round, no time, no outside contact and just killing an afternoon. If I were golf THAT is what I'd market. Disconnecting for a few hours, getting away from everything.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

I stopped playing about 20 years ago. I never played in any serious way, but I stopped because I realized that unlike many other sports, it requires a large investment of time to become good enough that I would really enjoy it. To go 2-3 times a years, suck at it and then have that one great shot that brings me back again worked when I was single and in school. No more.

 

[trifectarich]

The governing bodies have essentially ruined professional golf by their inability to do something about the golf ball. I can't sit down and watch, or buy a ticket to see, driver/8-iron at every par 4 and driver/5-iron at three-quarters of the par 5s. It's still the best sporting game ever devised; I really don't care if the attention span of most millennials is 10 minutes.

 

[Double Down]

I think we're really just seeing a correction from over-expansion. A lot of golf's boom was attached to the housing market. Courses built connected to empty housing communities are the main ones closing down. People are playing fewer rounds and I do think that's related to expense and the amount of time 18 holes takes, but I also think (and we've talked about this before) it has a lot to do with the changing expectations of fathers in today's world. I don't know many men who work all week and then spend an additional day on the weekend away from family for half the day golfing.

Golf isn't going to die, but it will contract a bit. It may have to adapt to where golfers have to get used to the idea of courses looking like they do in Europe or Pinehurst No. 2 (brown, but healthy) to save on expenses, but it will ultimately get back to where it was pre-Tiger Woods, pre-housing boom.

 

[93Devil]

Many business have also tightened their own budgets and stopped buying rounds for people during the week and doing the "meeting on the course."