The Card – Volume XLIII

by | Jun 17, 2024 | The Card

18 observations, thoughts and predictions for the week in golf…

 

  1. Bryson DeChambeau provided a performance over the course of the week at Pinehurst that eclipsed his week at the PGA at Valhalla and it’s not just because he won.  Valhalla lacked nuance and was reduced to a pin cushion from persistent rain in Louisville.  His performance there fit the convenient profile associated with his style.  Pinehurst was fast, fiery and full of quirky funk.  He didn’t drive his ball to victory, instead he executed nuanced recovery shots like his par on 8 on Sunday, the short pitch for an up-and-down on 10 and the exclamation point with his 55-yard bunker shot on the final hole and the par putt to secure his second U.S. Open.  All along the way engaging fans and emoting in the most uncommon way among this generation of players.  Bryson has appeared in the past to be trying to satisfy everyone while rarely satisfying anyone.  It doesn’t mean some of the patronizing of fans may not appear orchestrated but, guess what, fans don’t care.  Connection is not felt between most of the world’s sporting stars and the masses today.  They are handled and the socio-economic divide is just one of the gulfs that exists between stars and the people who pay the freight to watch and attend sporting events.  Bryson has performed one of the greatest re-writes we have witnessed in sports.  He’s also a far more complete and grittier player than he was ever portrayed as previously. 
  1. Rory McIlroy stood on the 14th tee with a two-shot lead.  Bryson DeChambeau birdied the 13th hole before Rory made par on the 14th hole, so his lead was one with four holes to go.  The combination of failed execution and poor decision-making which generally are never mutually exclusive was historic.  I walked with Rory every day and his play on a golf course that would not be on the short list of venues most people would think Rory could win on was extraordinarily good.  He displayed an arsenal of shots on Thursday that set the tone for the week.  His iron play was faulty on Sunday as he hit only 10 greens in regulation while driving very well.  He missed four greens hitting his shots from the fairway but his tidiness on 4-7-8-14 allowed him to save par by making putts all five feet or shorter.  The choice of club on 15 tee is a fair question but it will be the 30-inch putt that to me set the wheels in overdrive for what ultimately led to him losing the U.S. Open.  DeChambeau three putted the 15th right behind him and allowed Rory to keep the lead.  The short miss was an unsettling warning sign of immense pressure building and despite the up-and-down par save on 17, Rory was teetering, and the tee shot on 18 could be questioned knowing 3-wood would have left him no more than 140 into the green.  The par putt was sinister in length and movement, but to me, having seen a ton of his short par putts over the week was different.  It appeared ‘wishy’ and not with resolve.  It was a painful and unforeseen, by me, hour of golf.  Rory was making his magical moment with birdie putts and a chippy and steely determination until he let it all slip away. 
  1. The jolt that Rory’s failings created launched an immediate collective declaration that his finish was the worst and most gut-wrenching major championship finish.  Greg Norman alone has a catalog and the Mize chip in was different because Mize pulled off a miracle, but Greg had many others.  Sam Snead in the 1947 U.S. Open, Hubert Green at the 1978 Masters, Doug Sanders at the Open Championship in 1970, Davis Love III at the 1996 U.S. Open, John Cook’s three putt on the 17th hole at the 1992 Open Championship, Ed Sneed’s three straight bogeys at the 1979 Masters, Adam Scott’s four straight bogeys at the 2012 Open Championship, Dustin Johnson’s three putt at the 2015 U.S. Open, Mito Pereira’s double bogey on the 18th at Southern Hills at the 2022 PGA Championship, Phil Mickelson at Winged Foot in 2006, Colin Montgomerie at Winged Foot in 2006, Thomas Bjorn at the Open Championship blowing a three shot lead with four to play in 2003, and of course Jean van de Velde with the magnum opus of meltdowns.  I believe this is a deeper cut than the U.S. Open last year by a wide margin and it supplants the final round of the Open Championship at St. Andrews, but to declare it the unkindest cut historically is failing to remember just how many there have been in this beautiful and unforgiving game. 
  1. Rory leaving without speaking to the media and the optics of him speeding out of the parking lot were not good.  Historically, players have mostly faced the music after experiencing a gutting, most notably Greg Norman.  There’s irony in that Rory is being associated with Greg for being on the harsh end of several major losses but Greg stood and answered the questions more than once.  Phil did the same after Winged Foot in 2006.  It’s part of the job.  Undeniably Rory was immediately in a very challenging emotional place, and I empathize a great deal but the courtesy of congratulating the winner should be the least and most modest responsibility one should feel. 
  1. Bryson landed 6th on the Olympic list for the United States because of the absence of points outside the majors.  All the LIV players should have had eyes wide open at the outset of their pivot professionally but today the omission of Bryson with the impending agreement with PIF and the Tour looks ludicrous.  He’s the second-best player from the United States and he will not be in Paris, and he also would be a massive draw for the golf competition and the potential for Rory, Scottie and Bryson one more time together beyond the Open Championship.  Just simply a monstrous loss for a sport trying to gain traction with inclusion in the Olympic platform. 
  1. Patrick Cantlay tied his best finish in a major in his career but it was by far his best performance in a major.  His distant third at the 2019 PGA Championship is a footnote.  Cantlay started the final round closer to the lead than he had ever been in a major and hung close enough all day.  He’s the prototypical Open style player in an era where the prototype is not as easily amplified.  His conversation with Rory Sunday consisted of “Play well before it started and thanks when it was over”.  They are not friends. 
  1. Maybe Scottie Scheffler was due a flat spot and maybe he had misgivings about the native areas but being with the group featuring 1-2-3 in the world rankings from their first swings on Thursday he was way off.  Drove it horribly right away on the second hole of the championship, missed the fairway with an iron on the 3rd hole and he never found any comfort.  Tied for 59th in fairways hit and was 70th in strokes gained putting for the week.  It was the inverse of what I saw when Rory and Scheffler were paired to start the Masters with the re-engagement this week at the U.S. Open.  Rory was locked in and dealt with much less stress and labor while Scottie was under the gun to make par on way too many holes.   
  1. Brooks Koepka’s major season is now down to trying to salvage it at the Open Championship.  His results this year are a T45 at Augusta and back-to-back T26’s at the PGA and U.S. Open.  He was actually the leader of the U.S. Open early on Thursday when he got it to 3-under but he squandered three shots coming in to finish with a 70 and his Friday 75 took him out of the event and he was first off on Saturday morning.  A very quiet week all the way down to the only media he conducted was a text exchange/interview after day 1 with Golfweek and Golf Channel’s Eamon Lynch. 
  1. Xander Schauffele had a quick turnaround from his PGA Championship victory and his T7 was actually pretty damn admirable.  Not easy to climb to the summit for the first time and go back to base camp only to try to ascend again four weeks later.  He drove it all over the property and battled his ass off.  He tied for 59th in fairways hit and yet he finished in the top 10.  He has become more weaponized with his driving distance but it’s his demeanor that I love.  He locks in and never deviates.  He even said pre-championship that Tiger is the only one who ever made celebrating look cool.  He just stays level and he’s a top three favorite for me at Troon. 
  1. Matthieu Pavon was a wonderful story this past week.  A sporting background of professional soccer players has produced a man, at 31, that is finding joy in playing in the United States.  He has backed up his T12 at the Masters with a solo 5th at the U.S. Open and coupled with his win in San Diego he is emerging a viable candidate for Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team next year.  Its forever from now but not too early to add him to the larger long term target list. 
  1. Tony Finau had not contended in a major in over three years and on the hardest course we’ve seen in major championship golf in that same time frame he rebounded from a challenging Saturday playing alongside Rory McIlroy with a fantastic final round of 67.  Finau is a great choice when it’s a forgiving set up but his performance this week speaks to real progress. 
  1. Neal Shipley won low amateurs honors at his second major of the year.  He adds low am at Pinehurst to his low am at the Masters tournament.  He becomes the fourth player since 1990 to be the low amateur at the Masters and U.S. Open joining Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar and Viktor Hovland. 
  1. The conditions could not have been more optimal for Tiger Woods this past week.  I’m talking about level ground for the most part and very warm temperatures.  The set-up of the golf course was not ideal for someone who rarely plays anymore.  The most exacting major venue and potential punishment for not playing from the fairway.  Tiger missed the cut by a couple shots and his major record since he won the Masters in 2019 is now 14 starts and one top 25 at the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.  He was asked Friday evening if this might be his last U.S. Open and by not definitively saying no it opens the door to the possibility that it could be.  This was not his last U.S. Open.  He has one event left in his year at Troon.  His acceptance of the Bob Jones award was warm and endearing. 
  1. The report that the tour will add a lifetime exemption category for Tiger to play any Signature series event going forward is neither surprising nor out of bounds.  They are running a business.  He helped make the business and his presence at an event or two in the years ahead makes complete sense. 
  1. Expect news this week that the tour and PIF have the foundation for working together.  There appears to be a ton of work ahead to know exactly what the relationship will look like, but it will include investment from PIF into PGA Tour enterprises.  How quickly all the players share events is the most important thing to fans and I don’t expect it for another year. 
  1. Phil Mickelson came and went this week without much of a whimper.  He got off to a horrendous start and had no chance of making the cut by mid-morning on Friday.  He is a former champion golfer of the year, and he was sensational at Troon but he returns there with the feeling that ten lifetimes have gone by since 2016. 
  1. Jim “Bones” Mackay was front and center for the up-and-down by Payne Stewart 25 years ago as the youthful looking caddy for Phil Mickelson.  He was front and center again on Sunday as the walking on course reporter for NBC.  He helped call the incredible up and down bunker shot of Bryson DeChambeau.  Golf journeys are wild, my God, he’s seen a lot. 
  1. Pinehurst is the de facto home of the USGA and they have made a massive commitment to the resort for many championships with the U..S Open being the ultimate showcase.  Pinehurst won the week.  The footprint, infrastructure, practice set up, main entry, the golf course, the village, the hospitality, the state law enforcement and shuttle system, all of it was a home run.  The golf course was provocative and exceedingly interesting.  Pinehurst and the U.S. Open is a match. 

Happy Fathers Day – Because of Him

by | Jun 16, 2024 | Blog

We all have moments in our lives that we point to as to why we made choices, took certain directions and plotted our own courses in life.  As time passes those moments take on a significance that can make you wonder what life may have been like had they never occurred.  I never interpreted the moments as forks in the road but more like bends that encouraged me to lean into people, places and things.  I hit my first golf ball in the mountains of North Carolina at Boone Golf Club under the watchful eye of my dad.  Forty years later April 11, 2011, my dad witnessed me hitting a golf ball for the last time on the 6th hole at Pinehurst No. 2.  His life was rapidly and alarmingly coming to an end at the hands of something as hideous as it sounds, transitional renal pelvic cancer.  Of all places our last experience together on a golf course would be at a place that means so much to me and meant so much to both of us.  

I possessed the dexterity to do most everything as a kid and that was genetic.  Dad was an elite collegiate baseball player at the University of Florida, and I got a healthy dose of what he was given.  I liked all the sports, and the team competitions were to my liking, but golf gave me something the others didn’t.  The game gave me him, uninterrupted, for hours on end and sometimes for days.  It was our space and sharing the game and all it provides took us everywhere, together.  We won a father son golf tournament at Pebble Beach in 1993, we got paired in the final round of another father-son in Ireland in the spring of 2001 with a dad and his son, who was the 199th pick in the NFL draft the previous year.  The son would quarterback the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl the following season and the two fathers and sons would arrange golf in the ensuing years following Super Bowl parades.  My first rounds at the Old Course, Pine Valley, Royal County Down, San Francisco Golf Club, and Pinehurst No. 2 were with dad.  

I loved Pinehurst as a kid and attended Pinehurst golf camp when a very young Hank Haney was an instructor on the staff.  July 4, 1983, I returned to my room in the Carolina Inn after a glorious day of instruction before embarking on some twilight golf to turn on the television in the infancy of ESPN to learn from Bob Ley that Dave Righetti had tossed a no hitter for the Yankees against the Red Sox. I proceeded to run up and down the hallway of Pinehurst’s historic hotel.  When dad retired, my parents moved to Chapel Hill from northern New Jersey and playing No. 2 with dad on Christmas Eve became our new tradition.  The drive from Chapel Hill on highway 15-501 was filled with conversations that covered the gamut.  The sand hills at the holidays are particularly charming and sleepy especially on Christmas Eve.  Seeing dad’s silhouette across the rugged terrain of No. 2 against the softer light of a late December day is indelible.  After all the years, all the holes, all the rounds these days remained what they were from the outset, precious.  No. 2 was our #1 at a time in my life when I was making real decisions about career and marriage.  Two days before my wedding in Chapel Hill a group of us ran down to No. 2 and Peter Kiernan, a lifelong friend, made an albatross on the 10th hole.  He lived in Manhattan, and I wanted to alert the New York Times of the deuce but Peter said no way since he was taking an extra day off from work just to play No. 2.  

When I spoke the night before my wedding as I tried to explain the impact of experiencing love as an adult, I spoke about a day dad and I shared at Muirfield in September of 1994.  The 36-hole extravaganza that one can experience at Muirfield is punctuated by the brisk alternate shot round in the afternoon.  I was hitting our second shot on the 8th hole and as I looked back at the sight of my father set against the backdrop of the Firth of Forth, I experienced a sense of love and gratitude that was foreign to me as a 28-year-old man.  Why then and why there? I’m certain that I was finding purpose and casting aside the numbed-up aspects of early adulthood.  The game and that man had given me so much already in life that the confluence penetrated me beyond any prior experience, and it was the game that gave me him so significantly.

When I was asked to play with Ben Crenshaw in April of 2011 for the grand re-opening of No. 2 after the provocative restoration of the course by Bill Coore and Ben I was humbled.  I aspired to cover sports for the performances not so much for the people.  I have never professed to really know any of the athletes I have ever covered and it’s not that I know Ben particularly well, but he was the ONE.  The only golfer, let alone athlete, that I lived and died with starting when I was seven years old.  His major championship anguish was mine, his affinity for places like Crystal Downs and Palmetto Golf Club fueled mine.  That April day in 2011 was too much for me.  My dad had been diagnosed only three months earlier with stage 4 transitional renal pelvic cancer and his right kidney had been removed just four weeks earlier.  He was terminal and a car ride to Pinehurst to see me play No. 2 with Ben Crenshaw was not reasonable, it was a borderline impossibility.   But he did what he did for me, and my sisters are entire lives, he was there.  The night before we had dinner in the Ryder Cup bar and he ordered a margarita and told the waiter, “Lets test out this one kidney”.  He sat on a bench next to the 5th tee talking to Ben about mutual friends and the image overwhelmed me.  My advocate and guiding light next to the only athlete I truly invested in emotionally in my life.  A hole later dad was on his way back to Chapel Hill, the pain too extreme and three months to the day later he was gone.  His last words on earth being, “I love you” to my mom, my sisters and me.

I am blessed to have great friends and many of those friends had a relationship with my dad.  He possessed an extraordinary ability to identify the things that tickled people and he carved out very special relationships with my friend group.  One of those friends in the last chapter of my dad’s life was Sean McDonough.  Sean is one of the elite sports broadcasters of all time and he is also wickedly quick witted.  Dad had great affection for Sean and when dad passed Sean was all too familiar with the loss having experienced his own father’s death, the legendary Will McDonough, a few years earlier.  Sean said something to me upon my dad’s passing that in its delivery appeared harsh and unnecessary.  He said, “Gary, it will never get easier”.  Sean was preparing me for the agonizing reality that had become his own.  It may have been the most truthful thing I’ve ever learned to understand.  After all these years, 13 in July, it’s still right there.  I don’t live life in sadness, on the contrary, I celebrate my dad’s life regularly, but his loss while living deep inside me is right under the surface.  It blew a hole in me I will never fill and that is the cost of love.  It’s simply the most profound loss in the human condition.

I never wanted to be my dad, I simply wanted to possess and exhibit so many of his qualities. My dad was not a public figure, but he was famous for his ability to allow people to feel their total worth.  He was an only child but left the world with countless brothers and sisters because he found touch points that fostered deep relationships with people of all ages.  He saw the game of golf as a beautiful metaphor for a good life, competition amongst friends.  He loved a little action.  Super Bowl weekend in Vegas, a triple crown horse race, The Masters Tournament, Dad loved to be in the mix because people were his oxygen.  The last chapter of his life he was an admissions director at the Kenan Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina.  The interview process for young professionals trying to gain admission into an elite MBA program can be stressful and dad’s interview style was unorthodox.  His research was on the person.  He knew the academic record was exemplary otherwise they wouldn’t be sitting there.  Who are you and what do you love?  How often are you ever asked two of the most important things?  He knew one candidate had a baseball background and he started that interview by pulling a baseball from his desk and having the young man show him how he gripped the ball to throw his two seam, four seam, slider and curveball.  That young man received his MBA for the University of North Carolina.  Dad studied the stock market and charted countless trends, and I received cut out articles from the Wall Street journal almost every day in the mail regarding companies I worked for in my career like CBS, SiriusXM, and Comcast. But he made his biggest investment in other people to help them reach their greatest potential.  I was not trying to satisfy him although any son wants their dad to be proud of them.  I was seeking and pursuing achievement because he instilled in me an unwavering belief in myself.  What a gift to bestow on others.

In July of 2019 I returned to Pinehurst for a few days to experience many of the new things that have been added since the last U.S. Open in 2014.  The new dining experiences, the Cradle, the redone Pinehurst No. 4 and I stayed in Donald Ross’ home, the Dornoch cottage.  I played with fathers and sons, fathers, grandfathers and grandsons.  I took walks at sundown and at sunrise absorbing all of it with dad firmly in the center of my thoughts.  I did not have envy or jealousy of any of the dads with their sons but rather a melancholy appreciation of what they were sharing.  The game gave me the gift of time and it was bestowing the same on so many others, younger and some older than me.  The U.S. Open has found a semi-permanent home at Pinehurst, and it will conclude on Father’s Day as it traditionally does.  My first U.S Open was with dad in 1980 at Baltusrol.  We saw Tom Weiskopf, newly enshrined in this year’s hall of fame class, shoot 63.  Jack Nicklaus shot 63 several groups behind him.  I saw Ben Crenshaw and Seve Ballesteros for the first time in person.  We saw Tom Watson make a hole in one on the 4th hole on the lower course at Baltusrol.  I was turned on to the game that week in a way that fueled my passion to make it a part of my life.  All of it, however, was only memorable because I shared it with him.  I still do. 

Happy Fathers Day.